Friday Bugs N’ Daffy

Classic. That might be THE perfect Looney Tunes cartoon, if not the perfect short cartoon general. In stature, it’s basically Bugs & Daffy’s version of Abbott & Costello’s “Whose On First?” skit. I quote at least 10 lines from that cartoon on a regular basis.

Of course, in a post-Columbine world, parents these days might flinch at the idea of letting their kids watch so much overt gun play. I think I’ve even seen edited versions of it. But my friends and I grew up watching the unexpurgated version in the early 70s, and we all turned out just fine.

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I’ve always like Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner better. Something about the lack of dialog appeals to me. The one where the coyote swallows a whole bottle of “earthquake pills” (“Warning: Not effective on roadrunners”) is my favorite.

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It’s really a goddamned shame shorts like this can’t get made on a regular basis any more. Truly classic comedy genius.

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Ah, now that is the sweet taste of nostalgia. 🙂

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That’s gold Jerry. Gold! Seriously, though, if Looney Tunes were still around today, the uproar would be incredible. The blatant stereotyping (Speedy Gonzalez, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Lepeau, Yosemite Sam) and the cartoon violence would have every Oprah-watching housewife crying “foul” the minute of their kids stupidly blew his own hand off with a shotgun that shouldn’t be in the house in the first place.

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Ah, a true classic.

One thing stuck out, though…

Why in the world does Bugs have a rabbit cookbook in his hole?

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“Why in the world does Bugs have a rabbit cookbook in his hole?”

My first reaction.

Actually, my second. First reaction was “wow, you’re never going to see a guy look down the barrel of a gun in a cartoon ever again.”

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The Hunter trilogy were some of the best Looney Tunes ever.

Foghorn Leghorn is actually based on one character(or maybe a real person) in particular so he’s not really a stereotype.

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Oh, man. I haven’t seen this one since I was a kid.

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Foghorn Leghorn was IIRC partly based on W.C. Fields. And in the late 80s they did relaunch Loony Tunes with edited footage. You’d see the results of the gunshot in this episode, but never actually show Daffy getting shot. It was freaking annoying. Later relaunches all used the regular violence from what I remember…

As for racial/ethnic stereotypes, only a few of the more blatant have been dropped from current launches of Loony Tunes and other company cartoon lines. Headhunters with bones in their noses and the like. Though I can’t recall catching a Speedy Gonzales episode anywhere in a while…

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I don’t remember the elephant bit- maybe that’s been cut for time in some airings.

It’s hilarious, though. “You do and I’ll give you SUCH A PINCH!”

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I remember back in the day when they cut out the black face shots on cartoons like these and still keep shots where the character’s hair would be blown into braids. That always confused me as a kid until I found out it was a style some black folk liked to keep their hair.

I notice the keep a lot of gun shot results in tact these days except for the “Welp, now I’ve seen everything.” suicide shots.

This is one of my favorites but the turtle trilogy still holds a special place in my heart….I always enjoy it when Bugs is bested by another character and loved when bugs got in the turtles face claiming, “You know I can beat cha’, you know that right?”

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