'Mooners Monday: The Loudspeaker

"The Loudspeaker" is a simple Honeymooners episode. One might even say, in the words of Ralph, it is a humble episode. It's the one in which Ralph thinks he has been chosen Raccoon of the Year and spends most of the episode preparing a "spontaneous" speech to accept.

For me, this episode has two standout attributes: First, its glimpse into Raccoon life. For example,  we learn that this prestigious honor gets the recipient and his wife burial plots in the Raccoon National Cemetery in Bismarck, North Dakota. Why, we even meet the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler, Morris Fink!



Show the proper respect, everyone.

The other thing I love is when Ralph gets the "hiccoughs" and Ed comes up with an idiotic scheme to cure him. He sprinkles  the rock candy he has been eating on the floor, explaining to Alice that when Ralph steps on it and hears the "foreign sound," he will be startled into losing his affliction. What a gloriously ill conceived plan. Of course, you know what happens:

One of the showcase bits in the episode is Ralph attempting to tell Alice the joke he has invented for the speech. This is one of my favorite tidbits from The Official Honeymooners Treasury:  writer Walter Stone griping about the way Gleason plays it:

We were trying to get a real bad joke and Marvin) (Marx, co-writer of "The Loudspeaker" with Stone) remembered that one from somewhere. He had used it in a similar circumstance somewhere we just built it up more.

Gleason didn't do it the way we envisioned it. We didn't want it done that badly. Just do it. Maybe in his mind he thought it was more in character that Ralph couldn't tell a joke."