Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter

Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter, also known as The Man Who Hated Laughter, is a 1972 American animated one-hour television film that was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.[1] This film united characters from almost every newspaper comic strip then owned by King Features Syndicate in one story. The show aired on October 7, 1972, and was repeated in February 1974.[2]

Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter
GenreTelevision film
Based onPopeye
by E.C. Segar
Written byBud Blake
Dik Browne
Milton Caniff
Billy DeBeck
Rudolph Dirks
Lee Falk
Fred Lasswell
George McManus
Alex Raymond
Lou Silverton
Otto Soglow
Mort Walker
Chic Young
Dean Young
Directed byHal Seeger
Jack Zander
Voices ofBob McFadden
Jack Mercer
Corinne Orr
Theme music composerElliot Chiprut
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerAl Brodax
Running time1 hour
Production companyKing Features Syndicate
DistributorKing Features Entertainment
Warner Bros. Television Distribution (Popeye)
PolyGram Entertainment (Yellow Submarine characters)
NBCUniversal Television Distribution (Flash Gordon)
Release
Original networkABC
Original releaseOctober 7, 1972 (1972-10-07)
Chronology
Preceded byNanny and the Professor
Followed byWillie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid

This film marked the first time that Steve Canyon, The Phantom, Tim Tyler, or Flash Gordon appeared in animation. In the 1980s, the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth would feature Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, and The Phantom as freedom fighters united against a common enemy, Ming the Merciless.

Plot

Professor Morbid Grimsby is an evil genius who has won the prestigious "Meanie" award six years in a row; to guarantee a seventh, he plots to eliminate all laughter by getting rid of the Sunday funnies, with the aid of his henchman Brutus.

Popeye is given a job as captain of the Professor's yacht, the SS Hilarious, and all the characters from the humorous comic strips are informed that they have won a free ocean voyage upon this boat. Once out at sea, the boat is pulled to a remote island by the Professor's tractor beam, and in the chaos Popeye's stash of spinach is lost at sea; thus, he and all the passengers are prisoners of the Professor.

Being a huge fan of the Sunday funnies, the President of the United States takes action by calling together the heroes of the adventure comics to rescue the prisoners. Unfortunately, the rescue attempts go wrong, and the adventure characters also end up as prisoners.

The prisoners eventually decide that the only way to free themselves is to make the Professor laugh, to convince him that the world needs laughter. They put on a talent show which fails to have an effect, but then the younger characters get him to laugh by showing him his own reflection in a mirror while he's trying to scare them; the Professor has a change of heart, and decides to let everyone go.

At that moment, however, a volcano on the island begins to erupt; the Professor uses his submarine to get the comic characters off the island, but it gets stuck in a cavern. Popeye finds his spinach in the water, eats it, and frees the submarine. The story ends with the comic characters and the Professor being treated to a party on the White House lawn; they're told that the President will join them shortly. Unbeknownst to the guests, he is actually at that moment enjoying the comics page of his newspaper.

Comic strips

Characters from the following comic strips appeared in this film:

Production

Jack Mercer, best known for being the voice of Popeye, provided the voices of Popeye and Wimpy in this movie; Bob McFadden and Corinne Orr provided all the other voices.

Home media

The film has not been released on home media.

References
  1. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 55. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 310. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
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