"Baby Bottleneck" is a Looney Tunes animated short released in 1946, directed by Bob Clampett and written by Warren Foster. The cartoon has Daffy Duck and Porky Pig placed in charge of delivering babies when the overworked storks can't keep up with the demands of the baby boom. Things tend to go as they usually do.
"Baby Bottleneck" provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Baby Bottleneck.
- Apple of Discord: The egg.
- Ash Face: The dog after his first rocket explodes on him.
- Bowdlerisation:
- In the original cut of the scene with the baby alligator trying to nurse from a sow, the sow tells the alligator "Ah-ah-ah! Don't touch that dial!", which the censors found too suggestive. However, the edit comes a few frames too late, leaving part of the shot in, to the confusion of the audience. Most TV versions cut it so that way the scene ends with the sow stopping the baby alligator by pinning its tail to cover up the fact that a cut was made.
- Most versions of this cartoon shown on Cartoon Network and Boomerang cut the scene of the Jimmy Durante-esque stork who is literally drunken under the table and ranting about how the fathers get all the credit for delivering babies and the stork gets nothing.
- Bungling Inventor: The dog that tries to pitch his detonating rocket transport to Porky.
- The Cameo: Tweety Bird is seen on the belt.
- Clothing Damage: Porky's clothes get shredded by some large gears on the conveyor belt, leaving him naked for the belt which diapers both him and Daffy.
- Cranial Eruption: When Daffy tries to get out of the conveyor belt, the machine conks his head with hammer resulting to this, and covers it up with a bonnet.
- Delivery Stork: In this case the storks get overworked and can't make any deliveries.
- The dog makes a rocket stork which ends up delivering Daffy and Porky.
- Deranged Animation: The entire short is crazy with its animation, but the conveyor belt sequence especially stands out.
- Desperate Object Catch: The mother gorilla tries to catch Daffy and Porky falling into her crib, the fall so hard that they crash through the crib.
- The Diaper Change: Baby's are rolled on a conveyor belt which puts them in diapers before they get delivered. After a fight over an egg, Daffy and Porky get trapped on the belt which stuffs them into one diaper.
- Disastrous Demonstration: The dog who demonstrates a rocket pack, which merely explodes on him when he activates it.Dog: Welp, back to the drawing board! [leaves]
- Elongating Arm Gag: Porky pulls on Daffy's leg until it stretches out like taffy. Daffy has to pull it back to normal by pulling on a hair on his head.
- Goo Goo Getup: After a scuffle over an egg, Daffy and Porky get trapped in the conveyor belt and stuffed into one diaper, with Daffy as the upper part, and Porky as the legs.
- Misspelling Out Loud: "Sitting on eggs is out! O-W-T, out!"
- Neck Lift: Porky grabs Daffy by the neck to get him to sit on the egg. When the two get trapped on the conveyor belt, Daffy tries to escape but a robot hand grabs him on the neck, and knocks him out with a hammer.
- Newhart Phonecall: Daffy answering calls for deliveries, which includes references to Eddie Cantor (whose shtick was being a father to several girls, but longing for a boy), Bing Crosby (known for his large brood) and the Dionne quintuplets
. ("Mr. Dionne, please!") - No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- The drunken stork is a caricature of Jimmy Durante.
- The dog with the rocket pack imitates Phil Harris and then Rochester from The Jack Benny Program.
- No Ending: The cartoon ends after the mother gorilla discovers Daffy and Porky in place of her baby.
- No OSHA Compliance: The conveyor belt doesn't look really safe for babies, and it will diaper just about anyone in it.
- Packed Hero: Daffy and Porky get stuffed in a single diaper, Daffy being the upper part, and Porky as the lower part.
- Pelican Package Pouch: One of the animals delivering babies is a pelican with its bill stuffed with babies, and he is held up with a balloon on his tail, and a roller skate on his chin.
- Proper Pinky: When the babies (and Daffy and Porky) are having baby powder applied, the hand that flips them over with a spatula has the pinky finger stuck out and not making contact with the spatula's handle.
- Removable Shell: When a baby turtle comes up to the diaper changer on the conveyor belt, it ponders what to do before getting the idea to take the turtle out of his shell, put a diaper on him, then put him back in his shell. Later on, when the turtle comes to the milk feeding device, it ends up filling his shell with milk, forcing the little turtle to bail his shell out while yelling incoherently at the machine.
- Robotic Assembly Lines: Babies are rolled on a conveyor belt with robot hands that prepare them for delivery. Daffy and Porky get caught on it and the robots don't distinguish them from babies, and packs them as one baby.
- Rubber-Hose Limbs: Porky pulls on Daffy's leg until it stretches like taffy, leaving it a limp 10-yard-long appendage. Daffy sets it back to normal by pulling on a hair on top of his head.
- Shout-Out:
- A flock of crows are seen delivering a baby elephant.
- The mother gorilla's line at the end, "Mr. Anthony, I have a problem!", refers to The Good Will Hour, a radio show of the time hosted by John J. Anthony, who specialized in solving marital problems.
- Single-Task Robot: The conveyor belt has several robots the perform a single task when a baby rolls on them. Daffy and Porky get caught in the belt and one persistently puts them in one diaper as it’s what is meant to do.
- Too Many Phones Gag: Daffy is in charge of taking orders for new babies. Eventually, he's overwhelmed and yells "QUIET!" to stop the phones for ringing.
- Written Sound Effect: When the dog's rocket explodes, the word "BOOM!" actually flashes on the screen.
