Katnip Kollege (cartoon)

Katnip Kollege is a 1938 Merrie Melodies animated cartoon short produced by Leon Schlesinger Studios for Warner Brothers. It features the characters of Johnny Cat and Kitty Bright playing college students, and it always features the first appearance of the "fat" Elmer Fudd.

Plot synopsis
In the "Swingology" classroom at Katnip Kollege, Elmer Fudd requires each student to sing his lessons to a jazz rhythm. Johnny just doesn't have it, and is sentenced to a lengthy stay in detention. Kitty returns his fraternity ring as she leaves the room, telling him to call her when he learns how to swing and pay attention

Later that night, as all the other cats jam at an outdoor caterwaul, Johnny is suddenly inspired by the rhythm of a cuckoo clock. He runs to join the group and shocks everyone with a flawlessly jazzy rendition of "Easy as Rollin' Off a Log" sung (and trumpeted) to Kitty. At the end of the song they fall into each others arms, "rolling" off the log they were using as their stage. Kitty covers his face in kisses as the action ends. (This cartoon has 1944 blue rings/red background, complete with 1944 Blue Ribbon reissue.)

Music
The music in the short is pieced together from a number of contemporary Warner Brothers features. The featured song, "Easy as Rollin' Off a Log" by M. K. Jerome and Jack Scholl, is sung by Johnnie "Scat" Davis and Mabel Todd in the film Over the Goal. Other songs used include "You're an Education" by Al Dubin and Harry Warren which was written for, but never used in Warner Brothers' 1938 feature film Gold Diggers in Paris and the Richard A. Whiting/Johnny Mercer song "We're Working our Way through College" from Warner Brothers' 1937 feature Varsity Show. Carl Stalling supervised the music soundtrack.

Availability
"Katnip Kollege" can be found in Volume One of The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc box set (1991).