High Diving Hare
Tags: psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
Bugs Bunny is drumming up business for a vaudeville show in a remote Western town, during which there is a poster in the background for Frizby the Magician. Bugs mentions that one of the main attractions is the high-dive act of Fearless Freep, and the name sends Yosemite Sam into a joyful frenzy. Sam says "I'm a-splurgin'!" and buys as many tickets to the show as he can.When the show is on, Bugs is not far away from introducing Fearless Freep when he receives a telegram that informs him that Freep has been delayed by a storm and will not be able to appear until tomorrow. After Bugs announces this to the audience, an angry Sam insists on seeing the high-diving act, pulls out a gun on Bugs and forces him to the top of a high-dive platform, then pushes him to the edge of the board, where Bugs bares his claws to secure himself there. Bugs tells Sam to cover his eyes while he puts on his bathing suit, then proceeds to turn the board around to put Sam on the diving edge. Bugs makes some sounds that suggest that he has taken the dive, even giving an audible "SPLASH!", then Sam turns around and walks off the edge of the board and into the tank below. When Sam crashes in, the hoops break off the tank causing it to fall apart, but the water remains intact.On Sam's next attempt to get Bugs to dive, Bugs springs so hard on the board that he sends Sam up and over Bugs' head, separating him from his pistols in the process, then down toward the tank. At that moment, Bugs realises that he forgot to fill the tank with water, so he gets a bucket of water and uses it to throw the water down from the diving board past Sam. The water lands in the tank, but Sam misses the tank completely and smashes through the stage into the basement.The next time Sam walks to the end of the board, he finds Bugs standing on the board upside down and asks him "Great horny toads! What are ya doin' down there upisode-downy?" Bugs replies "I'm not upside down, doc. You are! Look!" When Sam looks "up", he sees the tank, and then falls into it.Sam then tries hitting Bugs verbally with "fightin' words", which leads Bugs to dare Sam to step across a line that he traces on the edge of the board. When Sam steps over the line, he is sent down towards the tank again, but rises up long enough to say to Bugs "I hate you!" before falling again.When Sam gets back to the top again, he finds himself stopped by a door that Bugs has placed on the board. Sam yells at Bugs to open the door, then after banging on it, he turns to the audience and says "You notice I didn't say `Richard'?". Sam backs up and charges at the door, and at the last moment, it is opened by Bugs, who gives Sam an anvil as he passes through that helps him on his way to another splash after his momentum sends him off the board.Sam returns to the platform at the top and finds himself in a setting that looks like a desert. Dressed like an American Indian, Bugs says to Sam "Quick! Him go that way! You take-em short cut! Head him off at pass!" Sam thanks the disguised Bugs, takes the way that he suggests, and dives off the board once again.We then see Sam starting to climb the ladder twice before diving back into the tank as the result of unseen setups. Finally, Sam is sure that he is going to make Bugs dive when he has the rabbit tied up and standing on the edge of the board while Sam saws away at the platform, gloating "Now ya smarty-pants, let's see ya get out-in this one! This time, you're a-diving!", but when Sam finishes cutting through the board, it is the ladder and platform that fall, leaving the cut plank with Bugs standing on it suspended in mid-air. Bugs turns to the camera and says, "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law!" The cartoon then ends by irising to the middle.

Review: One-Joke Story...And It Works Every Time!.
Bugs is in front of the Opry House in an Old West town, barking out all the acts trying to sell tickets for the show.
One of them is "Fearless Freep," the high diver.
"That's my boy!," yells Yosemite Sam, firing his pistols in the air.
He buys a lot of tickets and comes into the theater with his guns blazing.At the last second, Bugs gets a telegram from "Fearless" saying a storm has delayed him.
He relays that to the crowd but Yosemite demands to see the diving act, so he forces Bugs to do it!
He follows the rabbit all the way up the steps to the platform, threatening to shot him.The rest of the animated short is what happens afterward as things backfire on Sam. How many times can they play this one joke (Sam, not Bugs, taking the plunge) and still make it funny?
A very clever and funny cartoon..
Friz Freleng takes a chance on a one-joke idea that pays off big time in this hilarious short.
"Due to an unfortunate delay," announces the barker, Bugs Bunny, "Fearless Freep will be unable to perform his high-diving act today." But Yosemite Sam had bought out the house just to see Freep.
If Freep isn't going to dive, someone else will just have to.
And that someone is going to be Bugs Bunny.
Bugs is no high diver; but at gunpoint, he'll have to take his first-ever 500-ft.
Yosemite Sam will find himself tricked into doing the dive himself—many times—before realizing that no matter what he does, Bugs's blissful ignorance of physics will always save him.Friz Freleng said he took a big chance on this one-joke idea.
You've got to love this parody of human nature, as represented by Sam. The little bully doesn't get his way, so he takes it out on the closest person at hand.
Oh, and don't you love what Sam does the first time he tries to force Bugs off the diving board—and thinks he's succeeded?
If the bullies of the world are Yosemite Sams, why can't the rest of us be Bugs Bunnys?This short is available on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1..
possibly the best Bug/Sam short.
A hilarious Friz Freleng directed Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam short finds Yosemite Sam trying to get Bugs Bunny to perform in his high diving show after his star atraction can't make the show.
What follows with Bugs tricking Sam to dive again and again is vintage Looney Tune style antics that will make you cry with laughter.
Quite possibly my favorite Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam paring and that's no mean feat!
This cartoon is uncut (so you get quite a few more jokes that you would have missed if you caught it playing in syndication) on the  'Looney Tunes Golden Collection' on disk 1.
My all time favorite cartoon..
In a series of gags that can basically be boiled down to "Sam falls down" Friz Freleng proves just how important tempo and pacing are.
Friz actually "scripted" his cartoons using blank sheet music pages.
A perfect example is the sequence where we've seen Sam fall enough times that the screen locks to a shot of the a mid-point on the ladder.
We see Sam climb up, and a few seconds later we see him fall past us.
We don't even get to SEE the joke, we just know when it happened, and we know it's funny.
Add the alway perfect Carl Stalling music, and you get an idea of exactly what a Loony Tune is supposed to be..
From Fritz Freleng comes High Diving Hare, an exceptional and hilarious Bugs Bunny vs.
Yosemite Sam cartoon.
As others have noted it is basically a one-joke concept and this was a big risk admittedly, but it was a risk that worked!
The dialogue is sharp, witty, fresh and hilarious and the sight gags(mostly falls from big heights on Sam's behalf) are clever and funny every time.
Bugs is on top form, and Yosemite Sam is a delightful foil.
High Diving Hare also has a good story, that moves quickly enough to constantly maintain interest.In conclusion, if you love Looney Tunes or Bugs Bunny, I do highly recommend this cartoon.
10/10 Bethany Cox. Classic anvil-dropping Bugs/Yosemite Sam. This is a classic Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon and one of the all time greats of the Warner Brothers shorts collection.
The plot is this: Yosemite Sam is eager to see the star of the high-diving act, Fearless Freep.
When Freep fails to show, he forces the fast-talking usher, Bugs Bunny, to perform the act instead of Fearless Freep.
Bugs is extremely reluctant, but Yosemite Sam leaves him with no choice.
He and Sam chase hilariously chase each other around stage, up and down the tall high-diving ladder, and through various classic, anvil-dropping, TNT-exploding Warner Brothers gags, Bugs eventually, as always, comes out on top..
This cartoon isn't a "dive" at all..
"High Diving Hare" epitomizes the phrase "They don't make 'em like they used to." It features Bugs Bunny hosting a high-diving act when he learns that the performer can't arrive.
Incensed, Yosemite Sam - who'd earlier bought about 100 tickets - orders Bugs to dive at gunpoint.
But Bugs tricks Sam into diving.
When Bugs tries to continue the show, Sam once again orders Bugs up the ladder.
But no matter how many times he tries, Sam always ends up diving; Bugs Bunny has some great tricks up his sleeve.
And that end scene was a real hoot.I said it before and I'll say it again: the people who created the classic Looney Tunes cartoons were real geniuses..
Like how Sam shoots of his guns and how the audience clap to the beat before the show is supposed to start.
And when Bugs becomes forced to dive, it gets even better, as Sam himself becomes the star-of-the-show instead..
One of the funniest Bugs Bunny/Sam shows ever!.
I love it how it starts out with Bugs at that old opry house annoucing the events of the evening.
Then when Sam hears about Fearless Freep he goes crazy wanting tickets.
Then it is wild that just right after Bugs gets done annoucing that the Freep's act is the first one to come up he gets a telegram saying that the Freep is not able to make it due to a train or something running late.
Then it all gets so funny when Sam forces Bugs to climb that ladder and do the dive then Sam keeps on falling off instead.
Also a while back when they did a Looney Tunes Sportsman of the year contest and it got to the high diving it showed that Sam was the top high diver because of what he did when he went to see the Fearless Freep's act!.
Set back in the old west, during the days of the old traveling circuses, Bugs Bunny plays a stage presenter who oversells a high-diving act only for the diver to call in sick.
Frustrated and mad at the disappointment, Yosemite Sam demands satisfaction and threatens Bugs to perform the stunts himself.
Again and again Sam leads Bugs up the huge ladder to the diving board and every single time Bugs tricks him into going off himself.
Basically, the entire cartoon is a list of increasingly creative ways you can trick someone, blinded with rage, into doing the same, stupid thing.
Yosemite Sam is an idiot, and anyone with sense would just stop trying.
But because he's so dumb it makes every fall more and more funny.
Should be called: "High Diving Sam".
Of all the Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoons, this has remained one of my personal favorites.
The story starts by Sam buying a whole bunch of tickets to see Fearless Freep, the high diving act being promoted by Bugs Bunny at a circus (Sam was splurging).
But the fun begins when we find out that the main attraction can't make the show, so Yosemite makes Bugs be the act, or tries to anyway.What follows is a wonderful series of gags centering around the high diving platform, and Friz Freleng and his crew did an amazing job of building each climb up the platform, followed by someone (guess who) falling down.
There is one point in the cartoon where we have one of those brief Looney Tunes moments of pure genius when Sam keeps falling down and we don't even know what the cause is.Freleng wanted to create a foil for the ultra popular Bugs Bunny that would rival the rabbit's teamings with Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam fits the bill very nicely, thank you very much..
Classic Bugs Bunny short directed by Friz Freleng with a story by Tedd Pierce.
This is one of the Bugs cartoons I saw most as a little kid because it was on a compilation video that my teacher would play on rainy days when we couldn't go out for recess.
It's brilliantly simple as it's basically one gag done over and over but, trust me, it never stops being funny.
The premise is that Bugs is working as a barker for a show where there's a high diving act.
When the diver doesn't show up for the performance, angry audience member Yosemite Sam tries to force Bugs at gunpoint to perform the act himself.
What follows is Bugs repeatedly outsmarting Sam, resulting in Sam being the one to do the dive.
Like I said, it's one gag but it's done a little different each time and never gets old.
Excellent voice work from the great Mel Blanc.
It's a hilarious cartoon that every Looney Tunes fan should see.
For my money it's one of the best Bugs and Sam shorts ever made..
A high water mark for Freleng!.
Friz Freleng's 'High Diving Hare' is one of the director's best and best loved cartoons.
A master class in how to put a different spin on the same gag over and over again, 'High Diving Hare' quickly sets up its premise and then has tons of fun with it.
When high-diving daredevil Fearless Freep cancels his appearance at a carnival, Yosemite Sam will stop at nothing to see the diving act he's been promised.
Holding Bugs Bunny at gunpoint, he attempts to force him into performing the act himself.
Needless to say, it is Sam who ends up plunging into the water tank again and again and again.
Much like when Lucy convinces Charlie Brown that she won't pull away the football when he tries to kick it, 'High Diving Hare' derives its humour from the numerous different ways in which Bugs convinces Sam to take the plunge himself.
By the end of the cartoon, Freleng doesn't even need to show us this, such is the inevitability of the situation.
Instead he resorts to an inspired shot of Sam running up the ladder, a couple of seconds silence and then him plunging downwards.
'High Diving Hare' takes a minimalist concept and milks it dry.
Bugs Bunny.
High Diving Hare (1949) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Classic animation has Bugs Bunny hosting a carnival side show that promises a high diving act but when that act can't show up Yosemite Sam forces the rabbit to take his place.
Of course, things don't go as planned for poor Sam. This is a very entertaining short from the Looney Tunes series that manages to have some great laughs and some very good animation.
Whenever Bugs and Sam go against one another you can expect a lot of fun and that's exactly what we get here.
There are numerous great scenes but all of them center around one joke and that's Sam having to take the dives instead of Bugs.
It's something small but I love the animation of Sam's whiskers when he's falling..
High Diving Hare is a hilarious Bugs Bunny cartoon from Friz Freling.
In this cartoon directed by Friz Freling, Bugs is the carnival barker announcing high diving daredevil Fearless Freep as the big attraction.
Yosemite Same gets so excited he buys hundreds of tickets.
Bugs gets a telegram saying Freep won't show because he's delayed by a storm.
Sam ignores explanation and attempts to make Bugs do the dive.
Simply hilarious especially Bugs' line at the end..
Another great job for Friz.
"High Diving Hare" is a great Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.
As Freleng noted, this is essentially a one-gag picture, and indeed, it is delightful and exceptionally funny to see Bugs repeatedly get the best of the obnoxious Sam by tricking him into falling off a high-diving platform into a bucket of water (or sometimes NOT into the bucket!).One particularly memorable gag involves Sam falling off the diving board and briefly rising back in the air to tell Bugs he hates him before plunging back down into the water.
And, as some folks have already pointed out, near the end of the film the camera shows a still shot of Sam climbing up the ladder, followed by a few seconds of silence, and then Sam plunging down into the water without the viewer knowing how the mishap occurred.
As director Greg Ford noted in his audio commentary for another Friz Freleng cartoon, "Ain't She Tweet" (1952), great humor is not so much what you see or hear but what you DON'T see or hear, as the aforementioned scene indicates.And finally, let us not forget the musical contributions of Carl W.
Stalling (I am a professional musician, so it is usually very easy for me to pick out all the tunes and melodies that I recognize in these cartoons), as for example the descending piano glissando in the overhead shot of Sam plunging head-first into the bucket of water.
Very funny running gag film.
Bugs is the manager of a travelling show in the old west.
Yosemite Sam sees the poster for the show and comes to see `Fearless Freep' carry out his daring high dive routine into a small container of water.
However, Freep calls in sick and Bugs is forced to cancel that part of the show.
Very unhappy that he paid his money for nothing, Sam forces Bugs to do the dive himself - but he didn't reckon on how tricky Bugs can be!The reasons that I love Bugs Bunny cartoons can pretty much all be seen in this one short film - it is clever, funny, has great characters and relies on a simple set up to deliver one basic gag in several different ways.
Here, after a bit of set up, the jokes are all based around the fact that Bugs and Sam are on top of a high diving board, with Sam forcing Bugs to jump.
That is not a spoiler as it is the nature of Sam's falls that are funny - they aren't very clever but they are imaginative and are delivered with real humour and relish!Part of this great delivery are the characters themselves.
Sam fills this requirement really well and makes his falls funnier.
I have seen too many Bugs cartoons where he is less funny simply because he has no foil to work off - many great comedians are better with their straightman and the animated ones are no different.
Very much a two-hander, this is a fine example of what they could do.Overall this is a very funny cartoon that is successfully based on one running gag whereby Sam ends up falling from the platform.
The material is simple but the delivery is good and the end result is a very funny cartoon that gets better with each passing fall!.
"High Diving Hare" is a 7-minute Warner Bros cartoon from over 65 years ago, a point in time when cartoons were possibly at their peak.
I always thought Yosemite Sam was a more interesting villain than Elmer and here he finally gets his moment in the limelight.
Sam wants his high diving show and he shall have it, only problem is that he is gonna be the star himself.
He wants Bugs to jump down from the platform, but no matter what happens, it's always Sam who falls.
There were a couple very funny moments in this Freleng/Pierce/Blanc short film and I highly recommend the watch.
An all right Looney Tunes episode..
I am not especially keen on the slapstick and farce of Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny episodes, but (the ones I've watched anyway) they always seem to have good qualities stuck into them like good bright paint on a canvas full of not-so-bright colours.In "High Diving Hare", the good points of this Looney Tunes short are the quotes, the theme of the episode and a few of the cleverer slapstick and farce jokes.
Bugs Bunny is a good character as usual here, unfortunately Yosemite Sam is not at his best, but it it does not matter too much.
The thing I personally liked most about this short is the last line at the end (from Bugs Bunny) which is one of my new favourite Looney Tunes lines (I'd love to tell you what it is but I don't want to give away any spoilers).
Overall, a pretty much average episode (in my opinion anyway), but worth watching, especially for slapstick and farce lovers and for people who like Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny teamed up.
Enjoy "High Diving Hare"!
Yosemite Sam uses all his Red State "smarts" .
. in a stubborn attempt to terrorize Bugs Bunny during Warner Bros.' animated short, HIGH DIVING HARE.
Warner uses HIGH to warn us that no one is safe when guns are around.
Warner says apples don't kill people--guns do!
Warner's HIGH illustrates this by showing the UNARMED Bugs being able to think circles around the over-armed Sam. Yosemite takes nine deadly falls to Mr. Bunny's none, which is Warner's way of saying that cowardly gun bullies such as Sam die a thousand deaths, as Brave Pacifists like Bugs can go but once.