Rabbit Punch

Rabbit Punch is a 1948 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.
== Title ==
The title refers to a then-recently banned boxing move, a punch to the back of the head.
== Plot ==
The World's Championship Fight is about to begin in a gigantic boxing stadium near Bugs' hole. Tonight's fight features the battle between the Champ, "Battling McGook", and his challenger "Dyspectic McPlaster". It is clearly a one-sided fight as the Crusher, much larger and heavier than the scrawny challenger, smiles casually as he effortlessly pummels his opponent. This prompts Bugs to heckle the Crusher for playing dirty, enough for the latter to come up behind him. When Bugs calls to the Crusher to pick on somebody his own size, the Crusher decides Bugs will do, and throws him through the Dressing Room and into a corner of the ring. Bugs then admits it was a mistake to open his "big fat mouth".
In the ring, the Crusher flexes to show off his massive and powerfully built muscles, making them bulge out from under his seemingly chubby frame, even getting biceps on his biceps. Not wanting to be outdone, Bugs tries flexing his muscles, which are only grape-sized.
The bell rings to start Round 1. Bugs comes up to the Crusher pretending to give him a sporting chance. Content at Bugs' inexperience, the Crusher merely punches Bugs back to his corner. Bugs charges and gets pushed back twice. Bugs then decides to pull off a little "stagety." Coming back to the center of the ring, Bugs fakes fainting. When the Crusher looks over him, Bugs punches the Crusher up to the ceiling. The bell then rings to finish Round 1.
While Bugs relaxes to a good book, a comfy armchair, and a radio, the Crusher decides to cheat by building a brick boxing glove over his right hand. The bell then rings to start Round 2. Just as Bugs and Crusher come towards each other, the Crusher punches Bugs with his brick boxing glove, sending Bugs back to his corner.
Just as Bugs is "kissing the canvas," the sportscaster starts the count, but Bugs snatches his microphone and immediately starts describing action that's not taking place, confusing the Crusher long enough to trip over him. Angered, the Crusher pulls off his gloves and comes to the center of the ring, which makes Bugs pull off his gloves (stuffed with horseshoes) and come to the center of the ring. The two of them wrestle, with Bugs picking the Crusher up and then getting flattened by the Crusher's weight. Bugs then gets himself flapped out again, and begins trying to pull the Crusher's leg, while Crusher plays solitaire with cards. Knowing this is not getting him anywhere, Bugs takes a plank and breaks it, making the Crusher think Bugs broke his leg and yelps in pain. Bugs comes in disguised as a doctor and, after a fake examination, the prognosis being: "A compound fracture of the left clavichord, with complications yet", wraps up the Crusher from head to toe in the bandages. Then, he punches the Crusher so that the latter bounces off the four poles of the ring, making "Tilt" flash up as in a pinball machine.
Before Round 37, the Crusher sneaks over to Bugs' corner and puts axle grease in his resin box. While the Crusher sneaks back to his corner, Bugs wipes his feet unknowingly in the grease. The Crusher sees this, and when the bell rings to start the round, he runs over but stops immediately. Bugs is "ice skating" with the grease on his feet. He spin-punches the Crusher in the face multiple times. After spinning around, Bugs calls "Ta da da," only to have the Crusher punch him in the jaw and back to his corner.
In Round 48, the Crusher gets up just as the bell rings, but stops when Bugs comes in disguised as a popcorn vendor. Bugs gives the Crusher a box of hot buttered popcorn, which Crusher discovers too late is explosives in disguise. It blows up in his face.
In Round 73, just asthe Crusher is practicing getting up from his corner, Bugs comes up and asks him to hold a giant slingshot. When the Crusher wonders what is going on, Bugs stretches the rubber band back to his corner and puts a boulder in it. Then he lets go of the rubber band, so the boulder hits the Crusher in the face, knocking him out and sending him falling to the canvas.
Before Round 98, Bugs is in a giant archery bow and the Crusher is in a cannon. When the bell rings to start the round, Bugs fires himself from the bow and the Crusher pulls the cord, firing himself from the cannon. Both just hit each other head on and stars erupt.
In Round 110, the Crusher ties Bugs to a railroad track. Then he hurries up the tracks and fetches a steam train, and starts to go towards Bugs head on. All Bugs can do is start sweating and watch as the train comes closer and the Crusher gloat over his intended victory.
Just when it looks like Bugs is scared as the train is going to hit Bugs, the film appears to fall out of its sprockets and then it "breaks". Bugs comes onto a solid-white screen and breaks the fourth wall by apologizing to the audience for the inconvenience, but admits the film "didn't exactly break". He then takes out a pair of scissors and gives a smirk.
== Availability ==
Gfsdgsfdfgg.jpeg|8mm (Associated Artists Productions print)
Viddy-Oh! For Kids VHS 3.jpg|(1986) VHS Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival Featuring "Hold the Lion, Please" (only in PAL regions)
lt cel bb1.jpg|(1987) VHS Bugs Bunny No 1
Cartoon Moviestars 3.jpg|(1989) VHS Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Bunny Classics: Special Collector's Edition
LT Laserdisc 3.jpg|(1989) LaserDisc Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Bunny Classics: Special Collector's Edition
Bugs Bunny Collection VHS 8.jpg|(1990) VHS Bugs Bunny Collection The Very Best of Bugs
Golden-Age-of-Looney-Tunes-2-F.jpg|(1992) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2, Side 4: Chuck Jones
Ghsrtyrhteyj7r6i58j.jpg|(1996) VHS Further Adventures of Bugs Bunny
Golden Collection box 3.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Four
lt cas4.jpg|(2006) DVD Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 4
lt spotlight 7.jpg|(2009) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 7, Disc 2
lt cv3.jpg|(2018) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Volume 3
== Goofs ==
* During the scene when Bugs flies out of the dressing room in his boxing gear, his boxing gloves look more like his ordinary gloves; they return to normal when Bugs lands in his corner.
* During the "ice skating" scene, when Bugs comes up to the Crusher, he is not wearing his boxing gloves, but when he punches the Crusher in the face, the boxing gloves appear on his hands and then vanish.
== Notes ==
* Dyspectic McPlaster resembles an emaciated, stretched version of Private Snafu.
* The gag where Bugs gets hit to the corner and comes back with encouragement for his adversary was last used in 1946's "Baseball Bugs" and would be used again in 1949's "Knights Must Fall". In addition, the beginning of the cartoon where Bugs is booing and calling out on the Crusher for the latter's foul play on his rival Dyspectic McPlaster, only for the Crusher to put Bugs in the boxing ring in place of Dyspectic McPlaster was also re-used from the beginning of "Baseball Bugs".
* This is the first appearance of the Crusher, and second time Bugs takes on an adversary bigger than himself.
* This is the first time Bugs tries his hand at boxing.
* Bugs uses the slingshot gag again on Toro the Bull in 1953's "Bully for Bugs".
* First time an adversary ties Bugs to the railroad tracks instead of the other way round.
* The cut film gag was last used in the Daffy Duck and Porky Pig cartoon "My Favorite Duck". In this cartoon, Bugs does not disclose how the ending of the cartoon came out, leaving viewers to determine how the film would end.
**The ending of the short is likewise similar to the end of Friz Freleng's short "Hare Trigger", with Bugs somehow escaping a cliffhanger ending but not disclosing what actually happened.
* This is the second time voice actor Billy Bletcher uses his voice in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and first and only time he voices the Crusher.
* During production of this cartoon, Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese originally intended to include a referee who could interact with Bugs Bunny and the Crusher during the cartoon (it is unknown if he was intended to be as jolly and plump as the one from 1943's "To Duck .... or Not to Duck" or different from that character). Chuck Jones, however, decided not to include the referee in order to save production money. 
* The steam locomotive (No. 1043) that the Crusher is driving mirrors the articulated steam locomotives that ran on American railroads during the 1940s and 1950s, and also a 6-8-4-4-6 type engine. The number also refers to the production number of this cartoon.
* The Cartoon Festivals prints are damaged a.a.p. prints where the a.a.p. logo plays first, then the 1947-49 Blue Ribbon Color Rings from the "Inki and the Lion" opening; they also have light blue borders, which the 1939-40 version of "Merrily We Roll Along" plays over instead of the 1941-45 version before the print finally changes to another print that says "Rabbit Punch". This is an MGM/UA print and probably was hacked off by United Artists in the 1980s.
== Gallery ==
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44194831 560844724351824 1747632947340509184 n.jpg|Lobby card
Dasfghnbcv.webp|Lobby card
== References ==
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:1948
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons animated by Abe Levitow
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Peter Alvarado
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Boxing Cartoons
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package