Jerky Turkey is a 1945 animated short directed by
Tex Avery, one of the
Tex Avery MGM Cartoons. It focuses on a Pilgrim trying to hunt a turkey for the first Thanksgiving. Perhaps they should just eat at Joe's instead.
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: If you're hoping for a true account of Puritan life in 1620s Colonial America, better look elsewhere. From the Mayflower surrounded by 1940s battleships, to the main character living in a streamlined trailer, Tex Avery throws in any contemporary reference he can for a quick laugh.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The turkey tries to jump into a foxhole, which is already occupied by an annoyed fox.
- Fur Is Clothing: The turkey can remove his feathers by unzipping them like a full-body costume.
- Gag Nose: The pilgrim has a droopy, bulbous nose.
- Gainax Ending: At the very end, the turkey and the pilgrim decide to follow the bear and eat at Joe's. They enter the diner, there's a huge commotion inside, and then the bear exits and locks up; as he turns his back to the audience, upon it is the words "I'm Joe". The pilgrim and the turkey are last seen in a cross-view of the bear's stomach as he walks away.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: The turkey pulls the old "saw off a limb, rest of the tree falls down" gag on the pilgrim.
- High-Dive Hijinks: The turkey dives from a tree limb towards a tank of water. The Pilgrim pulls the tank off to the side, but the turkey suddenly stops in mid-air, moves himself over the tank, and lands in the water.
- Let's Meet the Meat: The turkey offers himself to the pilgrim for cooking. Of course, this is just a set up for him to pester the poor guy, as is typical of Tex Avery's trickster characters.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The turkey is modeled after Jimmy Durante.
- Painted Tunnel, Real Train: The turkey paints a landscape onto a brick wall and runs into it. The pilgrim follows and slams into the wall, leaving the painted scenery stuck to his front.
- Packed Hero: The turkey wraps himself as a package for the pilgrim to take him.
- Right on Queue: One gag depicts an endless line of male and female pilgrims stretching off to the horizon as they wait to get their cigarette ration at Ye Cut Rate Drug Store.
- Running Gag: The bear who periodically walks by wearing the sign, "Eat at Joe's."
- Shooting Superman: The turkey puts on a Superman costume to deflect the pilgrim's bullets.
- Swallowed Whole: The ultimate fate of the Pilgrim and the turkey, after they decide to eat at Joe's.
- Talking with Signs:
- The lameness of the "Half-Breed" gag is Lampshaded with the guy holding a sign reading "Heap corny gag."
- At the end, the pilgrim holds a "Don't eat at Joe's" sign while inside the bear's stomach.
- Thanksgiving Episode: Focusing as it does on a Pilgrim hunting a turkey.
- Thanksgiving Turkey: It's about a turkey being hunted for Thanksgiving.
- Tonto Talk: The Native American chief and the Half-Breed speak this way; the latter even has a sign written in it.
- Visual Pun: Wouldn't be a Tex Avery cartoon without at least a couple:
- Plymouth Rock is shaped like a Plymouth chicken.
- The town crier, instead of announcing the news, is bawling like a baby (because he just got his 1-A draft notice).
- The pilgrim gets the turkey from "Ye Black Market", a deli market painted black.
- The "Half breed" is a Braids, Beads and Buckskins Native American on one side, a blond Caucasian in a business suit on the other.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: During the boat ride, a large percentage of the passengers are hanging over the rails.
- Wartime Cartoon: The short is filled with humorous World War II anachronisms. The Mayflower is accompanied by a convoy of modern battleships, the town crier is crying because he got drafted, and so on.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Parodied, with the word "ye" put in front of random things, such as, "Ye Navy Gun Crew," which consists of WWII-era sailors standing around an anti-aircraft gun.
