on the road again...

June 11, 2010 7:56 AM

warner bros. cartoon with a guy stuck in a spaghetti-junction interchange - can anyone identify it?

there was a looney tunes cartoon with a guy stuck on a spaghetti-style cloverleaf interchange, trying to get home, and unable to find his way out... he asks a (hotdog?) vendor by the side of the road how to get out, and the vendor tells him that he himself got stuck in the interchange years ago and never escaped, so he set up a stand to make a living, and it ends with our protagonist doing the same...

does anyone know the name of the episode, or any other identifying info for it?

posted by russm to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Reference to the gag in this comment. And hereis a list of WP cartoons. The car related one that stands out is There Auto Be A Law, though I can't find a copy online. It's also noted here, and on IMDB.
posted by artlung at 8:34 AM on June 11, 2010

I know which one you are talking about. I think it was one of the ones where they are "promoting" modern technology, but couldn't say for sure.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 8:35 AM on June 11, 2010

Response by poster: artlung - yeah, I found that reference at cartoonbrew, but no episode title unfortunately... :(

I think I've seen There Auto Be A Law, and I don't think it's the one I'm looking for...
posted by russm at 9:13 AM on June 11, 2010

I vaguely recall this as an MGM/Tex Avery cartoon, not WB. You should e-mail Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew and ask him, he's the expert.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 9:17 AM on June 11, 2010

Best answer: I found a copy of "There Auto Be a Law" and it has the gag in it. There is an early "Car of Tomorrow" cartoon by Tex Avery, but it doesn't have the gag.
posted by derforsher at 5:32 PM on June 11, 2010

The CB comment seems to indicate it was a recurring gag (across Looney Tunes? or across all car-cartoons?), but I saw no others in my searching. derforsher, what compilation was it on? I don't own any WB animation, but Netflix has a few on demand, though I can't tell what individual cartoons the DVD and on-demand stuff contain.
posted by artlung at 5:59 PM on June 11, 2010

I remember this. I'm pretty sure it was WB, as in Australia in the late '80s it was played along with all the other WB cartoons. It started off with a summary of the history of the "automobile" before it got to the giant interchange. I'll see if I can find out anything else about it.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:05 PM on June 11, 2010

Best answer: Hm, there seem to be two things called There Auto Be a Law. One is something involving the Three Stooges, and the other is the Looney Tunes cartoon I remember seeing. Maybe you saw the Three Stooges one? The Looney Tunes version is apparently available on a dodgy-looking Russian(?) video site called vbox7 here, although I couldn't get it to load (possibly because I wasn't willing to set noscript to "let this site do anything it wants to my computer").
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:33 PM on June 11, 2010

Response by poster: A Thousand Baited Hooks - yeah, that's why I was thinking WB... though I reckon they just played whatever was in the big tub of tapes and called it The Bugs Bunny Show regardless of the studio who actually made each short... yay Australian TV...

this synopsis of There Auto Be A Law sounds like it, so now I guess I'm off to find a source to confirm...
posted by russm at 7:05 PM on June 11, 2010

Response by poster: There Auto Be A Law is it - thanks all.
posted by russm at 8:35 PM on June 11, 2010