The Helpful Help

One of the fun things in silent cartoons is when characters, Felix the Cat especially, took question or exclamation marks, or words, and turned them into something else that furthered the plot.

Here’s a great example from the Oswald cartoon “Oh, Teacher” (1927). Oswald’s girl-friend has landed in the lake. She yells “HELP” and her words form the word. The word travels in the air to Oswald, the “p” kicks him in the butt, the “h” points to where his girl is, then Oswald pulls down all the letters and rides the word like a horse. Pretty clever, even today.



As usual, Walt Disney was the only one to receive screen credit and he didn’t draw a thing. However, Mark Kausler reports that Friz Freleng worked on this scene. Thanks to Devon Baxter for the note.