---
title: '"Benny" bungles again! America''s Alertmen!'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/benny-bungles-again-1942/
description: 'Hand-lettered cartoon: Benny rushes by with a telephone, the receiver torn from its box, shouting a garbled message'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. "Benny" bungles again! America's Alertmen!

**Content note:** Includes small caricatures of Hitler, a Japanese leader and Mussolini; Benny drawn with simian features. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["Benny" bungles again! America's Alertmen!, 1942 US poster: Hand-lettered cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/benny-bungles-again-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/benny-bungles-again-1942.jpg)

# "Benny" bungles again! America's Alertmen!

Hand-lettered cartoon: Benny rushes by with a telephone, the receiver torn from its box, shouting a garbled message ('Somebody phoned there's some kind of a something doing something somewhere'), while an officer at a desk is blown back. Small cartoon figures of Hitler, a Japanese leader and Mussolini say 'Our friend Benny'. Four message-handling rules are listed. The tell for name-calling is 'Benny' as the label for the careless messenger.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
"BENNY"
BUNGLES AGAIN!
SOMEBODY PHONED
THERE'S SOME KIND OF
A SOMETHING DOING
SOMETHING SOMEWHERE-
AND IT'S COMING
OUR WAY!!
AMERICA'S
ALERTMEN!
WHEN YOU RECEIVE A MESSAGE:
1. Don't get excited
2. Get the message straight
3. Get sender's name, rank, organization
4. Deliver message immediately
OUR
FRIEND
BENNY!
[imprint:] THIS IS NO. 3 IN A SERIES OF POSTERS ON THE WRONG-DOINGS OF "BENNY THE BUNGLER." DON'T BE LIKE HIM!
[imprint:] Created + Produced by HEADQUARTERS ANTIAIRCRAFT ARTILLERY COMMAND EASTERN THEATER OF OPERATIONS SANDERFORD JARMAN Major General, U.S. Army Commanding
[handwritten margin:] 2-1-42
[handwritten margin:] [illegible] #15,
[handwritten:] level 3!
[handwritten:] 3844
```

[← Belajarlah! Pakailah! Bahasa Nippon! (Learn! Use! The Japanese Language!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/belajarlah-pakailah-bahasa-nippon-1942/) [Beware Sharp Ears! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/beware-sharp-ears-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)