Halloween-y

It's Halloween, folks. And whether you plan to dress up as a slutty witch, a slutty nurse or a slutty, dead prostitute, remember that Halloween is a time for you to be whatever you want to be, so long as it gets you the attention you so desperately need to feel good about yourself.

For my part, I will continue to act like an attention whore online, instead of at awkward Halloween parties -- and to that end, here are some of my favorite, creepy, old-timey cartoons starring Cab Calloway.

Minnie the Moocher 

This one is a weird morality play, in which Betty Boop, pissed off that her parents (an old Jewish couple from Eastern Europe, I guess) treat her unfairly, runs off with her boyfriend, a cartoon dog. However, they soon learn the error of their ways when they find a haunted cave and a dancing walrus ghost voiced by the one and only Cab Calloway. It's tons o' surreal fun!

 St. James Infirmary

I like this song because it's depressing and that's pretty much the only thing a song needs to be to get my attention. But the cartoon that goes along with it is a bizarre version of Snow White. Betty Boop plays Snow White and Cab Calloway plays Koko, the dancing ghost-clown. What more could you want out of a cartoon?

The Ghost of Stephen Foster 

The absurdity of these surreal cartoons was not lost on the retro Dixieland swing band The Squirrel Nut Zippers. They did their own take on the creepy, ghost cartoons with a song about meeting the famous (and dead) songsmith Stephen Foster in a haunted hotel.

I think Minnie the Moocher is my favorite because of the scene were the dead, eyeless cat gives birth to a litter of dead, eyeless cats who then suck their mother complete dry. Also, the way the walrus moves in that video is unnerving for some reason that I can't quite place.

Enjoy!

Also, please love me.