Thread by @jeffs_comics

Private Snafu

Once a military secret, Private Snafu (voiced by Mel Blanc) was part of a multi-talent effort to train the military in WWII. These were intended for adults, about serious topics, despite looking like Looney Tunes to modern audiences.

There were different ideas about training films - are they like textbooks, serious and sober, or could serious and sober topics use humor, sex and other more or less juvenile aspects to open up heads. Frank Capra thought boring was bad.

Disney originally was asked to make training films, but wanted to own and market the character and was undercut by Warner Bros - who got the gig. Private Snafu (Situation Normal, All F'd Up) would be in 26 short training films (this is Booby Traps)

The writing was done by a team (Dr Suess was one member), directed by Chuck Jones. Some are just about dealing with military life - like your mail being censored, while 3 are specifically about malaria (FYI: DDT was developed in WWII to help combat malaria, a massive issue)

Here is a butt shot from one of the malaria cartoons. We follow the mosquito's attempts to infect Snafu with malaria. In the Pacific theater in WWII, malaria was rampant, and wasn't usually fatal, but took a soldier out of action for a prolonged period of time.

Here is one about Loose Lips Sink Ships. It does a good job as showing how you don't need to blabber all at once, but can just drip drip drip out a secret. Also, if everyone just lets one bit slip, taken together, its the whole secret.

The cartoons will have profanity and behaviors that, nornally, censors might object to - yet how else to warn against alcohol, etc.

Will they have racial stereotypes? Yes. These were made during the war against fascists in Europe and Japan.

The cartoons are memorable - the pretty gal at the bar is a sort of Nazi Mata Hari, visually depicted here as Nazi microphones as boobs.

These cartoons are on Youtube and elsewhere.