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Thread: Please explain this joke from a 1940's cartoon.

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    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Default Please explain this joke from a 1940's cartoon.

    The cartoon is is the joke I'm curious about. In the scene a gremlin replaces a "C" with a red background for an "a" with a black background. I take it it has something to do with licences or insurance but I'm not too sure.
    Last edited by The Original An Gadaí; 12 Oct 2009 at 10:12 AM.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    I'll have to look at this tonight, but I would guess it had to do with war time rationing. The Ration coupons were letter associated I believe.

    Not a cite, but for some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing#United_States
    http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org.../rationing.htm

    A bonus from my second link:
    Even in the popular Warner Brothers cartoons, Daffy Duck exhorts the audience to Keep it under 40! Bugs Bunny's plunging airplane halts just before impact, out of gas as a consequence of the `A' sticker on its windshield.
    This could well be the same cartoon, as at least one time Bugs took on the Gremlin, the cartoon ended that way.

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    Aged Turtle Wizard Clothahump's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by An Gadaí View post
    The cartoon is is the joke I'm curious about. In the scene a gremlin replaces a "C" with a red background for an "a" with a black background. I take it it has something to do with licences or insurance but I'm not too sure.
    Gas rationing. The little 'a' basically meant that you got to put in a couple of spoonfuls of gas and run on fumes. Or pretty close.

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    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Thanks guys. I hadn't a clue.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    The joke was reused in the first related link. .

    This cartoon was shown often while I was growing up. I only saw the Gremlin from the Kremlin once or twice as an adult.

  6. #6
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    The Gremlin From The Kremlin was done after Falling Hare so the reuse was in the first cartoon linked. I find cartoons from that era fascinating.

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