..that's what it is. No plot, just a series of increasingly bizarre sight gags strung on one premise: Betty Boop tries to treat KoKo's toothache with laughing gas, and as they're both overcome by the fumes and forget to turn the machine off, the gas pours out into the city. Typewriters, cars, mailboxes, bridges and finally a whole cemetery full of tombstones grow mouths and burst into uproarious (in the tombstones' case, echoey and ghostly) laughter. Finally the giggling KoKo and Betty return to their ink bottle, which too grows a face and begins to laugh. Mere description can't give any idea how *weird* this cartoon is..don't miss the knock-down-drag-out duel between a pair of pliers and a set of false teeth!
8 Reviews
Betty Boop is a pusher!!
planktonrules2 November 2008
As a history teacher and lover of films, I occasionally like watching cartoons that have been banned, as they tell us a lot about our society and how far we have come over the years. What was perfectly acceptable decades ago is now, in some cases, seen as gross and inappropriate. Occasionally, these cartoons which have been removed from screening aren't particularly offensive but often, as in the case of this cartoon, they are so god-awful it's hard to imagine that people would have laughed at and enjoyed these films! Thirteen of these cartoons have been packaged together on a DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: Banned and Censored" and while the print quality of many of the cartoons is less than stellar, it's a great chance to see how sensibilities have changed.
This cartoon starts off in a rather clever and innocent way. You see the Fleischer Studio where the Betty Boop cartoons are made. Betty is on the drawing pad and the illustrator (supposedly Max Fleischer himself) is leaving for the day. Once gone, the ink well bounces about and Koko the Clown comes bounding out of it. Unfortunately, though, he has a bad toothache and so it's up to "Betty the Pusher" to solve the problem! In a very weird and very inappropriate scene, Betty plays dentist and gives Koko laughing gas. Not only that, but the gas ends up going everywhere and getting all the neighbors stoned as well. And, since everyone is having a wonderful time and the gas is so much fun, you assume the cartoon encouraged the audience members to give it a try themselves! Fortunately, this seeming endorsement of becoming a stoner was pulled from the market as it really shows no down side for drug use!! It's all pretty creepy, but the cartoon is also better than usual for a Betty Boop cartoon due to its clever introduction.
This cartoon starts off in a rather clever and innocent way. You see the Fleischer Studio where the Betty Boop cartoons are made. Betty is on the drawing pad and the illustrator (supposedly Max Fleischer himself) is leaving for the day. Once gone, the ink well bounces about and Koko the Clown comes bounding out of it. Unfortunately, though, he has a bad toothache and so it's up to "Betty the Pusher" to solve the problem! In a very weird and very inappropriate scene, Betty plays dentist and gives Koko laughing gas. Not only that, but the gas ends up going everywhere and getting all the neighbors stoned as well. And, since everyone is having a wonderful time and the gas is so much fun, you assume the cartoon encouraged the audience members to give it a try themselves! Fortunately, this seeming endorsement of becoming a stoner was pulled from the market as it really shows no down side for drug use!! It's all pretty creepy, but the cartoon is also better than usual for a Betty Boop cartoon due to its clever introduction.
Great fantasy short of the kind no longer made...
wizodd-920-2814068 March 2014
...but I keep hearing it was 'banned for drug use' but can find no evidence of such ban.
In any case, people have used laughing gas recreationally since its discovery over 200 years ago. It's rapid effects and rapid dissipation along with relatively low toxicity keep it popular.
The use of rotoscoping, a technique for 'tracing' live action, pen & ink ad the admixture of photographic and animation mixed in the beginning and end of the film is unusual.
Max and Tex Avery were both noted for their utter disregard for 'reality' realizing and frequently stating that you 'can do anything in a cartoon.'
Animated animals, plants and objects permit a cartoonist to say things about society which might otherwise go unheard due to immediate recognition and reaction by prejudice.
In any case, people have used laughing gas recreationally since its discovery over 200 years ago. It's rapid effects and rapid dissipation along with relatively low toxicity keep it popular.
The use of rotoscoping, a technique for 'tracing' live action, pen & ink ad the admixture of photographic and animation mixed in the beginning and end of the film is unusual.
Max and Tex Avery were both noted for their utter disregard for 'reality' realizing and frequently stating that you 'can do anything in a cartoon.'
Animated animals, plants and objects permit a cartoonist to say things about society which might otherwise go unheard due to immediate recognition and reaction by prejudice.
Anything can happen in a cartoon!
llltdesq12 July 2002
This is a marvelous cartoon blending some live action footage with animation with incredible results. These days, animation is all too often no more than an excuse for marketing tie-ins or is one long commercial altogether. With some exceptions (Animaniacs is one of the good ones), the truly off-the-wall zaniness has vanished from most cartoons these days. Back in the 1930s, when even Disney would do some truly bizarre things, the Fleischers did marvelous shorts such as this one! Here, Betty and Koko do splendid and surreal things with ink and a bit of laughing gas to make seven minutes quite memorable and enjoyable. I always liked Koko anyway, but here he's especially delightful! In print and available. Well worth watching. Most highly recommended.
Seriously whacked!
Kieran_Kenney8 November 2003
Warning: Spoilers
contains possible spoilers - enter at your own risk
This might be the strangest Betty Boop movie I've seen yet. Four
years before the live-action marijuana movie Reefer Madness,
where teenagers toke up on weed and abandon all sense and
false modesty, Ha! Ha! Ha! shows us Betty and Koko getting hi on
laughing gas. Then they get the whole of New York City, some in
life action, hi as well. Cars, bridges, mail boxes, typewriters and
even headstones come to life, sometimes seeming vaguely
menacing (personally, I can't trust a laughing inkwell, another
character brought to life in the film). What's the set-up? Koko has
a toothache and Betty tries to help him out by taking the role of
dentist (after quickly drawing a detailed background setting of a
dentist office on a handy sheet of paper). The odd thing how, every
time Koko screams in pain, she giggles. And when he's sitting in
the chair, she lets him suffer for a few while powdering her nose
and puts on lipstick. But, not too worry. If she didn't do that, we
wouldn't have time to see a duel between a pair of dentures and a
pair of pliers. It's all massively weird, as somebody else noted.
This has to be one of my favorite Betty Boop shorts ever. I love it. I
show it at almost every party I give, and it always gets plenty of
laughs.
This might be the strangest Betty Boop movie I've seen yet. Four
years before the live-action marijuana movie Reefer Madness,
where teenagers toke up on weed and abandon all sense and
false modesty, Ha! Ha! Ha! shows us Betty and Koko getting hi on
laughing gas. Then they get the whole of New York City, some in
life action, hi as well. Cars, bridges, mail boxes, typewriters and
even headstones come to life, sometimes seeming vaguely
menacing (personally, I can't trust a laughing inkwell, another
character brought to life in the film). What's the set-up? Koko has
a toothache and Betty tries to help him out by taking the role of
dentist (after quickly drawing a detailed background setting of a
dentist office on a handy sheet of paper). The odd thing how, every
time Koko screams in pain, she giggles. And when he's sitting in
the chair, she lets him suffer for a few while powdering her nose
and puts on lipstick. But, not too worry. If she didn't do that, we
wouldn't have time to see a duel between a pair of dentures and a
pair of pliers. It's all massively weird, as somebody else noted.
This has to be one of my favorite Betty Boop shorts ever. I love it. I
show it at almost every party I give, and it always gets plenty of
laughs.
Perhaps Betty Boop at her most bizarre, but still delicious fun
TheLittleSongbird12 January 2017
Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style was often stunning and some of the most imaginative and ahead of its time in animation.
The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. That charm, sensuality and adorable factor is not lost anywhere here, and she is very well supported by the ever fun Koko.
'Ha Ha Ha' is perhaps, as said in the summary, Betty Boop at her most bizarre, so much so that one is amazed at much the cartoon gets away with, but it is so deliciously entertaining that it is a case of bizarre not actually being a bad thing. As much as it doesn't matter so much that the story is thin and doesn't make much sense, nor did it need to as it's not that kind of cartoon.
As ever, the animation is still incredibly good, the detail is immaculate, there are the typical imaginative moments like with the laughing tombstones for instance (both hilarious and creepy) and everything is beautifully drawn. Every bit as good is the music, which is full of zippy energy and lyrical elegance.
Content-wise, much has been said about the strangeness, but 'Ha Ha Ha' is also an extremely clever and funny cartoon and up there with the most risqué (very ahead of the time for back then and even now it would be one of a kind) and surreal. The voice acting from Mae Questel is fine.
In conclusion, delicious fun and an example of bizarre not being a bad thing. 10/10 Bethany Cox
The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. That charm, sensuality and adorable factor is not lost anywhere here, and she is very well supported by the ever fun Koko.
'Ha Ha Ha' is perhaps, as said in the summary, Betty Boop at her most bizarre, so much so that one is amazed at much the cartoon gets away with, but it is so deliciously entertaining that it is a case of bizarre not actually being a bad thing. As much as it doesn't matter so much that the story is thin and doesn't make much sense, nor did it need to as it's not that kind of cartoon.
As ever, the animation is still incredibly good, the detail is immaculate, there are the typical imaginative moments like with the laughing tombstones for instance (both hilarious and creepy) and everything is beautifully drawn. Every bit as good is the music, which is full of zippy energy and lyrical elegance.
Content-wise, much has been said about the strangeness, but 'Ha Ha Ha' is also an extremely clever and funny cartoon and up there with the most risqué (very ahead of the time for back then and even now it would be one of a kind) and surreal. The voice acting from Mae Questel is fine.
In conclusion, delicious fun and an example of bizarre not being a bad thing. 10/10 Bethany Cox
The cartoon's title just says it all, trust me! Alternate title: Going Dental
Foreverisacastironmess1235 December 2012
Warning: Spoilers
When I first viewed this brilliant Betty Boop cartoon short knowing that it had in fact at one time been banned for "portraying drug abuse" I was expecting to see a bong pop up in it or something, but mere gas, are you kidding me? What did they think that all the impressionable little brats of the time were all gonna head on down to their local dentist to score some laughing gas? Fuff, ridiculous! Oh my, how I just luurved this one. A lot of the shorts are really weak and mediocre later on, but the sheer jolly wanton madness of the early Betty Boops really speak to my current sensibilities. It does start out a tad slow, but very rapidly becomes something bizarrely amazing. The first thing I liked was the creepy interior view of Koko's mouth with the realistic-looking throbbing tooth. That looked like the type of image you'd get in the Ren and Stimpy show, so very many years down the line. The second thing I liked was the fight between the dental instruments! Very nice bit of random insanity there, and the thing that made me really love this and consider it to be something great was when the laughing gas infects Betty and Koko...and oh yes, the whole freaking world!!! I love the weird effect of the animation mixed in with real things. It's crude, and no Roger Rabbit effect but it still looks amazing to me even today. My favourite sight gag was the laughing tombstones! I never thought I'd see the day... Seriously, I didn't see it coming! The delightfully mad laughter is so utterly infectious that I couldn't help laughing a little too! Just a little. A cartoon with the rare and strange ability to evoke such a reaction from the viewer is nothing short of remarkable in my book. One of 'Ms Boop's very finest, thank you very much.
At least these two had a good laugh
Horst_In_Translation27 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
And also everybody else in this 6-minute short film. It is in black-and-white, which was not a given anymore in the 1930s, but as far as I know Betty Boop always stayed black-and-white. This was made in the middle of Betty's career pretty much. The only thing I found interesting was the connection between live action and animation in here with the laughing gas at the end and the animated objects in the real world. Apart from that, there is another interesting connection, namely we see early on that Betty and Koko are merely animated figures as we get to witness their maker during work. Other than that, it's the usual. The director is super-prolific Dave Fleischer and Betty is voice by the equally prolific voice acting legend Mae Questel. All in all, still not a memorable film. Not recommended.
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