Kooky Cock Class of '32 Kooky Cock holds a unique distinction among WPSA alumni, in that he is our only cartoon graduate.  While other starry-eyed toons were gaining studio attention by slapping themselves with hammers, Kooky took a more studious approach to comedy.  He earned high marks in Puns and Witticisms, but unlike his cartoon contemporaries, he displayed no aptitude for slapstick.  He took his dry wit and blue-collar sympathies to Hollywood. RKO Pictures made the first Kooky Cock cartoon, “Wield Your Hammers in Revolution,” in 1937.  In the film, Kooky, fresh off the farm, starts work in a city factory.  There he encourages his fellow workers to unite against the factory owner, a snarling Fat Cat.  After a bloody coup, the cartoon ends with Kooky proudly standing atop the cat’s pulpy, bloated corpse, waving a red flag.   RKO released the film, and there was a predictable backlash of hatred for the Red Rooster.  Rather than firing Kooky, they introduced a supporting character: a precocious earthworm named Wormy the Worm.  Wormy captured the nation’s hearts and Kooky was relegated to the role of the malicious, carnivorous foe.  Audiences delighted seeing the vicious Communist Cock getting his beak stuck in a wormhole, or eating gunpowder from a chicken feed bag.   In 1939, Kooky had enough and bought out his contract with RKO.  Then, two years later, the Allies went to war.  Marquee stars like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse joined the fight overseas; but Kooky, who was 4-F because of his bird legs, stayed home to fill the void.  During the war, he appeared in over seventy cartoons, showing stunning victories against the Huns.  It was during this period that Kooky entered into his famous partnership with Adolf Hitler.   Together, the rooster and the Fuhrer were an unstoppable comedy team.  Every week Kooky was finding a new way to maim, cut, burn, slice, and gut the leader of the Nazi party.  Kooky said later in life, “Adolph was the most giving, thoughtful comedy partner I ever worked with.  He would never steal focus from a scene; he was always willing to look grateful and take the dynamite flowers.”  The partnership ended tragically in 1945, when the German leader committed suicide and ordered an aide to burn his body.   Kooky was devastated.  To make matters worse, his old friend and former co-star, Wormy, was shot down by the Japs at Okinawa.  Then all the banner cartoon stars returned home, and Kooky Cock was lost amid the shuffle.  He found bit parts as an extra in crowd scenes, but to Hollywood, Kooky was old news.  He took to the bottle; went carousing with hookers and barmaids; and abandoned politics for good.     Kooky’s Hollywood obscurity lasted nearly a decade.  Then, in 1954, he stepped forward to testify to the House of Un-American Activities Committee.  He proudly gave the names of several Hollywood Communists and became a universal hero.  MGM signed him to a seven-picture deal.  Kooky Cock became a household name and throughout the 1950s he became synonymous with patriotism and capitalism.   His career stumbled in the counterculture era of the 1960s, as a new generation of kids were unable to relate to his white bread sensibilities.  Also, the name “Kooky Cock” began to take on a slang meaning.  He tried, vainly, to reinvent himself as “The Groovy Rooster,” a stoned, clueless, hippy vagrant.  In one cartoon, the Groovy Rooster accidentally gave Mao and Khrushchev the keys to the US nuclear missile stockpile, inadvertently causing Global Soviet Domination.  The Groovy Rooster films never caught on, and Kooky went into retirement.  Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, he announced a comeback.  Harkening back to his glory days with Hitler, Kooky is working on a screenplay called Quiet as a Mosque, a Christmas story wherein a heroic rooster bravely punches a Muslim Cleric in the jaw.  The film, now in pre-production, is scheduled for a Thanksgiving ’04 release, and stars Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and Katie Holmes.  It will be released by WPSA Studios.