Muscle Tussle

Muscle Tussle is a 1953 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.
== Title ==
The title is likely a play on "muscle tissue".
== Plot ==
One day at a beach, people are enjoying themselves and children are swimming. Daffy is there with his girlfriend Melissa. She and Daffy are taking photos of her on the beach as she poses. When Daffy asks her to "turn [her] head and look over [her] shoulder" to strike a pose, she notices a muscular duck near the fitness equipment. She is immediately swooned by the duck, who notices her admiration and teases her with a pose of his own. Daffy is focusing the camera when he spots the Herculean duck now standing beside his impressed girlfriend. Believing that he will sweep her off her feet, Daffy approaches and confronts the duck. He tells Daffy that, if he doesn't back off and stop yelling at him, he will be forced to knock his head so far down between his shoulders that he'll have to unbutton his vest to eat. As Melissa watches, Daffy laughs off his threat, causing the male duck to follow through. Daffy, with his head now bashed down into his chest, opens his shirt to say "One cheeseburger, hold the onions..." Melissa checks her makeup and tells Daffy that he shouldn't take this disrespect, and tells him to stand up to the bully. Daffy becomes meek, afraid he will be beaten up violently by this big guy and made a fool of, even taking the bully's side before it's through. Melissa proclaims him a coward, not able to stand up for himself after provoking the other man. She tells Daffy she doesn't like cowards, saying she prefers big, strong men like him. She leaves Daffy in disgust with the muscular duck, calling Daffy a scrawny little nine-pound weakling. Angry and offended, Daffy says that he is obviously a "scrawny little *ten*-pound weakling."
A salesman hears Daffy and says he is selling "Atom Col", a new wonder formula tonic developed to build one's strength. He offers Daffy a sample of the "elixir" by swiping his cash and shoving a spoonful down his throat. The tonic contains mostly "hot mustard", causing Daffy to sputter, cough, spit fire, and nearly pass out. The crooked "salesman" then offers Daffy a chance to "test" the muscle building liquid by blowing up two balloons, attaching them to a pole and painting "5,000 pounds" on them while Daffy is incapacitated. When Daffy lifts the "weight" successfully, he regains his confidence and goes to find his girlfriend to win her back. He finds her with the muscular duck, who is singing and playing "Chick-a-ling bone, come with me, down to Nashville, Tennessee" on guitar. He gets her attention, and tells her that he is a "red blooded he-duck."
The bigger duck hears Daffy's boast and takes it as a challenge. He goes up to a steel gymnastics structure and rips off one of the pipes, effortlessly tying the metal into a knotted bow on a signpost. Daffy tries the same trick with a rental fishing rod at a boating area, but only ties his own arms in a knotted bow around a post. Next, Daffy's rival goes to a chained off area of the beach, and yanks off the linked steel. He takes a bite out of the chain, chews the metal like bubblegum, and spits it out of his mouth like a gun, in the form of nails into a wooden pole. When he lets Daffy have a shot at it, he only breaks all his teeth, spitting them into the wood as he smiles. Next, the hunky duck does a balancing act, placing his finger onto the mouth of a glass soda bottle and tilting his body upward, he balances his entire body on one finger upside down. Daffy only loses his balance and falls into the bottle. Finally, the strong duck finds a very heavy steel sledgehammer and, with only a single swing of the wrist, breaks a huge boulder into tiny pebbles. Daffy can barely lift the hammer, and when he strikes one of the rocks, the impact shatters him into a thousand pieces. His beak tells the bully, "You're despicable!"
As his girlfriend walks off with the muscular duck, Daffy still doesn't give up, wondering how he can still prove himself, still believing to be stronger from the "muscle drug." He remembers the "barbell" the salesman gave him from before. Still finding it light, he hurries over to show his girlfriend and her latest crush that he was telling the truth about his strength. Daffy shows he can lift five thousand pounds by twirling the barbell like a baton and catching it with his foot. Both the other ducks stare in bewilderment and disbelief as Daffy challenges the muscular duck to do the same to prove his strength. The muscular duck arrogantly approaches the barbell and lifts with all his might, since he does not know it is just two balloons. He puts so much force into lifting the balloons, he shoots himself sky high to the point of barometric pressure bursting the balloons. He falls back to Earth as Daffy and his girlfriend look on in shock and confusion. With a mighty crash and shaking of the ground, the muscular duck crash lands. Daffy asks his girlfriend what she would call the sight of this. The muscular duck, now squashed to a tiny size says that they can call him "shorty," as he hobbles off quickly, dragging his arms behind him.
Daffy's girlfriend turns to him as she takes him back, saying she only likes them tall, dark.... and gruesome like him, to which Daffy chuckles.
== Caricatures ==
* W.C. Fields
* Veronica Lake
== Availability ==
DAFFY DUCK'S SCREEN CLASSICS.jpg|(1993) LaserDisc Daffy Duck's Screen Classics: Duck Victory
lt tatw.jpg|(2007) DVD Trouble Along the Way
=== Streaming ===
lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - )
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022) (restored)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2024 - ) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* The ABC version of this cartoon cut the part where the big, muscular duck pounds Daffy's head into his shirt.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-m.aspx
*When this short aired on WKBD in the 1980s, the first 2 minutes were cut due to time constraints, so the short now begins with the salesman trying to sell Daffy the Atomcol.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ-30Cm9Oeg
== Notes ==
* "Atom Col" is a reference to Hadacol, a vitamin/alcohol tonic taken off the market in 1952.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadacol
== Gallery ==
Muscle Tussle original rings with pro. number 1244.png|Original rings
MuscleTussleCredits1.png
MuscleTussleCredits2.png
MuscleTussleAnimatorDraft.jpg|Animator draft
File:Muscle Tussle (1953) - Beach.jpg
File:Muscle Tussle (1953) - Picture.jpg
File:Muscle Tussle (1953) - Focus.png
File:Muscle Tussle (1953) - Crushed.jpg
== References ==
== External links ==
* Baxter's Breakdowns
Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson
Category:Shorts
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:1953
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons animated by Charles McKimson
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Givens
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Carlos Manríquez
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Gladys Holland
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer