Archive for the ‘DaddyTube’ Category:
Hug Him And Squeeze Him And Call Him George (Video)
You’ve probably heard the line “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George.” As I just wrote on Facebook, teaching it to my children is one of my great accomplishments as a parent. (Remember, quoting yourself may be tacky, but it makes fact-checking much easier.) I always thought the line came from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Now I’m not so sure.
I might even have the line wrong. If so, I’m not the only one.
What follows is a condensed version of my attempt to figure out where “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George” came from, which led me down a big Internet rabbit hole (pun intended) of cartoons, John Steinbeck, and other stuff.
At first the Internet seemed to be telling me that the cartoon in question was “The Abominable Snow Rabbit”.
In the video above, the line is, “I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him…” Not an exact match, but very close. (Daffy Duck has a great line as well: “I know I’m a louse. But I’m a live louse.”)
Then I stumbled across an intriguing tidbit: “The Abominable Snow Rabbit” is an homage to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men
OK. Sure. Why not?
However, according to the Internet there are many cartoon homages to “Of Mice and Men
Really. There are.
Here is “Lonesome Lenny”, a 1946 Tex Avery cartoon, described thusly on IMDB: “Screwy Squirrel is bought in a pet shop to be the companion of a daft dog so strong that he squeezes his playmates to death.” Well all righty then. The dog’s name is Lenny, and he calls his new pal George. (Lennie and George are the main characters in “Of Mice and Men.”)
(Tip of the hat to the folks on this AWN forum page for pointing me towards “Lonesome Lenny”.)
But there is another Tex Avery short, “Of Fox And Hounds”, released in 1940, that is also an “Of Mice and Men” thing. This is where the immortal line “Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?” came from. (I taught that one to my kids as well. I’m an awesome dad.)
(Hat tip to LanguageHat.com. No pun intended that time.)
Research note: Lest anyone think that my sources are limited to Wikipedia and pages I found via The Google, here is a link to The New York Times’ review of the 1939 film version of Steinbeck’s book (starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr.), which states that “Of Mice and Men
“Of Fox And Hounds” seems to be the first animated homage to “Of Mice and Men
Lennie, George and rabbits are apparently quite the thing. Who knew?
What did we learn? A lot. Haven’t answered my original question. But that’s OK.
(Thanks to the Facebook friends who inspired this post.)
Classic Looney Tunes – YouTube.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
New Language Began With Baby-Talk
Here is a fascinating article in The New York Times about a new language, Light Warlpiri, which is spoken by a relatively small group of Australian Aboriginal people. Everyone who speaks it is younger than 35 years old. And it began with baby-talk.
From the Times:
There are many dying languages in the world. But at least one has recently been born, created by children living in a remote village in northern Australia.
Carmel O’Shannessy, a linguist at the University of Michigan, has been studying the young people’s speech for more than a decade and has concluded that they speak neither a dialect nor the mixture of languages called a creole, but a new language with unique grammatical rules.
Here is a video, “Monster Story in Light Warlpiri Child39”, from Dr. Carmel O’Shannessy’s YouTube account.
So what’s this about baby-talk? Again, from the Times: Read more »
Gizmodo Writer Tries Bionic Leg (Video)
Gizmodo writer Brent Rose wins the Internet for the day. He tried out a bionic leg.
Really. He did. There’s even video.
Cool, right? I didn’t read the entire article, but here are a few nifty bionic tidbits: Read more »
New Batman Cartoon Looks Bad (BEWARE THE BATMAN)
There’s a new Batman cartoon coming out called Beware The Batman. It looks bad. Here’s video of the intro:
Also, a YouTube commenter — let’s call them “YouTubers” — points out the following (source):
Oficial page for the Oficial show eh? Don’t think so Oficial is spelt wrong 😛
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet, already in progress.
BEWARE THE BATMAN Opening Sequence Unveiled | Newsarama.com.
For more Batman (and others), check out our list of Superhero Animation on Demand.
Baby Spy With A Jetpack is Cute (Dirty Sock Funtime Band)
The Dirty Sock Funtime Band brings us this cute picture of a Baby Spy with a jetpack. Check it out:
Never underestimate the Baby Spies. http://t.co/hns10JI7kb pic.twitter.com/LMdnt0YJi6
— DirtySockFuntimeBand (@TheDirtySocks) June 5, 2013
Right? Cute kid, and well-done costume. We particularly like the flames.
For the uninitiated, The Dirty Sock Funtime Band has been described (by me) as the Frank Zappa of the children’s music scene. (It may be tacky to quote yourself, it does make for easy fact-checking.) You may have seen them on Jack’s Big Music Show
Here is the video for the Dirty Socks’ song Baby Spies
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm86vLDzBAc]
If you like that — and why wouldn’t you, it’s great — you should check out the band’s RocketHub campaign for their new album, The Dirty Socks Come Clean. There a variety of ways you can “Join The Band” (not literally) while getting some cool stuff, such as a signed poster, t-shirts, and an early download of the new album. Learn more here.
Shop Dirty Sock Funtime Band albums
Video – Father And Son Sing Don’t Let Me Down (DaddyTube)
Today on DaddyTube, a father and son singing Don’t Let Me Down. Dad plays guitar. The little boy, presumably his son although to be fair we don’t know this for certain but a bunch of copies of the video on YouTube declare it to be true, sings and strums a ukelele. It is very cute. Watch the video.
Is it just us or does the kid sound like he’s in the correct key when he plucks out some notes halfway through the video?
(Hat tip to Karl Erickson via Facebook for the vid)
Baby boy playing Don’t Let Me Down on the guitar with his dad. – YouTube.
Mama’s Song (Official Video) – The Dirty Sock Funtime Band
In honor of Mother’s Day, DaddyTips Featured Video is a new one from The Dirty Sock Funtime Band — Mama’s Song.
Here’s an explanation from the band’s official YouTube page:
Over the last few months we’ve asked families to share photos of mom with her loved ones and received over a HUNDRED AND FIFTY wonderful photos, proudly featured in our music video for “Mama’s Song”.
FYI, “Mama’s Song” is on The Spin Cycle EP. Buy it here.
Mama’s Song (Official Video) – The Dirty Sock Funtime Band – YouTube.
You should also buy the other Dirty Sock Funtime Band albums
And oh yeah — Happy Mother’s Day!
