The Wacky Wabbit

The Wacky Wabbit is a 1942 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. It stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd (voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan, respectively).

Plot

Singing a modified version of "Oh! Susanna," Elmer Fudd trudges into the desert to find gold. An initially unseen creature emerges underneath the skull of a dead cattle, hoping to scare Elmer. After failing to startle him by greeting him and joining in on "Oh! Susanna" in harmony, Elmer finally realizes that something is amiss when the creature disappears back into the ground, leaving only the skull. He eventually comes to the conclusion that it is his old nemesis, "that skwewy wabbit," but shrugs it off and keeps looking for gold.

Elmer begins digging a hole and drops a stick of dynamite. Bugs has found his way into the hole and repeatedly spits the dynamite back out until Elmer uses a zipper to close the hole and run off. Bugs comes out from another angle, returning the dynamite back to Elmer (much to Elmer's dismay); the stick fails to explode, but Bugs scares Elmer by faking the explosion anyway.

Bugs tells Elmer that he knows where there is gold, revealing a gold filling in one of his teeth. Elmer naïvely dismisses the amount as inconsequential, as he also has a gold filling, before he began to lose his temper. After Bugs torments Elmer some more when he "swims" down into a hole and Elmer tries to surprise his foe with the pickaxe stuck on the wall. Bugs saw the failed tactic and pulled out a pair of scissors and cut off Elmer's shirt and suspenders, revealing his yellow and red polka-dotted boxers and a girdle. Bugs makes a wolf-whistle at Elmer's attire and hides back into the hole. Elmer breaks the fourth wall and said to the audience watching the scene (possibly laughing at the half-naked Fudd), "Don't waugh! I'll bet pwenty of you men would wear one of these!", before putting his clothes back on.

Elmer eventually finds his way to the bottom of the hole he had dug, but Bugs escaped above-ground and later unapologetically buries Elmer alive. When Elmer makes it out of the hole, he is now livid, bound to get gold from his trip one way or another and targeting Bugs's tooth. After a skirmish, Elmer emerges, gold tooth in hand—with his own incisor missing, making him unaware that he is holding the tooth he's already had, while Bugs still has his gold tooth as the camera irises out with a glimmer.

Notes

The ending to the Merrie Melodies theme is played with more feeling.

In other media

A short clip from this cartoon can be seen in the opening credits of the Futurama episode "Love's Labour Lost in Space".

Availability

• VHS - Cartoon Moviestars: Elmer!
• Laserdisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2, Side 5: Bob Clampett
• DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 3

Additionally, since the cartoon has fallen into the public domain, it can be found on various unauthorized VHS tapes and DVDs in varying quality. It can also be found on video streaming websites.

See also

• List of films in the public domain in the United States

References

External links

• The Wacky Wabbit on IMDb