Porky Pig swearing

 

In a 1939 short film, Porky Pig swears in the funniest way possible. It was not seen by the public until the 1970s.

From 1935 to 1949, the Warner Brothers studio collected bloopers from their films and screened them at their annual Christmas party. They called them “breakdowns” (the term “blooper” didn’t come into common use until the 1950s) and because of the Hayes Code they could not be shown to the public.

All of the breakdowns are online now. If you want to see stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood like Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis messing up their lines and swearing up a storm they are worth tracking down. But my favourite breakdown is by Porky Pig.

You can view the full cartoon in the clip below. Porky Pig, hammering away at a nail, hits his finger. He stutters out “son of a b… b… b…” and then the scene cuts and repeats. This goes through several repetitions and variations – on the original reel these were interspersed with other bloopers as a running gag.

In the last clip, he finally gets it out “son of a b… b… b… gun.” Ha! Then he turns to the camera and says “you thought I was gonna say ‘son of a bitch’ didn’t ya?”

• Porky Pig