Santa is a Sucker

Leave it to Tex Avery to come up with a Christmas cartoon like no other. Tex combined radio references, the old tale of the Three Little Pigs (minus two) and a kid who can’t wait for his visit from St. Nick. “One Ham’s Family” is about a little piggy jerk (inspired by Red Skelton’s Mean Widdle Kid) who sticks it to a wolf (inspired by the Great Gildersleeve).

It’s a shame the only copies I can find of this short are murky and loaded with DVNR. But you can get the idea behind the wolf-disguised-as-Santa’s take when he realises the pig isn’t in his bag like he thought. These are consecutive frames.







Appropriately for an Avery Christmas cartoon, it was released August 1, 1943.

Ray Abrahms, Ed Love and Preston Blair are Avery’s animators. Kent Rogers plays the wolf and the pig (and he’s the narrator as well).