Foghorn Leghorn

**Foghorn Leghorn** is a *Looney Tunes* character. He is a large anthropomorphic rooster with a red head, long red tailfeathers, and yellow talons with short yellow claws. He has a Virginian accent, a "good ol' boy" speaking style, and a penchant for mischief. He has a knack of saying, "I say" as a form of interjection in his speech.

He is frequently paired with Barnyard Dawg, Henery Hawk, and Miss Prissy in his cartoons.

## Origin

Foghorn was directly inspired by the popular character Senator Claghorn, a blustery Southern politician played by Kenny Delmar who was a regular character in *The Fred Allen Show*, a popular radio show of the 1940s. The rooster adopted many of Claghorn's catchphrases, such as "That's a joke, ah say, that's a joke, son." Delmar had based the character of Claghorn upon a Texas rancher who was fond of saying this.

A leghorn is a breed of chicken, and foghorn describes the character's loud, overbearing voice. At its most raucous, it sounds similar to that of another Blanc voice, Yosemite Sam. According to Leonard Maltin, the character's voice was also patterned after a hard-of-hearing West Coast-only radio character from the 1930s, known simply as The Sheriff, in a radio program called *Blue Monday Jamboree*.

Foghorn debuted 31 August 1946 in the Henery Hawk short *Walky Talky Hawky*.

## Filmography

### Shorts

1. "Walky Talky Hawky" (1946)
2. "Crowing Pains" (1947)
3. "The Foghorn Leghorn" (1948)
4. "Henhouse Henery" (1949)
5. "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight" (1950)
6. "A Fractured Leghorn" (1950)
7. "Leghorn Swoggled" (1951)
8. "Lovelorn Leghorn" (1951)
9. "Sock a Doodle Do" (1952)
10. "The EGGcited Rooster" (1952)
11. "Plop Goes the Weasel!" (1953)
12. "Of Rice and Hen" (1953)
13. "Little Boy Boo" (1954)
14. "Feather Dusted" (1955)
15. "All Fowled Up" (1955)
16. "Weasel Stop" (1956)
17. "The High and the Flighty" (1956)
18. "Raw! Raw! Rooster!" (1956)
19. "Fox Terror" (1957)
20. "Feather Bluster" (1958)
21. "Weasel While You Work" (1958)
22. "A Broken Leghorn" (1959)
23. "Crockett-Doodle-Do" (1960)
24. "The Dixie Fryer" (1960)
25. "Strangled Eggs" (1961)
26. "The Slick Chick" (1962)
27. "Mother Was a Rooster" (1962)
28. "Banty Raids" (1963)
29. "False Hare" (1964) (cameo)
30. "The Yolks on You" (part of *Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement*) (1980)
31. "Superior Duck" (1996), voiced by Frank Gorshin
32. "Pullet Surprise" (1997), voiced by Frank Gorshin
33. "Cock-a-Doodle Duel" (2004), voiced by Jeff Bennett

### TV shows

* *Baby Looney Tunes* (2005), voiced by Scott McNeil
* *The Looney Tunes Show* (2011), voiced by Jeff Bergman
* *New Looney Tunes* (2015), voiced by Jeff Bergman
* *Looney Tunes Cartoons* (2020), voiced by Jeff Bergman

### Movies

* *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* (cameo appearance) (1988)
* *Space Jam* (1996), voiced by Bill Farmer
* *Tweety's High-Flying Adventure* (2000), voiced by Jeff Bennett
* *Looney Tunes: Back in Action* (2003), voiced by Jeff Bennett
* *Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas* (2006), voiced by Joe Alaskey
* *Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run* (2015), voiced by Jeff Bergman
* *Space Jam: A New Legacy* (2021), voiced by Jeff Bergman

## References

2. ↑ Scott, Keith (2008). The Origin of Foghorn Leghorn, cartoonresearch.com