What's My Crime? is a television game show that Jasper and Horace watch in the 1961 Disney feature film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Shown only once during the film, the contestant-criminal comes before a panel attempting to guess their specific illegal activity. If panelists fail to guess the crime correctly within ten questions, then the criminal wins a two-week vacation at a seaside resort "all expenses paid", but only after they finish serving time for their crimes.
Panel[]
- Inspector Graves
- Miss Birdwell
- Mr. Simpkins
Contestant[]
The only known contestant is Mr. Percival Fauncewater, an acquaintance of Jasper and Horace, who refer to him as "Old Meathead".
Appearances[]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians[]
What's My Crime? first appears when Cruella De Vil is ordering Jasper and Horace to kill and skin the puppies (namely because the authorities are now scouring their area and will find them soon). She turns off the TV when they fail to acknowledge her and the two criminals inform her that the puppies aren't big enough for the amount of coats she wants. The Dalmatians watch the show as well, and they seem interested. Cruella tells them to settle for what they can get and leaves vowing to call the police if they fail to complete "the job" by morning. Horace and Jasper choose to finish watching the show first, and they see their former acquaintance, Mr. Fauncewater, as a contestant for that specific episode, calling him "Old Meathead". Despite the panel guessing wrong, Horace and Jasper seem to know what his crime was or most likely was. While the criminals watch the show, the puppies escape with help from Sergeant Tibbs and the panel manages to ask only three of the ten questions, the answer to all of which being "no", before the show's time expires. The show then concludes with the host asking Mr. Fauncewater to come back next week then they can finish their game. After it ends, Jasper and Horace prepare to do their job, only to see Sergeant Tibbs escape with the last puppy.
Trivia[]
- The premise is a parody of the classic game show What's My Line?, which ran on CBS from 1950 to 1967.
- Walt Disney himself appeared as a mystery guest on a 1956 episode of What's My Line?.
- Female panelist Miss Birdwell is voiced by Betty Lou Gerson, who also voiced Cruella in the film.
- The character shares a similar name with Ms. Birdwell from Kronk's New Groove.
