History WesternAnimation / TokioJokio

* JapanesePoliteness: The Japanese keep saying: "Oh, sorry, me so sorry, regrettable incident please" and variations thereof.
* {{Mockumentary}}: The cartoon is announced and presented as a news reel captured from the enemy.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The caricatures of Admiral Yamamoto, general Masaharu Homma, and even Rudolph Hess don't resemble them at all. The Japanese are also depicted as so weak and pathetic that, had this cartoon been realistic, it would beggar belief that they could be a threat to any other country.

** Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is depicted as a villain in this cartoon. He was certainly responsible in planning the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but later historical research has proven that he felt rather reluctant to attack the USA -- not out of moral convictions, but in the belief that picking a fight with the US was just going to result in a Japanese defeat sooner or later. Of course, the makers of this cartoon couldn't have known this.
** Mixed with BeamMeUpScotty: Admiral Yamamoto ''did'' talk of dictating peace terms in the White House, but it was far from the BadassBoast depicted in this short. The actual context of the quote was him trying to impress upon his superiors the true enormity of the task they had set themselves in attacking Pearl Harbor -- Yamamoto wasn't promising to dictate peace terms in the White House, he was saying that the only way for Japan to definitively win against the United States was to invade, fight across the breadth of the American continent and do just that. In short he was telling his superiors "you're asking the impossible. They're not going to roll over and die with one bloody nose."

"Tokio Jokio" is a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1943]] WarTimeCartoon made in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' franchise, directed by Norm [=McCabe=], who also directed ''WesternAnimation/TheDucktators'' (1942). It's basically an anti-Japanese propaganda vehicle, presented in the style of a {{Mockumentary}} and considered to be one of the most racist cartoons Warner Brothers ever made (though it is not a WesternAnimation/CensoredEleven cartoon. Just a WartimeCartoon with heavy anti-Japanese sentiment). The majority of the jokes present the Japanese as ugly, stupid, weak and incompetent, while the rest are just [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame puns.]]

* PunBasedTitle: "Tokio Jokio".

[[ValuesDissonance Understandably]], the cartoon has been banned from public broadcast and distribution in America, falling into PublicDomain as a result. Nickelodeon actually ''did'' have this short in its library when it had the rights to air Warner Bros. cartoons as part of ''Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon''[[note]]both the Nick at Nite version and the daytime version that aired on weekends[[/note]], and ''could'' have aired it, but decided not to. Meanwhile, Cartoon Network aired clips of this [with show announcer, Leslie Framm, explaining how cartoons like ''Tokio Jokio'' and others around this time were particularly cruel to the Japanese] as part of their ''[=ToonHeads=]'' special on World War II cartoons[[note]]the clips shown were the title card, the air raid siren gag where it's just two Japanese guys taking turns sticking themselves in the butt with a needle and screaming, and the "Japanese club sandwich" sequence[[/note]].

Director Norm [=McCabe=] left Warners soon afterwards to sign up for military service (making this his final WB cartoon, and his most notorious due to how much of an UnintentionalPeriodPiece it is, if online discussions about old cartoon shorts are anything to go by), but nevertheless decades later he saw all of his war time propaganda cartoons as an OldShame.

* AnimationLeadTime: When production began, Admiral Yamamoto was still alive, but he had been killed by the time it premiered, so that joke about him dictating peacetime in the White House and having the electric chair reserved for him is either darker than it should be or horribly outdated ([[TakeAThirdOption or both]]).

* WeaksauceWeakness: The Japanese army is depicted as primitive, weak, poor, and badly equipped; and a lot of their recruits are cowards, lack physical strength, or frequently become the victim of their own stupidity.

!! This cartoon provides examples of:

Director Norm [=McCabe=] left Warners soon afterwards to sign up for military service (making this his final WB cartoon, and his most notorious due to how much of an UnintentionalPeriodPiece it is, if online discussions about old cartoon shorts are anything to go by), but nevertheless decades later he saw all of his war time propaganda cartoons as an OldShame[[note]]though, according to the ''ToonHeads'' episode about Norm [=McCabe=]'s cartoons, ''The Ducktators'' was considered his favorite, in spite of being just as dated and heavy on the World War II references and ethnic enemy bashing as this short[[/note]].

* AlliterativeTitle: The title card is called "'''N'''ippo'''N'''ews of the Week" and "'''N'''ippon '''N'''ifties Fashion".
** TruthInTelevision at least for the first -- the official Japanese newsreel during the war ''was'' called "Nippon News" (日本ニュース -- ''Nihon Niyusu''). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3wcIz0xFVE See here for an example]]

* HurricaneOfPuns and IncrediblyLamePun:

* PublicDomainAnimation: The cartoon has fallen into public domain, likely because Warner Bros. was so ashamed of it that they "forgot" to (read: did not want to) renew the copyright.

* RacialFaceBlindness: Enforced. All Japanese people in this cartoon look alike: big glasses, buck teeth, imbecilic grin and small stature. Justified as this is a World War II cartoon made in America, where racially bashing the enemy is pretty much standard.

* PublicDomainAnimation: The cartoon has fallen into public domain, likely because Warner Bros. was so ashamed of it that they forgot to renew the copyright.

* RacialFaceBlindness: Enforced. All Japanese people in this cartoon look alike: big glasses, buck teeth, imbecilic grin and small stature.

* NoFourthWall: When Yamamoto talks about the chair reserved for him in the White House a title card explains that the following scene will show the ''actual'' chair reserved for him: the electric chair.[[labelnote:Fun Fact]] No one was ever specifically electrocuted for war crimes. Admiral Yamamoto was shot down over New Guinea in April 1943, coincidentally not long before this cartoon came out. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo survived the war but was hanged by the Nuremburg Commission for war crimes, as were nearly all of Japan's civilian and military leaders… with the notable exception of Emperor Hirohito, who was intentionally spared (this infuriated [[UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur General MacArthur]] and likely led to his insubordination during Korea some years later). On the European side, Mussolini was shot by his own people, Hitler shot himself, Lord Haw-Haw was hanged, and Rudolf Hess died in prison in 1987.[[/labelnote]]