Scrub me Mama with a Boogie Beat

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Scrub-Me-Mama-with-a-Boogie-Beat.jpg

Scrub me Mama With a Boogie Beat is a very controversial short cartoon directed by Walter Lantz and released in March 28, 1941 by Universal Pictures. The short is notable for being controversial even in The '40s for its African-American stereotypes, being banned from circulation by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1949.[1]

The black residents of Lazy Town are bored one day until a sultry light-skinned woman shows up to teach them what rhythm is.

Scrub me mama (3).jpg

Plot

This short is set in Lazy Town a community inhabited by extremely lazy stereotypical African-Americans. Neither the town's residents nor the animals can be bothered to leave their reclining positions to do anything at all. While women work as laundresses, men either sleep or perform actions with exaggerated lethargy. Their pastoral existence is interrupted by the arrival of a riverboat, carrying a svelte, sophisticated, light-skinned woman from Harlem (who bears a resemblance to Lena Horne[2]), whose physical beauty inspires the entire populace of an all-black "Lazy Town" to spring into action.

Scrub me mama (2).jpg

The visiting lady admonishes one of the town's residents, "Listen, Mammy. That ain't no way to wash clothes! What you all need is rhythm!" She then proceeds to sing "Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat", which the town residents slowly join her in performing. Thus begins a montage which is the short's centerpiece. The townsfolk are infected by the song's rhythm and proceed to go about playing instruments, and dancing suggestively. By the time the young light-skinned lady from Harlem is due to get on her riverboat and return home, she has succeeded in turning a dark-skinned Lazy Town into a lively community of swing musicians simply by singing. The cartoon concludes with the mammy washerwoman bending over, displaying the words "The End" across her buttocks.[3]

The Controversy

Most of the characters look more like chimpanzees than actual African-Americans with dark skin and exaggerate big lips that take almost half of the face. All the residents in Lazy Town are portrayed as extremely lazy and exaggerated lethargic. It is mocking African-American people as lazy idiots.
Mighty Whitey: The light-skinned woman is the one who shows the dark-skinned Lazytown residents how to wash clothes. The light-skinned woman is drawn in a very attractive way. She's also this In-Universe, as the Lazy Town residents look very excited upon seeing her and suddenly become more lively than before.

External Link

Watch Scrub me Mama With a Boogie Beat at Youtube
Scrub me Mama With a Boogie Beat at IMDb

References

  1. TV Tropes. Retrieved December 20, 2020
  2. Tom Chapman. 15 Classic Cartoons That Would Definitely Be Censored Today", cbr.com, 27 November 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  3. Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat. Retrieved December 20, 2020