High Diving Hare

High Diving Hare is a 1949 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng. 
== Plot ==
Bugs Bunny is a carnival barker drumming up business for a nighttime vaudeville show in a remote western town. One of the main attractions is the daring daredevil "Fearless Freep" and his high-dive act. As soon as Yosemite Sam hears the name "Fearless Freep", he goes into a frenzy, buying as many tickets as he can. "I'm a-splurgin'!"
During the show, as Bugs is about to introduce Freep, he gets a telegram informing him that Freep is delayed by a storm and won't be able to appear until the next day. An angered Sam, not wanting his "four bits" he paid to see the show go to waste, still insists on seeing the high-diving act and forces Bugs at gunpoint to the top of a high-dive platform. But Bugs manages to pull out all his tricks and stops, and it is Sam who ends up doing all the diving, in a different comical setting nine separate times.
#Sam pushes Bugs to the edge of the platform, and Bugs bares his claws to secure himself to the edge of the board. Bugs dupes Sam into covering his eyes while he puts on his bathing suit, and then proceeds to spin the board around so that Sam is at the diving edge. Bugs makes it look like he's taken the dive, accompanied with an audible "SPLASH!!", but Sam turns around and starts to walk off, right off the edge and into the tank, which falls apart with the water still intact!
#Bugs springs on the board so hard (reciting "One for the Money") that he sends Sam up, over and down, separating Sam from his pistols in the process. Bugs then realizes that he forgot to fill the tank with water, so he grabs a bucket of water from off-camera and throws it down from the diving board past Sam. The water makes it into the tank, but Sam misses the tank altogether, smashing through the stage into the basement.
#Sam walks to the end of the board and finds Bugs standing under the board upside-down. "Great horny toads! What are ya doin' down there upside-downy?" But it is Sam who is upside-down. "I'm not upside down, doc. You are!" Sam looks "up", sees the tank, and falls "up" into it.
#Having been verbally hit with "fightin' words", Bugs dares Sam to "step over this line", and Sam agrees to. Sam steps over it, sending him down for the splash again, but not before springing back up briefly to declare: "I hate you!" 
#Sam is stopped by a door, and yells "Open up that door!" then asides, "You notice I didn't say Richard?" He backs up and charges towards the door, which Bugs opens at the last microsecond, leading Sam to another splash, this time assisted by an anvil which Bugs gives him.
#Bugs, dressed as an Indian, points Sam to a "short-cut" in a desert-like setting. "Quick! Him go that way! You take-em short cut! Head him off at pass!" Sam thanks the "Indian" and takes the route leading to yet another dive.
After two more dives in which the setups are unseen, Sam finally has Bugs tied up and standing on the edge of the platform, with Sam sawing away at the board, gloating, "Now, you smarty-pants, let's see you get out of this one! Ha-ha-ha-ha! This time, you're a-diving!" However, as soon as Sam cuts through the board, it's the ladder and platform that falls, leaving the cut plank suspended in mid-air. Bugs cracks, "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law!"
== Availability ==
W UK10552 LooneyTunesVideoShowNo17The.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 17
24Karat-FrizFreleng.jpg|(1985) VHS A Salute to Friz Freleng
BUGS BUNNY WINNER BY A HARE.jpg|(1993) LaserDisc Winner by a Hare
ClassicCollection.jpg|(1995) VHS Classic Collection (WHSmith Exclusive Video)
FROM HARE TO ETERNITY.jpg|(1998) VHS From Hare to Eternity
LTCE VOL 9 A LOONEY LIFE.jpg|(2000) VHS Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 9: A Looney Life (1998 THIS VERSION, without dubbed notice)
LT Golden Collection 1.jpg|(2003) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc One (1998 THIS VERSION, without dubbed notice, low toned)
Lt cbobb.jpg|(2003) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Bugs Bunny
Lt best kfc 2.jpg|(2005) DVD The Best of Looney Tunes (KFC), Volume 2
lt spotlight 7.jpg|(2009) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 7, Disc 1
Lt 3sdt.jpg|(2010) DVD 3 Spooky DVD Treats
Bugs Bunny - Wasically Wabbit Front Cover.jpg|(2011) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Wascally Wabbit
lt bbot bb.jpg|(2011) DVD Bugs Bunny
Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection- Looney Tunes.jpg|(2013) DVD Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Looney Tunes (Europe only; replaced by "Hillbilly Hare" on the American DVD)
LTPC Volume 3 Cover.png|(2011) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One (restored, low-toned)
LT Platinum Collection VOL 3 DVD Cover.png|(2011) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One (restored, low-toned)
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection.png|(2020) DVD Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 1
=== Streaming ===
lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - )
== Censorship ==
ABC has aired two edited versions of this cartoon—one for The Bugs Bunny Show and another for The Bugs & Tweety Showhttp://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-h.aspx
* The version that aired on the original version of The Bugs Bunny Show shortened Bugs Bunny's carnival barking and cut Yosemite Sam's line as he enters the platform "Ya notice I didn't say a-Richard?"
* The version that aired on The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show left in the scenes that were cut on The Bugs Bunny Show, but cut the scene where Bugs (while on the high-dive) disguises himself as an Indian and tells Sam "Him go that-a-way! You take-um shortcut! Head him off at past! Ugh!" (this scene was also cut from Nickelodeon's version of this cartoon, though, surprisingly not Cartoon Network, Boomerang, or MeTV, since those channels have a history of editing and banning cartoons with American Indian stereotypes), along with the scene where Sam strangles Bugs, and then Bugs tells Sam that he doesn't want to do it because he gets "goosebumps on his goosebumps", and Sam forces him to do so by shooting at his feet.
** For unknown reasons (possibly due to time constraints or a technical gaffe) the September 11, 1993 airing of this short also cut out the entire opening, including the TV title card.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUxrkx9k0_s
== Notes ==
* This is last cartoon where Bugs is sitting on the WB shield until "(Blooper) Bunny" in 1991. Shorts following this one have his face appear much like the 1944-45 cartoon openings.
* The short is an expansion of a gag from "Stage Door Cartoon", also directed by Freleng.
* One of the posters in the background is for "Frizby the Magician", a reference to director Friz Freleng.
* This cartoon, though edited for time, was used in Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie. 
* This was the first cartoon to be broadcast in the first episode of Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny & Friends. 
* Bugs claims to have acrophobia, the fear of heights. 
* Sam's aside "You notice I didn't say Richard?" was inspired by the 1947 hit record "Open the Door, Richard!" by Jack McVea.https://www.cartoonbrew.com/old-brew/open-the-door-richard-1049.html Such line was mentioned in the unaired ToonHeads episode "The Twelve Missing Hares" as an example of references obscure to modern audiences.
* When Yosemite Sam falls into the tub after Bugs tells him that he is upside down, a bird's-eye view overview of Sam's descent to the water tank is shown. This predates the official appearance of the Canyon Fall Gag in "Fast and Furry-ous" by a few months.
* This is the first time Sam says two of his most notable catchphrases: "Great horny toads!" (when Bugs stands "upside-down" on the diving platform) and "I hate you." (after he steps over the line on the platform)
== Gallery ==
HighDivingHareCredits1.png
HighDivingHareCredits2.png
45539896 309469559651621 6115615176998780928 n.jpg|Lobby card
File:High Diving Hare (1949) - Opry House.jpg
File:High Diving Hare (1949) - High Diving Act.jpg
File:Septbugsbunny2977 0.png|Production cel
==References==
==External links==
* High Diving Hare on the SFX Resource
See also List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
 
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Yosemite Sam Cartoons
Category:Hollywood in Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:1949
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer