Duck! Rabbit, Duck!

Set in winter, finds Daffy Duck removing and burning every "Duck Season Open" sign he finds in order to warm himself in the winter, and prevent himself from being hunted. Elmer is out hunting and Daffy uses several signs to convince Elmer that it is rabbit season, making Elmer excited about "Fwesh wabbit stew!" just before Elmer follows the yellow trail to Bugs' rabbit hole. Daffy lures Bugs Bunny out by asking for a cup of blackstrap molasses. Just as Bugs Bunny comes out of his rabbit hole, Elmer points the gun at him and declares that he got his "wabbit stew". However, Bugs is already prepared for Daffy's trick and attempts to convince Elmer not to shoot him because he is obviously an endangered species — a fricasseeing rabbit and that Elmer does not have a license to shoot fricasseeing rabbits.

Bugs giving Daffy misinformation in Duck! Rabbit, Duck!'

This enrages Daffy, who attempts to convince Elmer Fudd that Bugs Bunny is actually trying to fool Elmer and orders Elmer to shoot Bugs, prompting Elmer to regretfully point out that he does not have the proper license. Exasperated, Daffy writes out the proper hunting license but has to ask Bugs how to spell "fricasseeing". Bugs tells him, "F-R-I-C-A-S-S-E-E-I-N-G", adding "D-U-C-K". Oblivious to the trick, Daffy gives Elmer the license and Elmer obediently blasts Daffy. This leads into an extended routine in this short that has Bugs holding up various "animal season" signs to correspond with every figurative expression involving an animal that Daffy is called, either by himself, or by Bugs in response (including "goat", "dirty skunk", "pigeon" and "mongoose"). Each presentation of the sign is accompanied by a brass fanfare of a fox hunting call, and is, of course, followed by a gunshot; after each shot, irritated Daffy is forced to put his beak back in place.

At one point, Bugs builds a snow-rabbit image of himself and when Elmer blasts it, Bugs Bunny appears disguised as an angel (which Elmer believes, to Daffy's total disgust).

Bugs then puts on a duck disguise. Daffy (who has been instructing Elmer not to pay attention to the signs, but to only do what he tells Elmer to do) sees him and shouts "Shoot the duck! Shoot the duck!" to which Elmer obliges by shooting the nearest duck — Daffy. Daffy finally goes completely insane, demanding "Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers and gunpowder and cordite!" then holding up his fingers at the top of his head like the antlers of an elk and scuttling around sideways like a crab, shrieking that it's elk and fiddler crab season, respectively, and that Elmer should shoot him. The antics become truly confusing at the end when the now-totally bewildered Elmer encounters Bugs disguised as a game warden and begs him to tell Elmer what hunting season it really is, to which Bugs tells Elmer that it is baseball season.

On hearing this, Elmer loses his sanity and starts shooting at a baseball that Bugs throws out a little bit in front of him as he goes off into the distance. When he is gone, Bugs asks Daffy what hunting season it really is. Daffy casually answers that it is duck season and ends up getting blasted by several hunters hiding behind rocks.

• Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck

• Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd (uncredited)

In a commentary by Eric Goldberg, he cites the short as his favorite in the hunting trilogy. Goldberg praises the setting, describing it as "Maurice Noble's beautiful snowscape", reasoning "it makes the action read that much cleaner".[3] When discussing the whole hunting trilogy, Forrest Wickman at Slate states "The formula is simple, but what makes the cartoons classics are the small variations in execution." Wickman praises the various ways Daffy is shot.[4]

A small clip from this cartoon (specifically the scene where an insane Daffy shouts at Elmer, "I'M AN ELK! SHOOT ME!") is briefly seen in the movie Space Jam, right after the camera moves away from the clip from Muzzle Tough.

• VHS: Bugs Bunny's Wacky Adventures, Lethal Weapon 3 (UK release only)
• Laserdisc: Daffy Duck's Screen Classics: Duck Victory
• DVD: Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3
• DVD/Blu-ray: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2

• Duck! Rabbit, Duck! at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Duck! Rabbit, Duck! on IMDb