Part Time Pal is a 1947 Tom and Jerry cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Plot[]
Tom is being scolded by Mammy Two Shoes in the kitchen at the beginning of the cartoon: "And this, Mister Thomas, is your last and final chance! Either you keep that mouse out of this icebox, or you goes out! Understand?!" She hands him her broom. "Remember: you is on guard!"
As she leaves, Tom salutes and marches around the kitchen with determination and alert for Jerry. However, Jerry opens up a grille on the floor, exposing a hole, and directs Tom into it. Jerry immediately heads for the fridge, and is about to eat some corn when Tom swipes it off him, starting a chase. Jerry rapidly knocks every empty glass milk bottle to the ground rolling into Tom's path leading him to trip over the collection of empty milk bottles. Speeding out of control, Tom ends up being sent to the basement, falling into a barrel of cider marked "X X X", and drinking it.
Jerry hears Tom gargling thinking he's drowning in the cider. Tom emerges from the cider barrel, completely drunk, and befriends Jerry. Taking him by the arm, he makes his way back to the kitchen, drunkenly sharing the food with his new "friend". Tom offers him some jelly but Jerry declines the offer so it gets tossed away. Next, Tom grabs two beer bottles and shakes them, leading the corks and beer to fire in his face, with the outcome of him looking like Santa Claus. Tom sees a bottle of cream and grabs it from the fridge only to find that a roast chicken is stuck to his arm. Refusing to let go of the cream, Tom pulls it to his feet. He gives Jerry the bottle of cream and tells him "I'll be right back.", He immediately heads for the top shelf and eats some cherries from a bowl. However, when bending over he accidentally pulls out a tray of food from the refrigerator and he and it fall with an almighty crash. This wakes up Mammy, who comes downstairs to investigate what is going on.
Jerry dives into a pie with Tom being next to jump, as Jerry licks the leftovers on his face, Tom prepares to dive, he hits to the ground with the entire pie all over in his face. Jerry hears Mammy coming, firmly believes that Mammy will absolutely skin Tom alive if he's messed about in the fridge and hides the drunken Tom, covering his mouth so that his hiccups are not heard. Mammy enters to discover the kitchen in a shambles— "Well, slap my face if this ain't a mess!" —and badmouths the cat who she believes has gone AWOL. Tom drunkenly attempts to boot her in the posterior and give her a hotfoot, but Jerry thwarts each attempt before he can harm her. As Mammy leaves the room, remarking "In the morning, I'll mop dis floor with his ornery hide!", Tom emerges from his hiding place, but he trips up over some of the spilled food and crashes into the refrigerator where he is squirted with some water, sobering him up again.
Jerry, wielding a breast of chicken, approaches Tom, unaware that he is now sober, and very angry. Tom chases after Jerry towards the bathroom, but slips on a bath mat and crashes into a wall. A bottle of bay rum (a kind of lotion, not for drinking) falls from the bathroom shelf and into Tom's mouth, causing our feline to become blitzed again.
Tom takes Jerry into the dining room for dinner and rings the bell, expecting service for them both. But Mammy is upstairs, fast asleep, and doesn't hear. The drunken cat grows impatient and, despite Jerry's objections, goes upstairs to get her. He takes a jug of water and, after reciting, "1 for the money (hic), 2 for the show (hic), 3 to make ready (hic), and 4 to go!", with Jerry eavesdropping on him, douses Mammy with it.
Mammy gets furious when she gets doused, hurls some furniture off-screen at the cat and then chases after Tom downstairs with a broom, wrecking the house in the process and jumping down the stairs. Jerry watches the fiasco as Mammy proceeds to chase Tom out into the night, swiping the broom at him, only to miss due to every one of his drunken hiccups lifting him up.
Availability[]
Notes[]
- This is the 28th released Tom and Jerry cartoon.
- Pete Burness, from the animation team for this short, animated around 50% of the cartoon, but received no credit due to the fact that he left the studio shortly after it was made.
- An excerpt from this cartoon was used in 1967's Shutter Bugged Cat.
Censorship[]
- On the rare times this cartoon has aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, it is always an edited version where Mammy Two Shoes' voice is redubbed to sound less stereotypically black (with Thea Vidale as the new voice of Mammy Two Shoes), Mammy's line when she finds the kitchen a mess has been changed from "Well, slap my face, if this ain't a mess!" to "Well, I'll be darned, if this isn't a mess!", and Tom's drunken "One for the money..." line as he is getting ready to splash water on Mammy Two Shoes as she is sleeping is muted.