The Stupor Salesman


The Stupor Salesman is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Arthur Davis, and written by Lloyd Turner and Bill Scott. The cartoon was released on November 20, 1948, and stars Daffy Duck.

Plot

Slug McSlug, a cunning canine criminal, pulls off a successful bank robbery. After eluding the police, he retreats to his rural hideout. However, his peace is disrupted by the persistent Daffy Duck, a relentless salesman peddling various wares.
Despite McSlug's attempts to rid himself of Daffy, the determined duck continues to intrude, employing unconventional methods to gain entry. With each attempt, Daffy's antics frustrate McSlug, leading to a series of comical confrontations. Daffy is convinced that there must be something McSlug needs that he can sell him.
As tensions escalate, Daffy's saleable items prevail over McSlug's violence, ultimately causing the gangster's downfall when he tests a lighter without realizing that the gas from his oven is turned on, resulting in a fiery explosion that blows up McSlug's hideout house. With McSlug defeated, Daffy revels in his victory, now knowing what his foe will need. "Hey, bub!" Daffy, with the doorknob from the house's front door in his hand, tells McSlug. "You need a house to go with this doorknob!"

Reception

Animation historian Mike Mallory writes, "There is not a wasted cel in The Stupor Salesman. At first glance, the story of a bank robber who cannot escape the diabolical persistence of door-to-door salesman Daffy Duck sounds like a conventional pest-vs.-threat cartoon, but it is not. The short zooms by with the insistent pacing of the early Warner Bros. gangster films it aggressively parodies. Rarely, if ever, has one seven-minute cartoon burst its seams so thoroughly with inventive sight gags, throwaway jokes, and visual details."

Home media

VHS:
  • Superior Duck
Laserdisc:
  • Guffaw and Order
DVD: