Tokio Jokio

WARNING! This article contains content that may not be seen as age appropriate or upsetting for some readers. It may contain racist depictions of Japanese people and other World War II-related stereotypes. Reader discretion is advised.

Tokio Jokio
Production company	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	May 15, 1943
Run time	7:08
Starring	Mel Blanc
Producer(s)	Leon Schlesinger
Music composed by	Carl W. Stalling
Story by	Don Christensen
Animation	I. Ellis
Director(s)	Cpl. Norman McCabe
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Title card
File:Tokio Jokio title card.png

Tokio Jokio is the one hundred and eighty-first Looney Tunes theatrical short. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on May 15, 1943. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by Norman McCabe.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Hideki Tojo	Mel Blanc
Isoruku Yamamoto	N/A
Masaharu Homma	Mel Blanc
Lord Hee-Haw	Mel Blanc
Rudolf Hess	N/A
Adolf Hitler	N/A
Benito Mussolini	N/A

Locations

• Earth
  • Japan
    • Tokyo

Production

Development

The short is notable in that it was the final Warner Bros. cartoon to be directed by Norman McCabe, as he was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned to the Army Air Corps Training Unit; Franklin Tashlin took over his animation unit following his departure. He was billed as Cpl. Norman McCabe in this short.

Music

The music was composed by Carl W. Stalling.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: May 15, 1943 in theatres

Behind the scenes

• The cartoon is infamous for its racist depictions of Japanese people during World War II.
• The title is a pun on "Tokyo", with "Tokio" being an old English romanization of its name, and "joke".
  • It is also possibly a pun on Hideki Tojo's name, with the first two syllables of each word spelling his name (Tokio Jokio).
• Lord Hee-Haw is a play on "Lord Haw-Haw," a nickname given to American fascist/Nazi propaganda broadcaster William Joyce.
• It fell into the public domain in 1971, due to Warner Bros. failing to renew the copyright at the time.

Legacy

• Despite its offensive ethnic stereotypes, a portion of this short was used for the Toonheads episode "The Wartime Cartoons" in 2001, to demonstrate how cartoons at the time were used to portray its subjects in an unfair matter.

Home availability

• Not available due to the aforementioned stereotypes.