"The Screwy Truant" is one of the early Tex Avery MGM Cartoons, released in 1945.
The short follows Screwy Squirrel skipping school to go fishing, only to have Meathead, playing the role of a truant officer, hot on his tail and wants to know why he skipped in the first place, and Screwy tries every trick in the book to outmaneuver him.
Tropes:
- Crossover Punchline: In the middle of the cartoon, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf run by. Screwy has to tell the wolf that he's in the wrong picture.
- Kitchen Sink Included: When Screwy hits Truant Officer Meathead with "Assorted Swell Stuff to Hit Dog on the Head" with, Meathead remarks that Screwy hit him with everything but the kitchen sink. Screwy remedies this right away.Truant Officer Meathead: Gee whiz! He hit me with everything but the kitchen sink.
Screwy: Well, don't want to disappoint ya, chum. (hits him with kitchen sink; Meathead's eyes read "closed for the duration") - No Fourth Wall: A staple in most Screwy Squirrel shorts.
- Opening Shout-Out: When the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood interrupt the cartoon, Screwy brings back the opening title card to show them they're in the wrong picture.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Screwy tells the wolf "If you were my size, I'd bust you right in the nose!" The wolf then shrinks down to Screwy's size, and Screwy reacts by shrinking even smaller and running away.
- Real Fake Door: As Truant Officer Meathead chases Screwy throughout Grandma's house, he opens the front door and crashes into a brick wall with a sign reading "Imagine that—no door!"
- Self-Deprecation: When Screwy shows the wolf the title of his cartoon to show that he was in the wrong picture, the wolf snarks "one of them corny B-pictures, eh?"
- Sick Episode: At the end of the short, we learn the reason why Screwy skipped school in the first place: he has the measles. When Meathead confronts him for this, Screwy infects him, too. The end title screen also gets infected before the short irises out.
- Skipping School: The premise of the short.
- Wartime Cartoon: There are a few World War II references in the short.
- In the opening, the Little Red School House is actually blue, with a notice stating that "Technicolor Red has Gone to War." This is a reference to Lucky Strikes cigarettes, who had to change their green packages to white because of a shortage of green dye due to it being used for camouflage.
- The "Closed for the Duration" gag stated in Wingding Eyes below.
- A sign at Red Riding Hood's grandmother home states that "Grandma has gone to Lockheed", meaning she's working at the Lockheed airplane factory as a "Rosie the Riveter".
- Wingding Eyes: Meathead when he is bonked with the kitchen sink found in the trunk labeled "Assorted Swell Stuff to Hit Dog on the Head". His eyes read "Closed for the Duration".
