The "ambulance gag"

[frizfrelengfan]

I've seen this gag, or a variation of it, many times. There's a car accident. The injured driver is lying on the road, next to his wrecked car. An ambulance soon pulls up. The EMTs come out of the back of the ambulance with a stretcher. They put the car on the stretcher and into the ambulance, and drive away, leaving the driver on the road.

Anyone have a list of cartoons with this gag?

[cbrubaker]

This is not a classic cartoon, but "Rocko's Modern Life" used this gag in one episode. Rocko collapses from the pain in his appendix, an ambulance arrives, puts the JACK HAMMER in the stretcher and drives off, leading Heffer to say "I hate it when that happens"

[Brandon Panther]

I think Tex Avery's "Car of Tomorrow" uses this gag.

[Bobby Bickert]

"Hospitaliky" :sailor: (though it's a motorcycle instead of a car)

"Seein' Red White n Blue" :sailor: (only the tires)

"For Better or Nurse" :sailor: (plane instead of car)

"Crazy Town" (again a motorcycle instead of a car)

[Keith Paynter]

"The Weakly Reporter" (tires taken away from auto accident by ambulance)

The gag is a wartime reference - rubber was heavily rationed, since the primary source of natural latex rubber was cut off to allied forces thanks to the Japanese seizing plantations in the Dutch East Indies, the source of 90% of America's rubber, and synthetic rubber had not yet come into large supply. Gasoline rationing was meant to preserve tires, not gas.

Rubber was also used to manufacture nylons.

[Glowworm]

Porky's Road Race-The Frankenstein-like villain crashes-yet the car is taken-not him.

Of the I Sting-similar gag with a fallen mosquito.

[Matt the Y]

This is not a classic cartoon, but "Rocko's Modern Life" used this gag in one episode. Rocko collapses from the pain in his appendix, an ambulance arrives, puts the JACK HAMMER in the stretcher and drives off, leading Heffer to say "I hate it when that happens"

Yeah, that was in "Tickled Pinky". ;) :D

Actually, that was kind of a running gag on ROCKO with those paramedic beavers. They also appeared in "Carnival Knowledge" (A 1st season Rocko episode) in which Rocko had an "accident" with his bumper car at the carnival; they arrive on the scene and load the damaged bumper car into their ambulance but not the injured Rocko!

[cbrubaker]

One of the Snafu shorts, "Operation Snafu", had this gag. A mosquito makes a crash landing along with a camera he was carrying, and they put the camera in the stretcher instead of the fallen bug!

[Mr. Semaj]

I think Ren & Stimpy had a similar gag where this time, Stimpy stopped it dead in its tracks.

From what I recall, it was in "Ren Needs Help", where Ren went nuts and threw himself down a garbage disposal. When the ambulence came to pick him up, they were about to instead take the moose chair that Stimpy had damaged, which led to Ren losing it, before Stimpy directed them to the badly deranged and contorted chiuahua.

[nickramer]

There's a Bob Kurts animated segment from Sesame Street, where a man infront of a photographic background gives a lecture on more and less by pumping a balloon. However he pumps so much air in the balloon, it explodes. Two guys with a stretcher come out and pick up the tire pump instead.

This segment is on the street's official site, by the way.

[J Lee]

"You've Got to Be A Football Hero" has one of the earliest examples, when Popeye is flattened by a dogpile from Bluto and the rest of his team and the medical crew comes out and takes the football to the sidelines on a stretcher (they also used a variation on that gag with Wimpy running onto the field as the water boy, only to give himself a drink of water. That one must have made it into Warners cartoons after that at least half a dozen times).

[Cartman]

Porky's Road Race-The Frankenstein-like villain crashes-yet the car is taken-not him.

Of the I Sting-similar gag with a fallen mosquito.
PORKY'S ROAD RACE was actually made BEFORE WW2, so I am thinking it might have also been a Depression gag since most people did not have money to spare and would have had to reuse what they had.

[Fibber Fox]

PORKY'S ROAD RACE was actually made BEFORE WW2, so I am thinking it might have also been a Depression gag since most people did not have money to spare and would have had to reuse what they had.

I thought it was borrowed from silent comedies, to be honest, but I that's just a bit of musing on my part.

F. Fox.

[J. B. Warner]

Yeah, that was in "Tickled Pinky". ;) :D

Actually, that was kind of a running gag on ROCKO with those paramedic beavers. They also appeared in "Carnival Knowledge" (A 1st season Rocko episode) in which Rocko had an "accident" with his bumper car at the carnival; they arrive on the scene and load the damaged bumper car into their ambulance but not the injured Rocko!

"Huphuphuphuphuphuphuphuphuphuphuphup..."

Sorry, had to throw that in there. ("Rocko" is still my favorite Nicktoon ever.)

[frizfrelengfan]

I think Tex Avery's "Car of Tomorrow" uses this gag.I watched it yesterday. The gag is not in that cartoon (unless I watched an edited version).

[frizfrelengfan]

"Crazy Town" (again a motorcycle instead of a car)I'm sure you mean "Crazytown" from Famous Studios, which has the gag. I searched for "Crazy Town" on YouTube and found a Fleischer Talkartoon with Betty Boop and Bimbo, which does not have the gag. I had never seen the earlier cartoon before, and it is quite enjoyable despite being badly colorized. It features the same song that's in "Dizzy Dishes."

"Crazytown" even had some of the gags from "Crazy Town" (such as a train station where the towns move and the trains stand still). Since Famous Studios was the successor to the Fleischer studio, I'm sure that some of the writers and/or animators that worked on the later cartoon were familiar with the earlier one and were inspired by it.

[Matt the Y]

I'm sure you mean "Crazytown" from Famous Studios, which has the gag. I searched for "Crazy Town" on YouTube and found a Fleischer Talkartoon with Betty Boop and Bimbo, which does not have the gag.

Yes, he is referring to the 1954 Famous Noveltoon cartoon, "Crazytown", not the original Fleischer Betty Boop cartoon with the same name.

[frizfrelengfan]

Al Eugster worked on both cartoons.