Bobby Bumps Helps a Book Agent (1916) User Reviews

Not as funny as most....but still worth seeing.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 May 2019]

Back in the early days of films, the Bobby Bumps shorts by Bray Studio were among the best...with nice animation and a mischievous jerk of a leading character. By today's standards the films seem quaint...but for 1916 films like "Bobby Bumps Helps a Book Agent" is exceptional.

Like so many of the shorts, Bobby makes Pa's life difficult. In this case, he messes with a door to door book salesman and Pa....and as punishment, Pa makes the boy buy a book and read (what scum!!). Naturally, Pa's infamy must be punished by Bobby and his pup.

Due to changes in sensibilities, this might be a VERY problematic short to watch today and I am glad TCM didn't edit out the offensive portion of the short (the very stereotypical black child eating watermelon) but it still is sad to see. In addition, it's not one of the better ones...with fewer laughs but excellent animation.

That's A Door-To-Door Book Salesman

[boblipton · 6/10 · 20 May 2019]

Bobby Bumps is in an experimental mood today. He wants to go skating, and wonders if his Pa can, so he straps skates to his sleeping father. When a door-to-door book salesman shows up, guess who wakes with a start and can only stop with a collision.

This one will be harder for the sensitive modern to watch, because it concludes with a couple of standard-for-the-era jokes about Black people: the watermelon-eating youngster is not the sort of humor au courant these days. Even worse, during the acceptable sections of this cartoon, the humor is very mild by modern standards. We seem to have narrowed the targets acceptable for our humor, and strengthened the jokes about them.