Don't make me use these cooking utensils!
"Listen, pussycat! I'm tryin' to take a nap! A little beauty rest, see? And you're drivin' me nuts! I'm a nervous wreck! [...] Please, chum, lay off the noise, huh? 'Cause if I hear one more sound, I'm gonna skin ya alive!"
— Spike, to Tom
Quiet Please! is a 1945 cartoon from MGM, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and starring Tom and Jerry.
Spike the bulldog is trying to sleep, but he keeps getting disturbed by the noise of Tom and Jerry's antics, especially when Tom is slamming a pan on the floor in an attempt to squash Jerry or firing a gun as Jerry runs away. Eventually Spike has enough, grabbing Tom by the scruff of the neck and threatening in no uncertain terms to give Tom a beatdown if Tom disturbs his sleep again. Unfortunately for Tom, Jerry hears this, and sets out to wake Spike up.
Not to be confused with the radio show Quiet, Please (1947). Compare with the Looney Tunes short A Pest in the House, which has a similar plot.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Medicine: Tom feeding Spike a whole bottle of sleeping pills would undoubtedly kill any real life human — let alone a dog — almost guaranteed, size be damned.
- Ass Shove: One of Jerry's attempts to wake up a heavily drugged Spike.
- Banging Pots and Pans: One of Jerry's attempts to wake Spike up.
- Dish Dash: After Jerry finds a bunch of light bulbs on the mantel, he starts throwing them down, leaving Tom to run around and try and catch them lest they wake up Spike.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: Tom has to keep Jerry from waking up Spike, or Spike will skin him alive if he does.
- Exact Words: While reading Jerry's note and reading "One Custard Pie", He tells Jerry to let him have it and Jerry lets him have it literally.
- Finger in a Barrel: Tom sticks his fingers on the barrels of a shotgun which Jerry fires at him and is left with two red, throbbing fingers.
- Fur Is Clothing: After the dynamite goes off under Spike's pillow, Spike is shown rolling up the fur on his arm like a sleeve, revealing a Navy tattoo.
- Harmless Electrocution: Jerry sticks Tom's tail in the light socket, lighting up all the bulbs Tom is carrying. Tom's okay, though.
- Hurt Foot Hop: Tom is about to hit Jerry with a hammer when Jerry offers him a much bigger mallet. As Tom aims the mallet, Jerry takes the hammer and slams it on Tom's foot, causing him to hop in pain.
- Jaw Drop: Jerry when he finds out Tom has given Spike some knock-out drops.
- Misplaced Retribution: Tom gets a brutal offscreen beatdown after Jerry wakes up Spike at the end of the short.
- Nervous Wreck: Spike is this, as he tells Tom when the latter wakes him, illustrating his point by pulling on his own tongue, which, in cartoon fashion, causes his ears to bang together.
- Oh, Crap!: Tom, when Jerry is about to push the grandfather clock to the floor, and when he fell on Spike and the shattering bulbs starts waking him up. Jerry also has this reaction when he learns that Spike has been given knock-out drops.
- Pie in the Face: Jerry gives Tom one when he cries "Let me have it!" Remember Tom, you asked for it.
- Schmuck Bait: Upon reading Jerry's 'will' saying he left him a custard pie, Tom eagerly cries out, "Let me have it!" SPLUT!
- Shout-Out: At the end of the short, Jerry lights a HUGE stick of dynamite underneath Spike. Tom tries in vain to pull it out, which causes Spike to wake up. Tom slides the stick back underneath him and runs for his life. When the stick explodes, Spike lifts up his sleeve before chasing Tom down, revealing a very familiar-looking tattoo.
- Silly Will: When cornered by Tom, Jerry quickly writes up a will awarding Tom a custard pie solely as a setup to throw in his face.
- Suddenly Speaking: A rare example, at least rare in the original MGM run, of Tom speaking. He sings lullabies to Spike and says "Let me have it" when Jerry literally wills him a custard pie.
- Toon Physics: Midway in the air Tom realizes he's about to crash onto a table of wine glasses, so he stops falling and pushes the table out of the way replacing it with a soft cushion.
- Wingding Eyes: Tom pulls Spike's eyelid after giving him the knockout drugs, and sees that Spike's eye says "OUT COLD". Later, after Jerry tries to wake Spike up by jamming a needle at his butt, he lifts the lid and it reads "STILL OUT COLD".
