Wideo Wabbit

Wideo Wabbit is a 1956 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.
== Plot ==
Bugs Bunny is singing "This Is My Lucky Day" when he sees an ad in the newspaper wanting a rabbit for a show at the QTTV-TV studio. When he arrives there, the producer assigns Bugs to climb a ladder, whereupon Bugs asks why he has to climb the ladder and the producer replies, "Most of our actors, we start at the bottom. We're starting you at the top."
However, unbeknownst to Bugs, it is a hunting show starring Elmer Fudd called The Sportsman's Hour, sponsored by The French Fried Fresh Frozen Rabbit Company of Walla Walla, Washington. He tells the audience how he goes about getting a rabbit. He signals the cue for Bugs to come up out of the hole by push button and 10,000 volts' worth of electricity. When Bugs comes out of the hole, Elmer starts shooting. Bugs starts a fuss about the shooting, and Elmer tells him not to make a scene and everybody is watching, "How d'you expect me to bwast you when you're moving awound wike that?" Bugs tells Elmer to let them look and that it is his first chance on TV. Elmer takes a couple of shots at Bugs as he runs away and Bugs takes this as professional jealousy, but on a scale he had never imagined. The producer holds a sign up in front of the camera that says "Program Temporarily Interrupted. Please Stand By."
This leads to a chase all over the studio wherein Bugs goes into each and every show in the studio. The first show he does is a parody of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx called You Beat Your Wife. Elmer comes in, and Bugs as Groucho asks Elmer what the secret word was for $50, what his name was and what he was looking for. Elmer says he was looking for a rabbit, a crazy fresh rabbit. In response, Bugs as Groucho says "Oh, a fresh hare fiend." As Groucho, Bugs asks Elmer "Have you stopped beating your wife?" As Elmer stutters and stammers for a reply, Bugs walks out and says, "While you're making up your mind, I'll go slip out of these wet clothes — and into a dry martini, eh!" (note: the line was actually attributed to Robert Benchley). Elmer sees Bugs in disguise and tells him off, Bugs kisses him and tells him, "Aw, you been peekin'." 
Next, Elmer is hit by a pie by Bugs in a parody of You Asked for It called You're Asking for It. Then, Bugs plays Liberace who is called "Liver-ace", and when Elmer comes in, he is playing the piano. When Bugs sees Elmer, he does his Liberace imitation showing his teeth as piano keys, calling Elmer "his brother George", and tells Elmer to take the candelabra over to Mother. The candles are actually sticks of dynamite; when Elmer walks slowly and stops, there is an explosion. Bugs as Liberace says, "I did that because I want my show to go over with a bang." Afterwards, Bugs as a studio usher sends Elmer into the show You Were There, a takeoff of the show You Are There, depicting Custer's Last Stand. When he comes out, Elmer has arrows in his back and a tomahawk in his head, prompting Bugs to direct Fudd to Studio C for "The Medic".
The final time, Bugs as a producer, sends Elmer into a show called Fancy Dress Party, a spoof of Masquerade Party, where he is now disguised as a rabbit and Bugs as Elmer in his hunting outfit. Bugs goes back on The Sportsman's Hour and shoots Elmer in his rabbit suit and then Bugs as Ed Norton from The Honeymooners comes out and gives Elmer a cigar with Groucho Marx's glasses and eyebrows and says "Gee, what a Groucho."
== Caricatures ==
* Frank Nelson
* Groucho Marx
* Liberace
* Art Carney
== Availability ==
BUGS BUNNY TRUTH OR HARE.jpg|(1992) VHS Bugs Bunny Truth or Hare
Bumper2000.jpg|(2000) VHS Mil-Looney-Um 2000 - Bumper Collection
lt ww vcd.jpg|(2003) VCD Wideo Wabbit
Golden Collection box 3.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two (restored)
== Censorship ==
* When ABC aired this short on The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show on 14 November 1987, they left the You Beat Your Wife sequence intact, though this short did air only once on the show, due to viewer backlash about the insensitive pun joking about domestic violence. The following scenes were edited:https://web.archive.org/web/20060827172907/http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/bugstweety/bntmem1.html
** A dynamite gag during the Liberace sequence where dynamite sticks are substituted for candles was edited to remove the explosion, though Bugs' comment "I did that because I wanted my program to go over with a BANG!" was left in.
** A gun gag that leaves silhouettes in the wall behind Bugs.
** The "Custer's Last Stand" sequence to remove the shot of Elmer with arrows in his back and a tomahawk in his head.
* On The WB, Cartoon Network (after 2001; pre-2001 showings were uncut), Boomerang, and Tooncast, the You Beat Your Wife sequence is edited to remove all references in dialogue to the title, which is a spousal abuse-themed pun on the Groucho Marx show, You Bet Your Life. This leads to many jumpy and near-incomprehensible dialogue and changing the punchline to make it seem like Elmer could not answer the question about who he is and what he does for a living, rather than struggling to answer the question about whether or not he has stopped beating a wife he does not have. It has since been removed from Cartoon Network's and Boomerang's cartoon rotation after Cartoon Network pulled Looney Tunes cartoons from its programming and the cartoon seldom airs nowadays.
**Both Cartoon Network and the WB also covered the offending title on the podium. While Cartoon Network did a more seamless job in covering it with digital editing programs, the WB used a light brown square to cover the "You Beat Your Wife" sign on the podium that stood out and momentarily disappears in certain shots, making it seem obvious that something has been censored. The Boomerang and Tooncast versions use the Cartoon Network edited version as well.
* On the WB, in addition to the above edit, the entire "Custer's Last Stand" sequence was cut.The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Page: U-Z http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-u-z.aspx
== Notes ==
* The working title was "Omni Bunny".
* This is the only 1998 dubbed version to be released censored, as it was also released on the VHS of the same name in most European countries.
* Most of this short was used in the TV special Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television.
* Among the television programs parodied are You Bet Your Life (1950) starring Groucho Marx, You Are There (1953) with Walter Cronkite, and The Liberace Show (1952) starring Liberace.
* The second time in which Bugs disguises himself as an usher to send someone into a show that involved Indians and then trick his enemy into a hunter/sportsman related show was in "People Are Bunny". Only that time, the victim of Bugs' trick was Daffy Duck.
* The call letters for the TV station in the short, "QTTV", may be a play on KTTV, a local television station in Los Angeles.
* This is the final Bugs Bunny short which uses the Carl Stalling melody "What's Up, Doc?" over the title cards.
* This short updates Bugs' design on the "Bugs Bunny In" card for the first time since "Hare Trigger", which would be used up to "False Hare".
* When Bugs impersonated the voices of both Groucho Marx and later Ed Norton from "The Honeymooners" in two scenes, Mel Blanc did not provide the voices in those two sequences; instead Daws Butler provided those voices. Blanc admittedly found himself to be terrible at celebrity voice impersonations, despite the fact that his Pepe Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn characters are based on celebrity impressions.
* In the late-1990s, whenever Cartoon Network would have technical difficulties interrupting a broadcast, in lieu of a slide showing the channel logo/name, a screenshot of the producer holding the "PLEASE STAND BY" sign up to the TV camera would be used.https://youtu.be/OWz0ule9lM4
* The animation of Bugs as Liberace playing "Hungarian Rhapsody" on the piano and getting his fingers tied in a knot is reused from "Rhapsody Rabbit". Coincidentally, Tedd Pierce co-wrote that cartoon with Michael Maltese.
* The part where Bugs is a studio page at the TV studio is repeated again in the 1959 cartoon "People Are Bunny", this time with Daffy Duck as his victim.
* This is the second time that Bugs has played Groucho Marx to avoid Elmer. The first time was Friz Freleng's cartoon "Slick Hare" (1947), but Elmer comes much closer to catching Bugs in that Groucho scene than in the one in "Wideo Wabbit" by means of disguise as Groucho's brother Harpo.
* When Elmer is tracking Bugs' footprints while giving tips, music is reused from "A Wild Hare" where Bugs taps on Elmer's head and introduces his catch phrase. McKimson (who directed this cartoon) animated "A Wild Hare" without receiving screen credit.
== Gallery ==
Wideo Wabbit Lobby Card.PNG|Lobby card
51k3UTzNaUL.jpg|Lobby card
Wideo Wabbit credits.png|Credits
Wideo Wabbit director credit.png|Directors' credit
Bugs01.jpg|The censored podium edit on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and most PAL international versions
WideoWabbitColorModelSmall.png
WideoWabbitLeadSheet1.jpg
WideoWabbitLeadSheet2.jpg
WideoWabbitLeadSheet3.jpg
Wideo wabbit controversial scene.png|The infamous scene, uncensored
== References ==
== External links ==
* Uncensored vs. censored comparison of the "You Beat Your Wife" scene
Category:1956
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Elmer Fudd Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson
Category:Bugs Bunny Robert McKimson
Category:Hollywood in Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons animated by Ted Bonnicksen
Category:Cartoons animated by George Grandpré
Category:Cartoons animated by Keith Darling
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Daws Butler
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Irvin Jay
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas
Category:Caricatures of real people
Category:Cartoons that reuse footage from earlier cartoons
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist