"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin and published by Harms Inc., New York.
Popular recordings of the song included versions by Shep Fields, Russ Morgan and Eddy Duchin.
Daffy also sang a specially-modified version of the song in the 1950 Looney Tunes short Boobs in the Woods.
In 1962 a new, more dissonant, variation of the theme was arranged by William Lava for use with the updated opening sequences for new one-off shorts of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, starting with Now Hear This before becoming the permanent theme for all cartoons after Warner Bros. Cartoons shut down and Depatie-Freleng Enterprises took over production.
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is performed twice in the film: first by cartoon character Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), as he's being assisted by his human partner Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) in hiding out from Judge Doom's weasel henchmen[3] and later by Valiant himself in Marvin Acme's gag factory, as he's trying to force the same cartoon weasels (after they capture Roger and Jessica Rabbit) to laugh themselves to death.