Bugs Bunny

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Dennis Fischer

One of the most beloved animated characters of all time, Bugs Bunny proved the likable combination of casual and wise guy who speaks insouciantly with a Brooklyn accent (voiced by Mel Blanc). Bugs has been both comic aggressor and straight man, but his essence is that he is always sympathetic, responding only to provocation (a character wants to eat him, wants him as a trophy, as a good luck piece, as an unwilling participant in an experiment, etc.). Bugs never engages an opponent without a reason, but once he is engaged, it's a fight to the finish with Bugs the comic winner. He can be mischievous, cunning, impudent, a rascally heckler, a trickster, saucy, and very quick with words, but he is never belligerent and prefers to use his wits rather than resort to physical violence.

An embryonic version of Bugs first appeared in Ben Hardaway's 1938 cartoon "Porky's Hare Hunt," in which the rabbit is a screwy tough guy in the wacky and wild tradition of early Daffy Duck. The character is given a screwball, Woody Woodpecker kind of laugh, hops about wildly, and even flies, using his ears as propellers. He has Bugs' penchant for wisecracks ("Here I am, fatboy!"), as well as Bugs' occasional appeals to sympathy ("Don't shoot!"). He also expresses Bugs' later catchphrase (borrowed from Groucho Marx in Duck Soup), "Of course you realize, this means war!" However, the white hare is also more aggressively wacky than the later character and would torment his opponents mercilessly.

The character was designed by former Disney animator Charlies Thorsen, and although unnamed in the cartoon itself, was christened Bugs Bunny because the design sheet for director Ben "Bugs" Hardaway was designated "Bugs' Bunny." Hardaway also guided the hare through his second outing (and his first in color) in "Hare-um Scare-um." Director Frank Tashlin alleged that "Bugs Bunny is nothing but Max Hare, the Disney character in 'The Tortoise and the Hare.' We took it--Schlesinger took it, whoever--and used it a thousand times." While both are brash and cocky characters, Bugs was both wilder and funnier, eventually developing into a very distinctive character. Animator and later director Robert McKimson redesigned Bugs Bunny into the modern figure seen in the 1990s.

Bugs faced a number of antagonists over the years, the most famous being Elmer Fudd (voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan), a large-headed hunter with a speech impediment. The pair were first teamed by Charles "Chuck" Jones in "Elmer's Candid Camera," with Elmer stalking the "wascally wabbit" with a camera instead of his usual gun. The team was then appropriated by Fred "Tex" Avery for "A Wild Hare," in which some of Bugs' rougher edges were softened to make him less loony and annoying. Avery also coined Bugs' signature opening line, "Eh, what's up, Doc?" as a memorably incongruous response to a hunter preparing to pepper him with bullets.

Bugs really hit his stride under the direction of Bob Clampett in such cartoons as "Wabbit Trouble," "Tortoise Wins by a Hare," "What's Cooking, Doc?," "Falling Hare," and "The Old Grey Hare." Clampett's Bugs was one of the funniest and wildest incarnations of the character and is much more physical than he later became. These cartoons were later compiled into a feature, Bugs Bunny Superstar, where Clampett took sole credit for inventing Bugs Bunny. This did not set well with Jones, who when it came time to assemble The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie credited every Bugs Bunny director except Clampett.

Director Friz Freleng specialized in pitting Bugs against Yosemite Sam, a runt-sized alter ego of Freleng himself equipped with an oversized hat, eyebrows, and mustache. Freleng found that Elmer Fudd was too sympathetic and wanted to create an outright villain in Sam. Sam's attempts to get the better of Bugs, the varmint, were eternally and comically frustrated. Sam made his first appearance in "Hare Trigger," and Freleng's Bugs and Sam won an Academy Award for their teaming in "Knighty Knight Bugs."

However, Bugs' finest interpreter was Chuck Jones, who always felt that the rabbit should be motivated to wreak his mischief by an antagonist who tries to push the supposedly timid woodland creature around. Jones found his conception of Bugs materializing in "Case of the Missing Hare," "Super-Rabbit," and "Hare Conditioned." Jones and gag man Michael Maltese created terrific comic sparks by allowing Bugs to play straightman to the forever frustrated Daffy Duck whose plans to get Bugs shot instead of himself constantly go awry. Three titles stand out: "Rabbit Fire," "Rabbit Seasoning," and "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!"

Jones also created the musically based classic Bugs cartoons "Long-Haired Hare," "Rabbit of Seviolle," "Baton Bunny" and "What's Opera, Doc?" as well as using the character to parody the conventions of fairy tales, science fiction, and other genres in "Haredevil Hare," "Frigid Hare," "Bully for Bugs," "Beanstalk Bunny," and "Ali Baba Bunny." These are among the funniest cartoons ever created and ample reason for Bugs' enduring popularity.