Forward: Walt Disney is currently recalling all Clock Cleaners shorts
with this F-U segment. It is becoming extremely difficult to find a
full version on the internet, as Disney is re-releasing a fixed
version with a completely new segment to replace Donald's curse.
However DIsada Productions still has a full version in our collection,
feel free to contact us to see the full original "Clock Cleaners". Everybody has heard of the hidden sexual jokes that have sneaked
through onto the screen in various Disney animated features. I refer
to the word “SEX” that graces the sky in THE LION KING and an erection
as a column of the palace on the original LITTLE MERMAID VHS case and
so on. I however can top all of these! In 1937 Donald Duck Actually
says “F--- you!” in a Disney cartoon short! The year was 1937 and it occurred in one of the all-time great
Mickey-Goofy-Donald
cartoon shorts, CLOCK CLEANERS. In this short, the three characters
are cleaning up
the inner workings of a huge clock atop a tower. Donald Duck’s job is
to clean the
coiled-up mainspring, which he begins to do with a wet mop. When his mop gets
caught between the coils, he (naturally) becomes angry and pulls on the mop
violently and soon the whole mainspring comes undone, with all its
springs sprung! We cut away to see Mickey doing a bit of business and when we cut back to Donald
he is hammering the last bit of coil still sticking out. This results
in a long, loose
thin metal coil remaining, much to Donald’s chagrin. The long coil
bumps Donald’s
behind as he hammers, boing boing boing and we hear the thin metallic sound the
coil makes. Donald says “What’s the big idea?” to the spring coil, which in its
thin metallic voice
mimics him, repeating “What’s the big idea?” Donald replies angrily
“Oh shut up!”
The spring coil answers “YOU shut up!”, quivering as it “speaks.” Donald, even
more riled, says to it “Oh yeah?” and the spring coil is up to the
challenge, saying
back “Oh yeah!” At this point Donald clearly says “Fuck you!” to which
the spring
coil answers “Says I!” Donald’s line was probably supposed to have been “Says You!” to elicit
the response
“Says I!” but it is clearly the F-word on the soundtrack. It was
probably recorded as
a joke, and kept in by the sound editor, knowingly or not. Every
Disney old-timer I’ve
ever spoken with indicated that Clarence “Ducky” Nash, Donald’s voice
for 50 years
was not the kind of person to have done this thinking or hoping it
would have been
used. In fact one man told me he thought Clarence Nash was always
afraid of not being
kept on at the studio, afraid that someone else would be hired to do the job. The story doesn’t end there. In 1986 Disney released the animated
feature THE GREAT
MOUSE DETECTIVE and put CLOCK CLEANERS in front of the feature in the prints.
Sitting in the theatre, I wondered if they were aware of this at
Disney. Apparently they
were very aware of it because when the moment arrived, the soundtrack
suddenly got
300% louder as an enormous “SAYS YOU!” just BOOMED through the theatre making
everyone jump. They had rerecorded it all right, and laid it in on a
second track. This was
probably the only thing on that track and the level had not been
adjusted for it in the
theatre. In subsequent showings I heard the soundtrack get louder at
that point, if not as
loud as on that first day, AND I could hear the original F-word, very
low, underneath.
So one track had the complete original track and another had the new
“Says You!” on
it.
with this F-U segment. It is becoming extremely difficult to find a
full version on the internet, as Disney is re-releasing a fixed
version with a completely new segment to replace Donald's curse.
However DIsada Productions still has a full version in our collection,
feel free to contact us to see the full original "Clock Cleaners". Everybody has heard of the hidden sexual jokes that have sneaked
through onto the screen in various Disney animated features. I refer
to the word “SEX” that graces the sky in THE LION KING and an erection
as a column of the palace on the original LITTLE MERMAID VHS case and
so on. I however can top all of these! In 1937 Donald Duck Actually
says “F--- you!” in a Disney cartoon short! The year was 1937 and it occurred in one of the all-time great
Mickey-Goofy-Donald
cartoon shorts, CLOCK CLEANERS. In this short, the three characters
are cleaning up
the inner workings of a huge clock atop a tower. Donald Duck’s job is
to clean the
coiled-up mainspring, which he begins to do with a wet mop. When his mop gets
caught between the coils, he (naturally) becomes angry and pulls on the mop
violently and soon the whole mainspring comes undone, with all its
springs sprung! We cut away to see Mickey doing a bit of business and when we cut back to Donald
he is hammering the last bit of coil still sticking out. This results
in a long, loose
thin metal coil remaining, much to Donald’s chagrin. The long coil
bumps Donald’s
behind as he hammers, boing boing boing and we hear the thin metallic sound the
coil makes. Donald says “What’s the big idea?” to the spring coil, which in its
thin metallic voice
mimics him, repeating “What’s the big idea?” Donald replies angrily
“Oh shut up!”
The spring coil answers “YOU shut up!”, quivering as it “speaks.” Donald, even
more riled, says to it “Oh yeah?” and the spring coil is up to the
challenge, saying
back “Oh yeah!” At this point Donald clearly says “Fuck you!” to which
the spring
coil answers “Says I!” Donald’s line was probably supposed to have been “Says You!” to elicit
the response
“Says I!” but it is clearly the F-word on the soundtrack. It was
probably recorded as
a joke, and kept in by the sound editor, knowingly or not. Every
Disney old-timer I’ve
ever spoken with indicated that Clarence “Ducky” Nash, Donald’s voice
for 50 years
was not the kind of person to have done this thinking or hoping it
would have been
used. In fact one man told me he thought Clarence Nash was always
afraid of not being
kept on at the studio, afraid that someone else would be hired to do the job. The story doesn’t end there. In 1986 Disney released the animated
feature THE GREAT
MOUSE DETECTIVE and put CLOCK CLEANERS in front of the feature in the prints.
Sitting in the theatre, I wondered if they were aware of this at
Disney. Apparently they
were very aware of it because when the moment arrived, the soundtrack
suddenly got
300% louder as an enormous “SAYS YOU!” just BOOMED through the theatre making
everyone jump. They had rerecorded it all right, and laid it in on a
second track. This was
probably the only thing on that track and the level had not been
adjusted for it in the
theatre. In subsequent showings I heard the soundtrack get louder at
that point, if not as
loud as on that first day, AND I could hear the original F-word, very
low, underneath.
So one track had the complete original track and another had the new
“Says You!” on
it.
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