Sixties Nostalgia: Do It Yourself Cartoon Kit

It's less than two weeks before I reach 53 years of age! Fifty-three freakin' years! What, after all this time has passed, have I learned? Do I have any wisdom to convey to today's youth?

It's funny what sticks with you after half a century of sunrises and sunsets. I remember one tedious New Mexico evening, watching television, sometime around 1964. I think I was watching NBC's 'Friday Night At The Movies'. Occasionally, if the night's film was rather short, they had time for an extra short film or cartoon, and that night they had the funniest cartoon ever: Bob Godfrey's "Do It Yourself Cartoon Kit", which apparently dates from 1961.

FUNNY! What I most remember was their crude, jerky illustration of animated arm movement. The movement required maybe three or four separate drawings, but it was coupled with the outrageous claim that eight million separate drawings were required to make it. The brazenness of the claim made me double up with laughter! Plus, the cartoon is THE direct ancestor of Terry Gilliam's animation style, as used by Monty Python. As a historical relic it is even more important than the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

But is the cartoon available on the Internet?

YouTube used to have it, but copyright claims have shut it down. Increasingly desperate, I turned to that one place where copyright claims seem to have no weight - yes, China! Yes, this Chinese Web Site hosts the "Do It Yourself Cartoon Kit", and for 500 guineas and an Australian wombat, you too can watch it. The first play is very jerky due to the slow download speed, and eventually the site virtually locks up your computer, but for a short interval, for the second through fourth plays, you too can drink in the style of comedy that eventually made Monty Python the epitome of British humor and helped relieve the tedium of a New Mexican childhood.

After 53 years, that is all I know. I'll get back to you after another 53 years.