Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Wearing of the Grin
From Eccentric Flower
The Wearing of the Grin
1950
Summary: Porky spends a night in a castle inhabited by leprechauns.
Director: Chuck Jones
Writer: Michael Maltese
Featuring: Porky Pig.
Onreel
0:21 Sound cue, under titles and used throughout (it's the green shoes' jig): "The Irish Washerwoman."
1:24 Sound cue: "Come back to Erin." If you'd like to hear the lyrics, ask the singing frog.
2:22 Seamus must have given Porky a false last name, because now the two leprechauns are "O'Pat" and "O'Mike" (a reference to the many "Pat and Mike" Irishman jokes.)
3:27 Sound cue: "Tura Lura Lura (That's an Irish Lullaby)."
Offreel
The title is a joke on the old ballad "The Wearing of the Green". The same joke was used in What's Up, Doc?.
The leprechauns are shown with their clay pipes in their mouths upside down. When Bugs is shown dancing "The Irish Washerwoman" in What's Up, Doc?, his clay pipe is also upside down. It's possible to smoke them upside down, of course, and some folks (sailors in particular) developed a habit of doing so to keep out wind and rain. I don't know if they were depicted this way by the Warner artists because of some reference or joke now obscure to us, or because they just had no idea what they were doing.
This is Porky's last cartoon where he has a solo starring role. Porky was Warner's first cartoon star, but by 1950 he had long since been eclipsed by other characters. In fact by 1950 it was already unusual to see him given a solo cartoon in this way. Maybe Jones and Maltese felt sorry for him!
