No Smoking is a cartoon made by Walt Disney Productions in 1951, featuring Goofy. This cartoon is another short of the "Goofy the Everyman" series of the 1950s. This cartoon begins by tracing the brief history of smoking, including how Christopher Columbus brought tobacco to Europe from the Native Americans, and then moves on to Goofy, as "George Geef" in this cartoon, trying unsuccessfully to drop the smoking habit. This cartoon, because of its content, including depictions of a firing squad, was kept off of TV broadcasts. It was eventually included as one of the cartoons featured in A Salute to Father, a 1961 episode of the Walt Disney anthology series, but the ending was changed to include an extra announcement with Goofy announcing that he quits smoking for good. Finally, the short was included on DVD with the original ending, as part of the Walt Disney Treasures line.
Plot
In this cartoon, we start with flashbacks featuring a "Goofy"-like version of Christopher Columbus, who is given a cigar by a Native American. His three ships bring it back to their country, with smoke floating from them. A man in Europe rolls a cigar with a leaf and a midget lights it with a small torch, and we see the impact of the popularity of smoking today. Then we fade to Goofy, in the role of George Geef, who is an extreme nicotineaddict, smoking various cigarettes, cigars and pipes, as we watch him smoke during the evening and as he goes to bed, when he wakes up in the morning, as he shaves, as he drinks coffee and at work. But soon his throat tickles and his eyes get irritated and he cannot blow out his matches. So he throws away all of his smoking products and decides to quit. It works fine at first, and feels he can do it. But then the boss congratulates George for being able to quit smoking, and as he lights up a cigarette, he says "It ain't easy. If it was, I'd quit!" Another employee, who is now a father, nearly offers George a cigar in honor of the occasion, but then remembers that he quit smoking. Almost everyone at the office still smokes, and George admits that he loves smoking, and he babbles like crazy and runs out of the office like a madman, leading into the following montage...
George's search for a smoke
Throughout the rest of the cartoon, George is searching for a smoke, while he keeps crying, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!" Here's where he finds them, only to have them removed in some way or another:
He tries to go into a tobacco store, but it's now closed for lunch. He then swipes a cigar from the wooden Indian statue near the door. He is about to light it, but a voice calls out "Ugh!" and a well-thrown tomahawk splits the cigar in half.
He finds some tobacco from a man filling his pipe and a small piece of paper. He then tries to roll his own cigarette, but fails and gets it everywhere.
He tries to pick up a discarded cigar, but a foot steps on it, flattening it and gets his hand in the process, leaving an imprint on his hand that reads, "".
He picks up another cigar near an elevator doorway, but a voice calls out "Goin' up!" and the door closes on the cigar and as the elevator rises, so does the cigar.
He goes into a smoking room, but is kicked out because it's for women only.
He struggles with a hobo to get a cigarette, but the hobo wins and bops him in the nose.
He tries to grab a cigar rolling down the street, and attempts to retrieve it from falling into a drainage grate, but accidentally lets go.
He grabs what looks like a cigar from a man with a bunch of them, but it's actually a now-leaky fountain pen.
He looks up to see a janitor on The Empire State Building drop a cigarette. He eagerly holds out his hand to get it, and even tries to use a ladder to get it, but when he does, it's spent completely; nothing but ashes are left of the cigarette.
Finally, he begs an elderly banker for any tobacco products he has on himself ; he gives him an exploding cigar, which George still smokes, while the narrator says, "Give a smoker enough rope, and... he'll hang on to his habit."
Historical and cultural references
One of the Goofies in this short is smoking a cigarette that's from "Phyllis Morrison", which is a parody of Phillip Morris. A subsequent Goofy skywrites an ad telling to "Smoke LOOKYs", which parodies the advertising message, "Smoke LUCKYs".
Pinto Colvig had been a longtime smoker and was suffering with lung disease at the time this short was made. He was a pioneer in the effort to require warning labels on cigarette packages. Pinto died of lung cancer in 1967, almost a year after Walt Disney died from the same cause.
