| Screwy Squirrel | |
|---|---|
| MGM Cartoons character | |
 Screwy Squirrel seen in "Screwball Squirrel" (1944) | |
| First appearance | Screwball Squirrel April 1, 1944 |
| Last appearance | Lonesome Lenny March 9, 1946 |
| Created by | Tex Avery |
| Designed by | Claude Smith |
| Voiced by | Wally Maher (1944–1946) William Hanna (1944) Pinto Colvig (1945) Charlie Adler (1993) Jeff Bergman (2004) Paul Reubens (2013) Sean Kenin (2019–2021) |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Screwball Squirrel Screwy the Screwball Squirrel |
| Species | American red squirrel |
| Gender | Male |
Screwy Squirrel (also known asScrewball Squirrel) is ananimated cartoon character, ananthropomorphicsquirrel created byTex Avery forMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Among some of the more outrageous cartoon characters, Screwy's feats include pulling objects out of thin air, doubling himself, and breaking thefourth wall, all the while uttering a characteristic cackling laugh. The character was not as successful as Avery'sDroopy was at this time, appearing in only five cartoons:Screwball Squirrel (1944),Happy-Go-Nutty (1944),Big Heel-Watha (1944),The Screwy Truant (1945), andLonesome Lenny (1946).[1]
The character was known for being brash and erratic, with few sympathetic personality characteristics such asBugs Bunny's nobility andDaffy Duck's pathos. (Both of those characters are also Tex Avery's creations).[2] Most of his cartoons had him paired with Meathead Dog (voiced by screenwriterCal Howard inScrewball Squirrel, Tex Avery inHappy-Go-Nutty, andPinto Colvig inThe Screwy Truant) as his adversary. Meathead's physical appearance differed between the three shorts in which he appeared (with his ears changing color from grey-blue to black inHappy-Go-Nutty, and donning a new color palette inThe Screwy Truant), but otherwise the character remained the same.
Screwy's shorts revolve around his infliction of various forms of torture on Meathead – or another enemy – for seven minutes. InThe Screwy Truant, one gag has Screwy hitting Meathead over the head with everything he can find in a trunk labeled "Assorted Swell Stuff to Hit Dog on Head". When he finishes, Meathead remarks, "Gee whiz! He hit me witheverything but the kitchen sink!" Screwy responds with, "Well, don't want to disappoint you, chum", then pulls out that very item and bashes him over the head with it.[1]
The final cartoon in the series,Lonesome Lenny (a broad parody of the characters of George and Lenny from theJohn Steinbeck novelOf Mice and Men), ends with a scene indicating that Screwy has beenkilled off as a regular MGM character. The 1946 cartoon begins with a wealthy woman purchasing the squirrel at a pet shop with the intention of giving him to her large dog Lenny as a companion. Pampered and dim-witted, Lenny is unaware of his brute strength; and later, when he hugs Screwy, he accidentally crushes him to death. In the cartoon's closing scene, the dog is now all alone and lying on the floor in his owner's mansion. After casually squeezing and pulverizing a big chew bone with his paw and crumpling his metal food bowl, he sits up, turns to the audience, and says, "You know, I had a little friend once, but he don't move no more." Lenny then reaches into a side "pocket" in his fur and pulls out the flattened body of Screwy. The squirrel is motionless and his eyes are closed. Seemingly dead, Screwy suddenly opens one eye and brings a sign out from behind his back that reads, "SAD ENDING, isn't it?" That gesture cast some doubt at the time on the finality of the crazy squirrel's demise. A similar "death" gag is presented at the conclusion of the 1957 Warner Bros. cartoonWhat's Opera Doc?, which was directed byChuck Jones. In that cartoon, however, as a deadBugs Bunny is being carried away by a guilt-riddenElmer Fudd, the rabbit awakes to speak to the audience about the operaparody's sad ending.
The reason why Screwy was killed off in his last cartoon was said to be that Tex Avery grew to openly dislike the character. Animator Mark Kausler used to send Avery letters about his rendition of Screwy, only for Avery to throw away anything related to the character.[3]
Meathead Dog made a cameo appearance in the 1988 filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit. He is seen sniffing around at R. K. Maroon's Cartoon Studio in the film's beginning. Screwy is mockingly mentioned by one of Eddie Valiant's bar patrons Angelo: "Who's your client, Mr. Detective of the Stars?Chilly Willy, or Screwy Squirrel?"
In 1993,Hanna-Barbera resurrected Screwy in new animation for the seriesDroopy, Master Detective as part ofFox Kids' programming block ofSaturday morning cartoons.[4] Those new cartoons featured the character's name as Screwball—never Screwy—and pitted him not against Meathead, but against a pair of typical Hanna-Barbera authority figures, a human park attendant named Dweeble and his oafish dog Rumply. "Screwball" himself wore a T-shirt and often a "Napoleon-style"bicorne hat.
OnApril Fools' Day in 1997,Cartoon Network broadcast an edited version (minus oneblackface gag) of the 1944 Screwy Squirrel cartoonHappy-Go-Nutty repeatedly from 6 am to 6 p, as part of an April Fool's joke that the cartoon character had seized control of the network.[5]
On April Fool's Day in 2012, Cartoon Network broadcast Screwy Squirrel's debut cartoonThe Screwball Squirrel, at 6:00 am and 11:45 am, which marked the first time that a cartoon byTex Avery was broadcast on the network sinceThe Tex Avery Show.
In 2013, both Meathead and Screwy Squirrel made appearances as residents of "Fairy Land" inTom and Jerry's Giant Adventure, retaining most of their traits. Screwy Squirrel was voiced byPaul Reubens and Meathead was voiced byJohn DiMaggio.
In 2019, Screwy Squirrel made an appearance as a landlord of an apartment building called Screwy Arms Apartments, in the third season ofThe Tom and Jerry Show episode called "Double Dog Trouble". He also made various cameos in the series. Screwy was voiced by Sean Kenin.
American animator and producerBruce W. Smith briefly began developing a series for Warner Bros. starring the titular character. In Smith's proposed storyline, which was never produced, Screwy thinks he is in Hollywood, California, but in reality he is inHollywood, Alabama.[6][7]
| # | Title | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Screwball Squirrel | April 1, 1944 |
| 2 | Happy-Go-Nutty | June 24, 1944 |
| 3 | Big Heel-Watha (Buck of the Month) | October 21, 1944 |
| 4 | The Screwy Truant | January 13, 1945 |
| 5 | Lonesome Lenny | March 9, 1946 |
Some earlier comics style the character's name as "Skrewy Squirrel" or "Skrewy the Screwball Squirrel." Additional titles, not listed here, include the character in one-page gag or puzzle features.
Several Screwy Squirrel cartoons were released as bonus features on classic Warner Bros. titles including:
In March 2020,Screwball Squirrel,The Screwy Traunt,Big Heel-Watha andLonesome Lenny were released on Blu-Ray, fully restored and uncut, byWarner Archive as part ofTex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1.[10]Happy Go Nutty was released on October 5, 2021 as part ofTex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 3- completing Screwy’s filmography.[11]
A voice clip of Wally Maher as Screwy Squirrel from the character's debut short was recycled for the character of Dweezil the cat in the video gamePutty.