No Salt

Woody Woodpecker was a pretty expressive character at one time, even in his gooney stage in the early ‘40s when Mel Blanc voiced him. Here are some examples from a scene in his first appearance in “Knock Knock.”

Andy Panda wants to see if he can catch a bird by putting salt on its tail (we get a close-up of a salt shaker labelled “Salt,” as if Walter Lantz thought somebody would miss the gag). The casual Woody suddenly whips around and Andy tries to look casual. Character outlines weren’t uncommon in ‘40s Lantz cartoons.



Check out the expressions here (these are not consecutive drawings).



I believe Mark Kausler identified this as an Alex Lovy scene. Lovy and Frank Tipper (they were related by marriage) received the sole animation credits on this 1940 debut cartoon for the woodpecker.