Scribbly #5 (1949)

Clover is mooning over Scribbly being a real newspaperman and Scribbly brags about drawing a China Clipper on a rush order (instead of rushing it.) Scribbly soon heads in, greeting the receptionist, Liela, who seems dismissive and not wanting to make eye contact. He goes to see Red who is acting about the same and he questions it until she points out a gigantic note on his desk saying the boss wants to see him. He rushes to see O'Hara, but O'Hara points out that Mister Birdnest wishes to see him! Mr. Birdnest tells him he does like him personally, but the problem is that the rush order he drew the China Clipper on was misread, meaning they sent the entire 5 ton printing press to China via special delivery airmail at 53 1/6¢ per ounce! However, he says that it “only” cost them $82,000 and seemingly begins laughing it off, saying that they throw that much away every week and that Scribbly could pay it off in about only 90 years. Mr. Birdnest becomes more serious to let Scribbly know very loudly that he's fired. Scribbly wavers slowly out of his office and moves to the phone, beginning to very loudly complain to his mother on the phone. Mr. Birdnest begins to feel immediate regret over it and decides to rehire Scribbly immediately, only for him to walk out and find out that Scribbly is telling his mother that he stood up to his boss and told him he quit, making Mr. Birdnest trudge back to his office as Scribbly loudly claims that the Evening Globe called and said they want him to be editor and he soon leaves, condescendingly claiming that he may find the time to call them… only for O'Hara to reveal that his phone has been disconnected all week! Scribbly is emotionally shattered and Red is upset with O'Hara over his callousness. Later, O'Hara calls for the Copy Boy, thinking how it might be fun to not be accidentally assaulted while doing so, only for someone who suspiciously like Scribbly wearing a large white beard, dark glasses, a blue hat and a smock to appear just as fast as Scribbly would. O'Hara quickly removes his disguise and tries to beat him with a phone until he leaves. As he thinks he's chased him out, O'Hara runs into someone who look suspiciously like Scribbly wearing a nose and goatee disguise, a different hat and a tuxedo and stilts with stilt pants, which O'Hara equally sees through. O'Hara is soon approached by someone who looks like Scribbly wearing padding, a queue and a racist caricature of a Chinese person as a disguise, asking to see the boss, only to instead reveal when Scribbly returns to get his hat that it's just a normal man who looks like a racist caricature of Scribbly in disguise named Moo-Goo Gai Pan, a representative from a Chinese newspaper. He reveals that his paper is the one who received their printing press and says they're prepared to demand the high price of $90,000 for it. Mr. Birdnest and O'Hara are aghast at this price, forcing Moo-Goo to raise the price to $100,000 “and not one yen more!” Mr. Birdnest angrily shouts for Scribbly to get back to work and O'Hara mimics him. Running downstairs, he puts a clothespin on his nose to make a call upstairs, asking if he needs a Copy Boy and Boy Cartoonist, but O'Hara angrily says they've already got one and he's very satisfactory. Scribbly is so overjoyed to hear it, he rips the phone out of the booth running upstairs to thank O'Hara!