This is one of my favorite's as a child, and seeking it out became imperative in the past few years. I always remembered the tune, but never knew the words or the name. Just recently I've discovered what others have been searching for: The song that the farmer is whistling is "Kingdom's Coming (Year of Jubilo)" by Henry Clay Work in 1862.
I always thought that the character had a "yankee soldier" appearance in the other cartoons he appeared in, and that's the initial hint of the civil war era, but I suspect the censors of the time were much too young/ignorant of the history of the song to detect the true "emancipation" of the character. A wealth of stereotypes were used to design this character and elicit responses at the original release date. Only those viewers at an average of 40 yrs or older would have easily grasped the significance of the character, viewers under 20 would not have had the history to view the character other than flat, peculiar, and funny.
The gags are hilarious, the comic sarcasm thick, and the off-stage/on-stage comments are trademark Heck Allen. But the character and mannerisms of the farmer and his song give show much more depth of understanding the audience of the time, and shows that the writers were definitely trying to relate to a specific age group in that audience.
I always thought that the character had a "yankee soldier" appearance in the other cartoons he appeared in, and that's the initial hint of the civil war era, but I suspect the censors of the time were much too young/ignorant of the history of the song to detect the true "emancipation" of the character. A wealth of stereotypes were used to design this character and elicit responses at the original release date. Only those viewers at an average of 40 yrs or older would have easily grasped the significance of the character, viewers under 20 would not have had the history to view the character other than flat, peculiar, and funny.
The gags are hilarious, the comic sarcasm thick, and the off-stage/on-stage comments are trademark Heck Allen. But the character and mannerisms of the farmer and his song give show much more depth of understanding the audience of the time, and shows that the writers were definitely trying to relate to a specific age group in that audience.