The premise of the film is rather simple; it features a vaudeville-style amateur talent night (see, for example, the contemporary and still-ongoing "Amateur Night" competitions at theApollo Theater and the long-running radio-turned-television showAmateur Hour) with a format that resembles the much later television programThe Gong Show in that it features a judge who strikes a gong to stop the performance of any entertainer whom he deems bad. The primary character of this short is a prototype ofElmer Fudd who lacksthe speech impediment of the character he evolved into.
The cartoon entered the public domain in 1968 when its last rightsholder,United Artists Television (successor-in-interest toAssociated Artists Productions), failed to renew the original copyright within the required 28-year period.[3]
During an amateur talent night at the "Warmer Bros. Theatre" (pun on Warner Bros.), performers put on a series of strange acts, hosted by a disinteresteddogface. These include:
A pianist who purports to play hands-free (he puts a coin in aplayer piano)
An opera tenor who rises off the stage as he sings higher notes
Aswami who attempts to perform theIndian basket trick with help from Elmer, only to have it go wrong when Elmer fails to emerge from the basket after it has been pierced with a sword; the Swami offers Elmer a refund
An overly-cute, little girl flea who recites "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in a very high, squeaky voice, and then laughs after her faltering rendition (she is thus rejected, landing with an implausibly loud thud)
A trained dog that performs tricks and gives a speech at its owner's command
An actor who keeps getting pelted with tomatoes as he tries to deliver the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy fromHamlet
A mangled, but earnest, rendition of the balcony scene fromRomeo and Juliet, during which the actor playing Romeo stops to shoot a boisterously laughing hippopotamus in the audience, then finds that the actress playing Juliet laughs in the same way and shoots her offstage as well
With the exception of the swami and the balcony scene, every act is rejected by a backstage judge, who rings a bell and pulls a lever to open a trapdoor under the performers and drop them out of sight.
The acts are broken up by assorted comical interludes, which include:
The aforementioned hippopotamus driving most of the other patrons out of the theater by various means, including sitting on the feet of the person behind him (bending the feet into a 90-degree angle), smacking a spectator hard enough to squash his entire upper body into his hat, and elbowing an entire row hard enough to push them out through the theater wall
The stage curtains behaving in unexpected ways, such as falling down (rod and all) or being opened like a door by the MC
At the end of the night, as avoice vote is taken for the winner, Elmer wins. The MC is shocked to see that Elmers fill the entire center section of the theater.
^Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989).Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 83.ISBN0-8050-0894-2.
^"Archived copy". Archived fromthe original on April 18, 2015. RetrievedApril 13, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "Looney Tunes in the Public Domain"
