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6.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Laughing Gas remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have exactly six minutes to spare today and want to see some deeply weird 1930s animation, yes, Laughing Gas is absolutely worth a quick look. It is perfect for anyone who loves old-school rubber-hose chaos, but if you cannot stand scratchy optical audio and repetitive gag structures, you will probably want to skip this one. 🦨
Honestly, the whole setup is just wonderfully unhinged. Flip the Frog is apparently a dentist now, which feels like a terrible career choice for a cartoon amphibian.
The waiting room is where the real gold is. There is this huge, incredibly anxious walrus who is listening to the horrific screams coming from the back room.
His eyes do this little jittery shake that made me laugh out loud. It is a tiny detail, but it feels so alive.
Once Flip actually gets the walrus into the chair, the movie just abandons all sense. Flip reaches into his mouth to pull a tooth and somehow pulls out a clothesline with actual laundry on it.
Then a toy car? It makes zero sense, and the movie does not even try to explain it.
I love how cartoons back then just did whatever they wanted. It reminds me a bit of the random energy in other shorts from that year, like Mickey's Champs, where the plot is basically just an excuse for physical nonsense.
The drilling scene is where things get really uncomfortable, in a funny way. The drill bit just snaps off, and Flip's face just goes totally blank for a second.
That blank stare is probably my favorite frame in the whole short. It is just so relatable when a plan goes completely wrong.
And then, the "gas." He literally grabs a live skunk and uses it to knock the walrus out.
It is so stupid, but I couldn't help but chuckle. The logic of 1931 animators were truly something else.
The ending is super abrupt too. Flip tries to blow up the patient with dynamite, but the walrus pulls a fast one and puts it under Flip instead.
Boom. Office gone. Cartoon over.
It is not some masterpiece, but it has this raw, handmade charm that modern stuff just cannot replicate. Definitely check it out if you want a quick blast of vintage weirdness.