Logo Joke / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Inspector Clouseau will do anything to catch the Pink Panther, including interrupting the studio's logos!

The Metro-Goldywn-Mayer logo, of a lion surrounded by a golden ribbon of film, is one of the most majestic film logos made, as well as one of the most imitated film logos.

The lion in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo is often replaced with a different animal, generally another feline.

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General

• For a brief time, there was a MGM Kids label which had the lion be accompanied by a bunch of lion cubs, or replaced with a lion cub.
• Starting with the Guy Ritchie thriller Wrath of Man, a new logo is introduced which uses a CGI lion. It can be seen here.

Films — Animation

• A few MGM cartoons from 1942 had Tanner roaring to the tune of the Tiger Rag.
• The Lionhearts is about an animated Leo the Lion and his family, and their theme song "Roar" has them all in the MGM logo.
• Tom and Jerry:
  • On the cartoons directed by Chuck Jones, Tanner the Lion is replaced with Tom, who gives his best housecat "roar".
  • At the end of "Switchin' Kitten", Jerry reclines in his mouse hole and imitates the lion, with the ribboning from the logo even adorning the hole to complete the effect.
  • In "Tall in the Trap", the logo appears as a "Wanted!" Poster which gets shot at.
  • In "Sorry Safari", the words "A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon" appear over a cartoon lion from later in the short.
• The Tex Avery short "Batty Baseball" started with no logo, just the title of the short. After about 30 seconds into the action, one of the players realizes that the cartoon is forgetting something and stops before he can slide to ask the narrator what happened to the MGM logo. The narrator apologizes and we then see the logo and credits.
• The Addams Family (2019): The lion turns mid-roar into Kitty Kat the lion, who sees a red ball and jumps out to play with it, knocking the logo over like a cutout board.

Films — Live-Action

• Many of the films Laurel and Hardy made for the studio had the MGM lion replaced by a kitten in the closing credits. The Battle of the Century is one example.
• The 1968 films 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Subject Was Roses eschewed the standard intro in favor of a stylized blue and gold lion graphic, the same logo being used for their film posters and other marketing at the time.
  • Licorice Pizza employed this logo to fit its 1960s-70s setting.
• On a few films, notably Night of Dark Shadows and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (American adaptation), the lion's roars are muted out.
• In the trailer for A Night at the Opera, the lion was replaced by the Marx Brothers themselves, under the banner "Marx Gratia Marxes" (instead of "Ars Gratia Artis"), each taking turns miming the lion's roar (Groucho and Chico do okay, but when Harpo takes his turn he honks his ever-present taxi-horn instead), seen here.
• The 1964 archive feature "Big Parade of Comedy" has the MGM logo be covered with an "Out to Lunch" sign, which is removed to reveal the lion is actually eating someone! Seen here.
• The trailer for the 1994 film Clean Slate has the main character's dog in place of the lion doing the roar.
  • The film itself had a special "70th Anniversary" logo shown on MGM's 1994 lineup).
• The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course had a croc instead of the lion.
  • The film trailer had Steve Irwin stepping into the frame and commenting on the lion.
• Dr. Strangelove was going to have one. Specifically, the film would be presented by "Macro-Galaxy-Meteor Pictures" instead, and instead of the lion, there's, as the script describes, "A WEIRD, HYDRA-HEADED, FURRY CREATURE". This tied in with the unused Framing Device of the movie being presented as a Found Footage film discovered by aliens and presented as part of a documentary series called "The Dead Worlds of Antiquity".
• The Fearless Vampire Killers has two versions:
  • The original European version is the lion morphing into a vampire where a drop of blood drops off his fang and segues into the opening credits.
  • The American version is at the end of the cartoon opening where animated versions of Abronsius and Alfred are celebrating as the lion zooms in, roars then sprouts vampire fangs causing them to run off. One more blood drops from its fangs and segues to the opening credits.
• Gigi: Technically the movie had no logo joke, but the day after it steamrolled the Oscars, the MGM studio telephone operators/secretaries/receptionists were ordered to answer all phone calls with "Hello, M-Gigi-M."
• The Movie of Josie and the Pussycats (a co-production between Universal and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) begins with Boy Band music playing over the Universal logo but is immediately followed by the MGM logo as the music continues, with the lion morphing into a squealing teenage girl.
• The 1972 TV adaptation of Of Thee I Sing, the election night newsreel ends with the MGM lion opening its mouth, not to roar, but to crow like the Pathé rooster.
• In The Remake of The Pink Panther (2006), after the lion roars, an animated version of Inspector Clouseau appears within the MGM logo, followed by the Pink Panther, then the lion again, reacting Monty Python style. It can be seen here
• Robocop 2014. Instead of the lion roaring, we have the sound of talk show host Pat Novak doing vocal warm-up exercises.
• Silent Movie: The Big Picture Studios logo is essentially that of MGM, but with the studio boss in place of the lion and a seal barking replacing the roar.
• Strange Brew: Standard MGM opening, but the lion, instead of roaring, belches and appears disinterested. The camera then pulls back from the logo and pans towards the Great White North set, where Bob and Doug are trying to make him roar to no avail. A few minutes later, the lion roars in the background, and Bob comments, "Geez, now that hoser's growling!"
• In Tarzan, the Ape Man (the 1981 critical dud starring Bo Derek), Tarzan's yell is in place of the MGM lion's roar.
• The 1986 comedy "Wise Guys" has the MGM logo fly off like a propellor, with the lion inside screaming, seen here.
• Some notable aversions occur in a few films:
  • The 1959 adaptation of Ben-Hur had the lion be calm and peaceful, done deliberately as the director felt the lion would be at peace in a film about Christ.
  • Other films where the lion is silent include The Next Voice You Hear... (a 1950 film about God speaking on the radio) and the 1951 adventure film Westward the Women.
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: The sound of Smaug breathing fire is heard over the lion's second roar.

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