science

Good Night Elmer

Good Night Elmer is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Good Night Elmer rather than just read about it. In short: Good Night Elmer is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short, directed by Chuck Jones, animated by Phil Monroe and written by Rich Hogan.

Key takeaways

Good Night Elmer belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Good Night Elmer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Good Night Elmer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Good Night Elmer is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short, directed by Chuck Jones, animated by Phil Monroe and written by Rich Hogan. The short was released on October 26, 1940, and features Elmer Fudd.

Plot The cartoon depicts ill-fated attempts by Elmer, in a rare leading role, to extinguish a candle by his bedside so that he can retire for the night, with the flame always surging again in spite of Elmer's best efforts. Elmer finally succeeds, but only at the expense of wrecking his bedroom in the process, and no sooner than he lies down, the sun comes up, precipitating a nervous breakdown in Elmer, who starts weeping and bawling.

Reception Good Night Elmer was produced around the time Chuck Jones was directing cartoons that bear similarities towards those made by Disney and Harman and Ising. In retrospect, the short was derided by critics and animation enthusiasts, particularly for its slow pacing and lack of jokes. A review from the Motion Picture Herald in 1942 called the cartoon a "Very poor reel. Not up to standard." Animation historians Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald also called the short "one of the most irritating cartoons ever made" in their book Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons.

Beck again discussed the cartoon on his website, Cartoon Research, in a post about his least favorite Warner Bros. shorts. He would state:"BOR-ring! One of the slowest moving animated shorts I've ever seen. First he can't take off his jacket. Then he can't blow out the candle. The character [Elmer] is so stupid its painful. The short ends with him crying in frustration (something we in the audience can identify with). It's the equivalent of an Edgar Kennedy live action comedy short… only without the humor, the pacing… or Edgar Kennedy. The animation is beautiful, but there is nothing – I repeat nothing – in this film that couldn't have been done in live action. A depressing film – far opposite of what Jones would start producing in a year or two."

Home media This short is available on disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Collector's Vault: Volume 1 Blu-ray set.

See also Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)

References

External links Good Night Elmer at IMDb Good Night Elmer at the Big Cartoon DataBase

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Good Night Elmer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Good Night Elmer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Good Night Elmer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Good Night Elmer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Good Night Elmer

In research: Good Night Elmer appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Good Night Elmer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Good Night Elmer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 English-language films, 1940 animated short films, 1940 comedy films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Good Night Elmer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Good Night Elmer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Good Night Elmer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Good Night Elmer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Good Night Elmer in simple terms?

Good Night Elmer is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short, directed by Chuck Jones, animated by Phil Monroe and written by Rich Hogan.

Why does Good Night Elmer matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Good Night Elmer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Good Night Elmer.