Safety Second

Safety Second
Tom and Jerry series
The original 1950 title card of this cartoon.
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Story by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Ray Patterson Ed Barge Kenneth Muse Irven Spence Effects Animation: Al Grandmain
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	July 1, 1950, May 3, 1957 (reissue)
Color process	Technicolor Perspecta (reissue)
Running time	6:55
Language	English
Preceded by	Jerry and the Lion
Followed by	Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl

Safety Second is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 51st Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. The working title for this cartoon was F'r Safety Sake before Hanna and Barbera finally settled for Safety Second. The short was animated by Ray Patterson, Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence and Al Grandmain, scored by Scott Bradley and released on July 1, 1950.

The cartoon short opens with Jerry and Nibbles asleep in their beds. Jerry looks at his calendar and seeing it's the 4th of July, he wakes up Nibbles. He instantly brings out firecrackers, but Jerry puts them back into the shed. The mouse gives his calendar a look again and sees his daily quotation: "Make it safe and sane", meaning that fireworks aren't allowed this year.

Jerry and Nibbles then go outside and enjoy their holiday with noisemakers with Jerry showing him it's still the 4th of July without fireworks, before Nibbles (not one to follow the quotation from earlier) lights a firework from his diaper. Jerry grabs it and then fails to throw it off before the firecracker explodes on him. Jerry then holds out his hand as if to say, "Give me the rest of them." Nibbles hands him another tiny firework from his diaper and smiles before dashing away. Seeing through this, Jerry then picks up Nibbles and turns him upside down, and he finds that Nibbles had a sizable amount of fireworks hidden in his diaper. To give him a timeout, Jerry gets him to stand in a corner, but no sooner does Nibbles repeat his transgression with a firework under the bed before leaving, and Jerry is blown up again before he can toss it out of the door. Nibbles then hides under his quilt.

Jerry then goes outside to relax in a hammock while Tom lights a firework underneath Jerry. The firework explodes and wakes up the mouse who, believing that the explosion was Nibbles' doing, walks around the tree to see if the little mouse was there but runs into Tom instead, who slaps Jerry with his own eyelid and traps him. When Tom lets go, Jerry is kneeling over a clenched fist. The mouse points at it, and Tom inspects it, and Jerry responds by using his other fist to punch the cat in the eye. Jerry jumps into a hole in the ground and Tom uses a pickaxe to try and dig the mouse out. Nibbles, who observes this event, loads a rocket into the drainpipe, which picks up the cat and sends him on a ride across the yard and into the clothesline.