"He drew a gun on me!"
"What's cooking? How's tricks?" My, what a strange language you bring from the earth.
Saint Peter
Symphony In Slang is a 1951 animated short by Tex Avery.
A recently deceased hipster arrives in heaven, but because he speaks in broad euphemisms, St. Peter has some trouble recording his life story, so he takes him to see the master of the dictionary, Noah Webster. The result is seven straight minutes of a hurricane full of literal metaphors and visual puns.
Tropes present in this short:
- Art Evolution: The design of the characters (especially the Hipster himself) is much more angular and simplified compared to the fuller and rounder designs of Avery’s previous MGM work, tied to MGM cutting their animation budget and Avery having to do things for cheaper.
- Big Eater: Mary, as the Hipster says she "ate like a horse" (she is shown eating from a feedbag).
- Black Comedy: After leaving his girlfriend, the Hipster goes to the local malt shop, where a bunch of guys are "hanging around" (all of whom by nooses).
- Brick Joke: In the middle of his story, the Hipster uses the term "Cat got your tongue". After his story, Noah Webster is unable to say anything in response, causing the Hipster to ask if the cat had his tongue. In both cases, the camera pans to a cat with a tongue in its paw.
- Burning with Anger: After seeing his ex-girlfriend going out with an old flame, The Hipster burst into flames for a second for a "That burnt me up" visual pun.
- Die Laughing: Upon returning home, the Hipster is shocked to discover that his old girlfriend, Mary, and the old flame she left him for now have too many children to care for and, as a result, are fat and miserable, and keels over laughing as two undertakers carry him away. This appears to be the only Literal Metaphor in the cartoon that isn't just Noah Webster being Literal-Minded.
- Dine and Dash: Unable to pay the Shockingly Expensive Bill Mary ran up at dinner even with a check, the Hipster decides to go on the run.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Hipster is held at gunpoint and sent to jail for skimping on a restaurant bill, though the latter might be more justified as he ran from the law.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: This is the story's wrap around, complete with Saint Peter.
- Gold Digger: Mary is implied to be this. From what we see of her, she stays with the Hipster while he is able to spend money on her, but won't say a word to him once he goes broke and goes to jail. She winds up with a wealthy old flame.
- Having a Gay Old Time: The main character is credited as "The Hipster", but doesn't resemble the modern definition of the term as someone who is deliberately unfashionable and arrogant. Instead, he is just a white guy who is into jazz and its lingo.
- Hipster: As mentioned above, this one is the traditional "white guy who likes jazz" version, not the more contemporary "white guy who likes things ironically" version.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In the end, Mary and the old flame are married, but end up with approximately ten children to take care of, leaving them both fat and miserable.
- Limited Animation: This was around the time MGM began slashing budgets for their animated shorts, forcing Avery to rely on strong, stylized poses with few in-betweens.
- Literal-Minded: When St. Peter and Noah Webster are listening to the Hipster's euphemisms, 50% of the gags are based on Webster taking them at face value, starting with the Hipster being born with a silver spoon in his mouth and seeming to grow up overnight. However, Webster apparently understands that when the Hipster says that Mary had "good-lookin' pins", he is referring to her legs, because he pictures her as having giant safety pins as legs (instead of simply picturing her as having fancy hairpins). Also, he doesn't picture the Hipster as making actual baking "dough" by "punching cattle", so Webster seems to understand that dough is a slang term for money. When the Hipster says that it was "raining cats and dogs", Webster pictures actual rain as well as cats and dogs, so while he believes that actual cats and dogs were involved, he understands that it is also an expression for raining very hard. He also understands that by "letting her hair down", the Hipster is simply referring to Mary undoing the "bun" (pictured as a hamburger bun) that she had her hair in (however, he imagines Mary's hair as being long enough on at this particular time to be let all of the way down to the floor for; she is normally shown with her hair coming down no farther than her shoulders). When the Hipster states that Mary "got on her high horse", and that he was unable to "touch her with a 10-foot pole", Webster pictures the horse as having a normal-sized body, but as being 10 feet high at the shoulders. Webster doesn't picture a giant horse, about 36 feet high at the shoulders and therefore 175 tons in weight (in which case, when the Hipster held up his pole, it would have reached no farther than the horse's chest). Based on what Webster is visualizing, the Hipster could have touched Mary with the 10-foot pole if he'd held the pole a bit higher. When the Hipster says that he had to do a "stretch" in the "jug", Webster pictures the Hipster as being in a glass jug large enough to hold him. The jug, in turn, is located in jail, so Webster apparently understands that "the jug" is also a slang term for jail.
- Man on Fire: Shown when the Hipster talks about Mary going out with an "old flame" (meaning a former boyfriend). As a result, the Hipster gets "burned up" as well.
- No Name Given: The protagonist is not named in the short. When credited, he is simply called "The Hipster".
- The One That Got Away: The Hipster is hung up about his girlfriend Mary, who doesn't wait for him when he is in jail and ends up getting married to an old flame.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: One of the visual puns for when the Hipster is on trial.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Played straight and subverted. The Hipster tells his life story through 1950s slang, but otherwise doesn't say anything funny. It's Noah Webster's literal mindedness that turns every single sentence into a punchline.
- Through a Face Full of Fur / By the Lights of Their Eyes: "I was feeling mighty blue, and everything looked black." As the Hipster says this, of course, his whole body, clothes and all, turn completely blue in color, followed by the whole scene turning completely black, with only the Hipster's eyes visible.
- Totally Radical: The entire short is based on how the protagonist can only speak in 1940s/50s jazz lingo, making it difficult for St. Peter to record his life's story. Unlike most examples, this works in the short's favor, as modern viewers are likely to be just as confused by some of the more dated terms as St. Peter and Noah Webster are.
- Visual Pun: The other 50% of the gags, the most extreme extremes being when The Hipster is "up against it" (backed up against a giant red "IT") and "carrying on" (carrying a large black "ON" on his back).
