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“Screwball Squirrel’s” Short, Memorable Run…

Tex Avery was an animation genius who rebelled against many traditions, creating in Screwball Squirrel a deliberately unlovable character who was intended to be a satire of cute, sentimental cartoon characters such as were often seen in Disney productions. Also known as Screwy Squirrel, this rodent was aggressively chaotic and obnoxious, and appeared only in five theatrical shorts between 1944 and 1946 before being discontinued as Avery himself grew to find the character annoying, and disliked him! This was not an affable, cutesy, or nice squirrel…

Screwy was really manic and wild, and so you might say that there were elements of Daffy Duck and the much later Roger Rabbit in him, but without any redemptive or likeable features. Screwy would actively torment a dim-witted dog called Meathead, and bring about the unseen but clearly implied destruction of other characters that he found offensive…

(“Disney-esque” squirrel versus “Screwy…”)

Screwball Squirrel meets his apparent death in a 1946 cartoon when he is crushed to death by a hug from a spoiled, dim, and emotionally-needy dog called Lenny. Since death is seldom permanent in cartoon characters, however, Screwy who “don’t move no more” appears at the end of the feature holding up a sign reading, “Sad ending, isn’t it?” The aggressively chaotic character would much later be seen in the 1990’s TV series “Droopy, Master Detective” and “Tom and Jerry...”

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This entry was posted on September 17, 2025 at 4:09 pm and is filed under cartoons, furry, furry art, furry satire, humor, twisted reality, Vintage. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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6 Comments on ““Screwball Squirrel’s” Short, Memorable Run…”

  1. carycomic's avatar carycomic Says:

    September 18, 2025 at 2:15 pm

    The first time I ever heard of Screwy Squirrel was in the Spielberg/Disney co-production WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988). I believe it was one of Eddie Valiant’s fellow barflies mistakenly making fun of him. Then, came the launching of Turner Network Television! The initial daily programming of which included vintage theatrical cartoons for the after-work enjoyment of the Baby Boomer crowd. Screwy Squirrel’s among them.

    They were refreshingly different for some of MGM’s non-Tom & Jerry stuff.

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  2. carycomic's avatar carycomic Says:

    September 19, 2025 at 12:06 pm

    A sign that all this talk of Screwy Squirrel may have gotten into my dreams. Last night, I had a dream that Darth Vader (from Star Wars “Ep. 10”) and Mel Brooks (from Spaceballs “Ch.2”) were chasing some weird anti-hero (either Stephen Frost from the original Whose Line Is It, Anyway…or Michael Palin from A Fish Called Wanda). And he inadvertently led them to a long-lost, all-powerful “hypercruiser.” Numbered NCC-1701!

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