''Meatless Flyday'' is a 1944

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

'' directed by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

. The short was released on January 29, 1944. The title is a pun on meatless Friday, a reference to the traditional

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

practice of abstinence from meat on Fridays.

Plot

An overconfident and guffawing

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

(voiced by

Cy Kendall Cyrus Willard Kendall (March 10, 1898 – July 22, 1953) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1935 and 1950. Kendall's heavy-set, square-jawed appearance and deep voice were perfect for wiseguy roles such ...

) spots his intended prey, a mute fly, on the ceiling, and indulges in various cat-and-mouse schemes to try to catch him for food, including painting a load of

buckshot A shotgun cartridge, shotshell, or shell is a type of rimmed, cylindrical (straight-walled) ammunition used specifically in shotguns. It is typically loaded with numerous small, spherical sub-projectiles called shot. Shotguns typically use a ...

with "Kandy Kolor" and luring the fly to eat it and drawing him closer with a

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

, which only succeeds in attracting a set of metal cutlery which the spider has to dodge to save himself. At one point the fly manages to set fire to the spider's feet, and as the spider nose-dives like a plane he exclaims "Look! I'm a Zero, I'm a Zero," referring to the

Mitsubishi Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

used by the Japanese during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He sees the fly on a wedding cake as a bride and dresses as the groom only to be blown up by a dynamite stick. Eventually, the spider catches his prey, and, when he is about to carve him up while singing the song "Would You Like to Take a Walk?", the fly points to a wall calendar giving the day as " Meatless Tuesday", a reference to

food rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

during World War II. The frustrated spider runs to the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

and rants to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

"You can't do this to me! You just can't! You can't! You can't! You can't! You can't!"

Voice cast

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for come ...

as Air Raid Warden, Spider's Yell *

as Spider

References

External links

* Merrie Melodies short films 1944 films Short films directed by Friz Freleng Films scored by Carl Stalling Films produced by Leon Schlesinger 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese Animated films about spiders Animated films about flies 1944 animated short films {{MerrieMelodies-stub

Plot

Voice cast

See also

References

External links