During WWII, the US government financed a series of Private Snafu cartoons. Using a wonderful sense of humor, they were able to convey important messages to the troops--and the films were not shown to the general public. You can tell this in a few of the films, as the humor is a bit more adult than you could have gotten away with in theaters. Today, you can find these shorts on DVD as well as for free downloads at archive.org.
When I watched "A Few Quick Facts: Inflation", I was shocked. While it was a Snafu cartoon, it wasn't the least bit funny or interesting!! In fact, though they show Snafu, he really doesn't say or do anything. Instead it's a dull little film about how soldiers freely spending their money abroad can result in massive inflation and shortages for the locals. I guess this is an important message to the troops, but it was done in a very dull manner. I assume soldiers seeing it probably zoned out--and they, too, wondered why Snafu was amazingly unfunny in this installment.
