Jerky Turkey (1945)
A Pilgrim hunting a Thanksgiving turkey at Plymouth Rock meets his match in a fast-talking bird who impersonates Jimmy Durante, and their chase ends with both of them swallowed whole at a roadside diner.
Jerky Turkey transplants Tex Avery’s rapid-fire gag machine to Plymouth Colony, topped off with a Jimmy Durante impression from radio actor Wally Maher, and stands as one of only a few MGM cartoons the studio let lapse into the public domain.
Background
Jerky Turkey transplants director Tex Avery’s trademark rapid-fire, exaggerated gag style, developed at Warner Bros. before Avery moved to MGM, to a Thanksgiving-themed setting at Plymouth Colony. The plot follows a Pilgrim hunting a turkey who meets his match in a fast-talking bird doing an impression of the popular entertainer Jimmy Durante, voiced here by radio actor Wally Maher, with the chase eventually ending with both hunter and bird swallowed whole at a modern roadside diner.
What to watch for
Watch for how freely the short mixes its colonial-era setting with deliberately anachronistic modern gags, a hallmark of Avery’s style of comedy that delights in breaking its own internal logic for a laugh. It is also notable as one of only a small number of MGM cartoons that the studio allowed to lapse into the public domain, which is part of why it circulates as freely as it does today compared to much of MGM’s otherwise tightly held cartoon library.
