Thread of the top 20 weirdest endings in old cartoons.
20) HA! HA! HA! (1934) This uber-bizarre cartoon climaxes with Betty Boop unleashing laughing gas onto the live-action world, with hilariously disturbing results. I love the way the inkwell’s haunting death is drawn.
20) HA! HA! HA! (1934) This uber-bizarre cartoon climaxes with Betty Boop unleashing laughing gas onto the live-action world, with hilariously disturbing results. I love the way the inkwell’s haunting death is drawn.
19) THE HASH SHOP (1930) The Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons by Bill Nolan, the king of rubberhose, are begging for rediscovery. Only in a cartoon could force-feed a man a horse.
18) THE DOG SNATCHER (1931) Great inconclusive ending in this Dick Huemer classic, where Scrappy (not the Scooby-Doo character) bursts through endless brick walls, seemingly trapped in an infinite loop. Scrappy’s pet Yippy might be my favorite dog design ever.
17) CIRCUS CAPERS (1930) The Van Beuren cartoons were the cheapest of the ‘30s, but they’re possibly the most hypnotically deranged. This is one of the weirdest: the stiff drawings and alien timing of this ending always knocks me for a loop.
16) LADY, PLAY YOUR MANDOLIN! (1931) The very first Merrie Melodies cartoon is a hallucinatory booze binge, boldly released in the middle of Prohibition, which ends in a horse going up in flames! Featuring “Foxy,” a Mickey-esque fox that Disney insisted WB stop using.
15) WOLF! WOLF! (1934) The ending of this Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short hits the perfect balance of cornball and deeply inappropriate. Released a few months before the Production Code took effect.
14) I’M AFRAID TO GO HOME IN THE DARK (1930) The Max Fleischer Studio is known for its bizarro transformations, and this screen song ends with a doozy: the hero suddenly morphs into a hot dog… because why not?
13) THE LUMBER CHAMP (1933) Walter Lantz’s Pooch the Pup cartoons are obscure even to classic cartoon aficionados, but they shouldn’t be. The crazy train ending here is one of the all-time great cartoon sight gags. The funny voices and sound effects are icing on the cake.
12) SILLY SCANDALS (1931) This early Betty Boop cartoon ends with a totally out-of-the-blue burst of psychedelia, set to the Rudy Vallee hit “You’re Driving Me Crazy.” The movie JOKER should’ve ended like this.
11) THE WINGED HORSE (1932) Every frame of this Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon is 100% bonkers, but the ending takes the cake. Note how the camel becomes evil after he morphs with the villain.
10) RIDE HIM, BOSKO! (1932) One of the most unexpected endings in cartoon history, in which the animators literally give up on this Looney Tunes short. An early meta gag.
9) RED RIDING HOOD (1931) Of all the cartoon takes on this classic fairy tale, this Van Beuren short is the most baffling. Here the wolf and the grandma are about to get married... the rest must be seen to be believed.
8) BIMBO’S INITIATION (1931) - One of the greatest & most surrealistic cartoons of all time, in which a cult kidnaps Bimbo and tries to make him join. The Freudian meanings behind this cartoon, and particularly this baffling ending with Betty Boop(s), could be analyzed for ages.
7) A SWISS TRICK (1931) In this mad masterpiece with Tom & Jerry (not the cat and mouse, the two hoboes who preceded them), we learn that eating swiss cheese has dire consequences.
6) MASK-A-RAID (1931) This Betty Boop cartoon has an incredible scat-heavy finish that is simultaneously kooky, joyous, and brain-melting. Outstanding drawings and music.
5) GYPPED IN EGYPT (1930) The oddest of all Van Beuren cartoons features a madly laughing skeleton and the swirling eyes of the sphinx (and no, there’s no context for any of this). I love the pleasant music following this insanity.
4) SWING, YOU SINNERS! (1930) This Max Fleischer cartoon is the darkest of all ‘30s shorts, serving as a direct inspiration on CUPHEAD. We end with Bimbo descending into Hell, where reality snaps and the animators just start hurling hallucinatory nightmare fuel at the screen.
3) POPULAR MELODIES (1933) Animator Willard Bowsky seemed to have a thing for cartoon horror. What starts as a nice screen song swerves into madness and ends with a message from Satan!!!! Yikes!
2) SPOOKS (1930) Maybe my favorite ending to anything ever, this wonderfully absurdist Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon closes with a hilariously random non sequitur. The “boop-oop-a-doop, that’s Oswald” is the perfect capper.
1) BETTY BOOP M.D. (1932) I give you the strangest cartoon ending of all time, where a scatting baby takes a drug named Jippo and… this happens. Happy nightmares!
Thanks for reading, everybody! Check out my (also pretty weird) cartoon MUSICAL MAN AND THE MAGIC KAZOO:
