Western Animation / Quick Draw McGraw

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Yet another Funny Animal omnibus series from Hanna-Barbera, Quick Draw McGraw followed the adventures of the equine sheriff with an exaggerated southern drawl (voiced by Daws Butler), who upheld law and order in The Wild West with the aid of Baba Looey (Butler), a Mexican burro with a Spanish accent, and Snuffles, a biscuit-mooching dog. Whenever Baba Looey questioned his partner's motives, Quick Draw uttered his Catchphrase: "Hold on thar, Baba Looey! I'll do the thin'in' around here, and dooon't you for-git it!" Upon which hilarity ensued.

The cartoon, almost entirely written by former Looney Tunes writer Michael Maltese, spoofed nearly every Western trope known. Sometimes, Quick Draw assumed the heroic identity of the swashbuckling El Kabong, bashing outlaws with his guitar. There were two supporting segments: Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy and Snooper and Blabber.

Compare with Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long Coyote, Hanna-Barbera's other Western Series starring Funny Animals.

Hoooold on, thar! This series provides examples of:

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Quick Draw and Baba Looey both wear neckerchiefs and hats.
• Animated Anthology: The show is one of several Hanna-Barbera Three Shorts collections from the 1950s-60s.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In a comic book story titled "La Dia de Los Kabongs", a villain named Señor Vacaloco robbed a village's banks, poisoned its water and disconnected the residents' cable TV.
• Ash Face: Quick Draw often finds himself on the wrong end of a gunshot or explosion, with his face covered in black ash as a result.
• Bad Guy Bar: "El Kabong Rides Again": The no-good El Moncho Macho is a patron of a bar called "Cantina de Bad Guy".
• Bankruptcy Barrel:
  • "Gun Gone Goons": Slippery Earl Slick swindles four men out of their money by selling them shares in an oil well that's actually dry but which he previously filled with some oil to give the illusion of a worthwhile investment. All four are left with nothing but the barrels they wear. In this state, they go over to Quick Draw's home to ask him to deal with the criminal.
  • "El Kabong": Don Chilada demands outlandish taxes from the people of El Pueblo, leaving some with nothing but the barrels they wear.
• Beatnik: "Shooting Room Only": Sage-Brush Sal, also known as the Kansas Canary, is a Beatnik poet. With a halting rhythm, she performs the poem "The boy stood on the burning deck / His feet were full off blisters / He tore his pants on a rusty nail / And now he wears his sister's". When she leaves to get married, Baba Looey takes over the remainder of her booked shows in Dry Gulch Junction.
• Bragging Theme Tune: The theme song describes Quick Draw as "the highfalutin-est, fastest shootin-est cowboy you ever saw".
• The Butler Did It: "Chopping Spree": Peachy Blossom, owner of the Roaring Splinter lumber camp, asks Quick Draw for help regarding a series of mysterious accidents. Quick Draw rides in convinced he already knows who the saboteur is: Miss Blossom's butler, because "butlers are always guilty." Miss Blossom informs him that she doesn't have a butler, but that she does have a foreman. Quick Draw asserts the foreman is the saboteur then, because "foremen are always guilty." It is indeed the foreman who is behind all the mysterious accidents.
• Catchphrase: Quick Draw has several.
  • "I'll do the thin'in around here, and doooon't you forget it!" Invariably said to Baba Looey when he offers up a suggestion on how to approach a problem. Just as invariably, Quick Draw ignores his sidekick's advice to his detriment.
  • "Hoooold on thar!"
  • "Oooh — that smarts!" He normally says this after suffering Amusing Injuries.
• Chaste Toons: Averted in the Quick Draw McGraw short "El Kabong, Jr.," where the lawman's son is encountered, though Junior was never heard from again after this episode.
• Circling Birdies: "Mine Your Manners": The roof of the mine Jack Pott is digging in collapses on top of him. He is left seeing stars, which turn into dollar signs when he realizes it's gold that came down from the ceiling. They turn back into stars as he remembers that he's injured.
• Company Cross-References: Quick Draw's alter ego alludes to another famous Hanna-Barbera character in the episode "El Kabong Strikes again!"
  Bandit: It's El Kabong!
  El Kabong: You were expecting, maybe, Huckleberry Hound?
• Connect the Deaths: "Ali-Baba Looey": The mysterious Shadow Bandit leaves the law enforcement perplexed and puzzled with his getaways, but Quick Draw figures out what town the criminal will target next. The pins on the map signifying his heists spell out "GIVE" but there's no dot on the "I" so the town that is appropriately situated to make a dot is next.
• Courtroom Episode: The episode "Twin Troubles" revolves around a trial where Baba Looey testifies for the prosecution.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Snagglepuss appears in the episode "The Lyin' Lion," as well as in episodes of the other two show segments, always as an antagonist. He's colored a deep orange.
  • Lugubrious hyena Hardy Har Har appeared in the Snooper and Blabber cartoon "Laughing Guess" before being paired up with Lippy the Lion three years later.
• Entertainingly Wrong: "El Kabong": El Kabong rights many wrongs and as such comes to the aid of a boy who believes that 2+1=4. After making a dramatic entrance, he tells him that the correct answer is 6, then dramatically leaves again.
• Evil Twin: Horse-Face Harry is Quick Draw's evil look-alike, and sometimes impersonates the lawman (both as Quick Draw and El Kabong). Appears in "Double Barrel Double," "Kabong Kabong's Kabong," and "Two Too Much."
• Expy:
  • Quick Draw's alter ego, El Kabong, is inspired by El Zorro. Both are masked and flamboyant swashbuckling lawmen.
  • Quick Draw had another alter ego, The Whip (with Baba Looey as The Whippersnapper), based on either Lash Larue, King of the Bullwhips, or Whip Wilson.
  • Leonardo-TTV (creators of Underdog) made an unsold pilot in 1966 called Gene Hattree, a Quick Draw expy in that it starred a singing lawman bull who wasn't very effective.
  • The conceited Idiot Hero and his loyal but more competent sidekick are reminiscent of Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in Drip-Along Daffy. Michael Maltese wrote both.
  • "The Lamb Chopped": A male mountain goat with a heavy faux French accent becomes handsy with Quick Draw when he dresses up and pretends to be a sheep. The mountain goat and his subplot are identical to Pepé Le Pew and his shorts' usual formula.
• Feather Fingers: Hoof variant. Quick Draw and Baba Looey's "hands" look like hooves with a thumb (almost like mittens).
• Funny Animal: Both Quick Draw and Baba Looey qualify. Other than being Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal characters, they behave just like people. They work as lawmen, walk bipedally, and are able to talk to humans. Quick Draw even owns a dog named Snuffles as a pet!
• Furry Confusion:
  • The hero is an anthropomorphic horse. But since the setting is The Wild West, many real horses also appear. Not immediately noticeable because the real horses tend to be more realistically drawn and the hero is roughly human-sized. And, of course, Quick Draw himself is never seen riding a horse!
  • In the opening TV show credits, Quick Draw is seen driving a stagecoach pulled by two horses... which ducks into a tunnel to come out the other end, showing Quick Draw pulling the coach and the horses sitting inside. Now that's taking turns!
• The Gadfly: "Bull-Leave Me": El Screwballito is an Argentine prize bull who loves nothing more than to mock and play others for fools. He is notorious for this, to the point that none of the locals care to try to capture him because he'll painfully outwit them.
• Glad I Thought of It: "Kabong Kabong's Kabong": When El Kabong goes villainous, the local sheriff needs ideas on how to capture the criminal. One of his deputies suggests that El Kabong used to always come to the aid of a damsel in distress, so perhaps they could use a damsel in distress to lure him into a trap. The sheriff deems it a good idea that he's glad he thought of himself.
• Gun Twirling: Quick Draw often spins his guns when attempting his famous quick draw, which inevitably results in him pointing the gun at his face.
• I Don't Pay You to Think: Quick Draw invariably rejects his sidekick's advice, saying "Hoooold on thar, Baba Looey! I'll do all the thin'ing around here, and doooon't you forget it!" in the process. It never turns out well.
• In Case of X, Break Glass: The host segment Snooper and Blabber has the show's cast as volunteer firemen. Blabber is seen destroying windows with an axe. When Snooper asks what he's doing, Blabber replies "It says 'In case of fire, break glass,' Snoop!"
• Instrument of Murder: El Kabong uses his guitar as his weapon of choice — though this being a kid's cartoon, the bad guys are only inflicted with major headaches rather than killed outright.
• Job-Stealing Robot: "Bullet Proof Galoot": Peaceful Gulch prides itself on having no need for a sheriff. This is because they have a bulletproof robot sheriff named Clarence who deals with any and all troublemakers. Quick Draw wants the job, so he tries to beat Clarence but quickly enough realizes he's outmatched. As luck has it, the wanted crook Fast-Gun Finnegan seeks to rob Peaceful Gulch and Quick Draw arranges it so that Clarence does the work and he can claim the reward money. This would have been the end of it if Quick Draw wouldn't have admitted wanting to use the bounty to buy Clarence and take him apart so that he himself can become sheriff after all. Clarence overhears and fires multiple cannon balls at the ungrateful lout.
• Just Like Robin Hood: "Treasure of El Kabong": After some setbacks, El Kabong declares that he won't give up by means of the words "El Kabong never quits. He rights wrongs. Punishes oppressors. Gives to the poor. Robs from the rich. Borrows from the middle class." Baba Looey says that's Robin Hood's deal and Quick Draw tells him to shut up.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: El Kabong is much more effective at dispatching criminals than Quick Draw... usually. Thankfully, like Quick Draw, Kabong has a sidekick to back him up if the going gets too tough.
• Malaproper: The intrepid lawman often fractures the English language when he talks.
  • In "Bull Leave Me," Quick Draw is in Argentina helping an estate owner rid his land of a smart-aleck bull. The owner tests Quick Draw on his credibility as a gaucho:
    Owner: What is a gaucho?
    Quick Draw: A gaucho is one of the Marx Brothers!
  • In "Twin Troubles" (part of which takes place in a courtroom), an attorney objects to testimony that is "irrelevant, immaterial, and calls for a conclusion on the part of the witness." Later in the cartoon, Quick Draw objects that the testimony is "an elephant, a cereal, and calls for a concussion on the part of the witness."
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: "The Lyin' Lion": Snagglepuss steals one of Quick-Draw's biggest, fattest sheep, then shears it down to prepare it for dinner. It is then that he discovers that the sheep is rail-thin underneath its wool.
  Snagglepuss: They don't call him "Wooly Boy" for nothin'!
• Obligatory Joke: The episode "Twin Troubles" takes place in a courtroom, and Quick Draw cracks one of the oldest jokes in the book while there.
  Judge: Order in the court!
  Quick Draw: I'll order a large sasparilly! [The Judge whacks Quick Draw's hoof with his gavel in response.] Oooh, that smarts!
• Public Domain Soundtrack:
  • "El Kabong" and "El Kabong Strikes Again" open to the tune of "Oh! Susanna".
  • "El Kabong": As soon as El Kabong makes his entrance, "La Cucaracha" starts playing.
  • "Kabong Kabong's Kabong": "La Cucaracha" starts playing once the line of El Kabong imposters comes into view.
• Protagonist Title: The show is named after Quick Draw McGraw.
• Quick Draw: True to his name, the intrepid lawman is extremely fast when unholstering his gun. What happens after, however, is very much not his forte.
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: "El Kabong Meets El Kazing": Quick Draw reads a wanted poster for "Old Snaggle-Puss" aloud and pronounces his enemy's name as "Old SnaggleHyphenPuss".
• Ring Around the Collar: Like most Hanna-Barbera characters from this time, Quick Draw and Baba Looey wear an accessory around their neck (bandanas in this case) to facilitate animation shortcuts.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: As El Kabong, Quick Draw invariably shouts out "KABONG!" just before hitting someone with his guitar.
• Secret Identity: El Kabong is the masked alter ego for Quick Draw. He's a far better crime fighter, too.
• Shout-Out: "Shooting Room Only": Sage-Brush Sal performs a four-lined parody of "Casabianca" that goes "The boy stood on the burning deck / His feet were full off blisters / He tore his pants on a rusty nail / And now he wears his sister's".
• Signature Headgear: Quick Draw wears a cowboy hat, while Baba Looey sports a sombrero.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: In "Dynamite Fright," Quick Draw does this to a stick of dynamite.
  Quick Draw: It looks like dynamite.
  [He takes a sniff.] It smells like dynamite.
  [He takes a bite.] It tastes like dynamite.
  [He hits his hoof with it. KABOOM!]
  And it kabooms like dynamite.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Quick Draw has lots of relatives who resemble him. Just ask One-Eye Sam how confused he was in the comic, "The Fugitive".
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Quick Draw comes to the aid of Peachy Blossom, owner of the Roaring Splinter lumber camp, where a series of mysterious accidents have halted business. He is convinced that the saboteur is Miss Blossom's butler, because "butlers are always guilty." Miss Blossom informs him that she doesn't have a butler, but that she does have a foreman. Quick Draw asserts the foreman is the saboteur then, because "foremen are always guilty."
• Three Shorts: The show ran on this format, with Quick Draw's segment traditionally serving as the opener followed by Snooper and Blabber and Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy.
• The Wild West: The cartoon is set in the American West during the frontier days.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: "Ali-Baba Looey": Snuffles does everything for dog biscuits and dog biscuits only. In hopes of getting dog biscuits, he singlehandedly captures the notorious Shadow Bandit. Out of dog biscuits, Quick Draw gives Snuffles the 10.000 dollar reward money instead. Snuffles angrily throws it at Quick Draw's face, calling him a cheapskate and wondering aloud who would be interested in money.
• You Are Already Dead: "Bull-Leave Me": For their final showdown, Quick Draw binds a set of horns onto the front of his car and drives in on the bull El Screwballito, who also arms himself with a big pair of horns. After they collide, it takes about three seconds for Quick Draw and his car to develop cracks all over and fall apart. El Screwballito has a good laugh over it until some six seconds later, to his astonishment, the same happens to him.