About

The Dover Boys at Pimento University, often shortened as The Dover Boys, is a 1942 short animated cartoon directed by Chuck Jones that was released as part of the Merrie Melodies cartoon series created by Warner Bros. Entertainment. Due to the dramatic nature of the dialogues and its campy stock villain character Dan Backslide, the cartoon has garnered a cult following online, with particularly visible and active presence of fandom on the YouTube Poop remix community and Tumblr.

History

The cartoon follows the story of the Dover Boys (Tom, Dick and Larry), visiting their mutual fiancée, Dora Standpipe, and taking her to the nearby park for a game of hide and seek. While Dora counted to 1,500 facing against a tree, the Dover Boys searched for a place to hide, eventually ending up in a saloon in which Dan Backslide, the arch-rival of the Dover Boys, played snooker and cried about his hatred towards the Dover Boys and love towards Dora Standpipe. He notices the Dover Boys hiding under the pool table, and sees it as an opportunity to abduct Dora. Using a disguise and a stolen runabout, he does so, bringing Dora into his house in the mountains. Dora's distress calls from the house are heard by a boy scout, who sends a telegram to the Dover Boys requesting help. The Dover Boys then quickly arrive at the house and beat up Backslide. After punching him several times, the Dover Boys attempt to strongly punch him one last time, but accidentally do it to each other, resulting in both Backslide and the Dover Boys being knocked out and Dora Standpipe resolving to dating a sailor who had only served as comic relief earlier in the cartoon.

The Dover Boys at Pimento University is a parody of the Rover Boys book series, with the Dover Boys' names, Tom, Dick and Larry, Dora Standpipe's name, as well as the antagonist's name, Dan Backslide, being references to characters from the Rover Boys: Tom, Sam, Dick, Dora Stanhope and Dan Baxter. The Dover Boys is one of the several cartoons created by Warner Bros. that fell under public domain, as its copyright had not been renewed.

Online Relevance

Between 2010 and 2011, The Dover Boys became a somewhat popular source for YouTube Poops, particularly due to the complexity of the dialogue.

While fan art has existed before the period, The Dover Boys became particularly noted online around 2011, when Dan Backslide's catchphrase, "Confound those Dover Boys! They drive me to drink!" became an in-joke within the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom, with the quote being manipulated to fit certain characters from the show. As a result of the catchphrase becoming popular within the fandom, other quotes made by Dan Backslide have been used in fan art as well.

In April 2016, The Dover Boys has become a popular in-joke in Tumblr, with users using quotes from the cartoon as copypastas, one of the most popular variations being made by user skarchomp, who made a Tumblr post made to look like a call out post for the Dover Boys made by Dan Backslide.^[1] The post is often manipulated, with Dan Backslide being replaced with another villain who hates a group of fellow characters. At the same time, The Dover Boys generated an ironic fandom with fan art and image parodies.^[2]

Fan Art

Image Parodies

Search Interest

External References