Blog 6

In the 1920s Hurd and Barre created an animated show called Soda Jerks. This show featured Mutt and Jeff. Mutt and Jeff were from a comic strip series created by Bud Fisher. The comic was called Mutt & Jeff. In the comics, jokes were usually made with some form of verbal interaction between two character or by a still image of a character getting hurt. However, in Soda Jerks, their gags were mainly created through the animated movements of the characters. Examples of this are when characters would do handstands for joy or some forms of slapstick comedy. The style of the animated show was much different than that of the comic strip. Since the comic strip was not animated, there was no one moving but if they did change poses or were in a different area, it would be in a new frame. However, In the animation, characters were moving freely while on the same frame. Soda Jerks once had an episode where Mutt and Jeff were serving a woman a drink at their soda parlor. Mutt says something to Jeff that angers him so Jeff switches the syrup in a dispenser with tonic. When the woman drinks the tonic she goes berserk and goes into the streets while under the influence of the tonic. This causes a disturbance so more and more people go to see why people are coming out of the soda parlor and acting crazy. So more people become crazy from drinking the tonic. In the show you can see some characters move but, “The parlor and, indeed, many figures throughout the cartoon remain static…”. This is important to show hoe some aspects of animation have no changed from back then till today. Even today there are shows where background characters do not move or even blink, just like this show.