Bugs Bunny

### Friends

Daffy Duck (best friend), Porky Pig (second best friend), Lola Bunny (girlfriend), Speedy Gonzales, Tweety, Sylvester, Tasmanian Devil, Granny, Witch Hazel (sometimes), Gossamer (sometimes), Pepe Le Pew, Tina Russo, Foghorn Leghorn, Pete Puma, Mac and Tosh, Road Runner, Petunia Pig, Penelope Pussycat, Michael Jordan, Stan Podolak, The Nerdlucks/ The Monstars, D.J. Drake, Kate Houghton, LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Roger Rabbit, Eddie Valiant, Jessica Rabbit, Baby Herman, Benny the Cab, Dolores, Lt. Santino, Marvin Acme, R.K. Maroon, Ann Darrow, King Kong, Jack Driscoll, Carl Denham, Charles Weston, Charlie the Cook, Captain Englehorn, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Constance Bonacieux, D'Artagnan, King Louis XIII of France, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Jack, Humpty Dumpty, Three Little Pigs, Golden Harp, Three Bears, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Gena, Mama Dinosaur, Lenny, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Wonder Twins, Gleek, The Flash, Catwoman, Rick Blain, Ilsa Lund, Victor Laszlo, Sam, Captain Louis Renault, Ugarte, Yosemite Sam (sometimes), Elmer Fudd (sometimes), Marvin the Martian (sometimes), Wile E. Coyote (sometimes), other friends

### Enemies

Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck (sometimes), Tasmanian Devil (sometimes), Gossamer, Witch Hazel, Nasty Canasta, Rocky and Mugsy, Cecil Turtle, Mr. Swackhammer, The Nerdlucks/ The Monstars (formerly), Mr. Chairman, Judge Doom, Toon Patrol, The Witch Doctor, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Captain Rochefort, The Giant, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Johnson, Terisha, Lex Luthor, Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman (formerly), Black Manta, Professor Zoom, Sinestro, Cheetah, Captain Nils Helstrom, Major Strasser, Al-G Rhythm, Goon Squad, other enemies

**Bugsworth Bunny** (simply known as **Bugs Bunny**) is the main protagonist of the *Looney Tunes* franchise. He is a mischievous rabbit who goes on adventures, survive events and keeps his universe/home safe with the other *Looney Tunes* and the *Tiny Toons*.

He is voiced by the late Mel Blanc, the late Greg Burson, Billy West, the late Joe Alaskey, Samuel Vincent, and is currently voiced by both Jeff Bergman and Eric Bauza. In the Japanese dub, he is currently voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi.

## Personality

He is a cunning, carefree, charismatic, and smart rabbit. These personality traits are what gives him an advantage over his enemies, rivals and opponents. He is also known for his famous catch phrase; "Eh, what's up, doc?", which he typically uses as a greeting to anyone he encounters (usually while munching a carrot). Bugs is characterized as being clever and capable of outsmarting nearly anyone who antagonizes him, including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, the Tasmanian Devil, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, The Crusher, Count Bloodcount, and a whole bunch of others. Bugs almost always wins these contentions, a story pattern which recurs in *Looney Tunes* cartoons directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Chuck arranged for Bugs to be bullied, cheated, or threatened by the antagonists while minding his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense. He's also been known to break The 4th Wall by "communicating" with the audience, either by explaining the situation (e.g. "Be with you in a minute, folks!"), describing someone to the audience (e.g. "Feisty, ain't they?"), cluing in on the story (e.g. "That happens to him all during the picture, folks."), explaining that one of his antagonists' actions have pushed him to the breaking point ("Of course you know, this means war."), admitting his own deviousness toward his antagonists ("Gee, ain't I a stinker?"), etc.

When Bugs made his appearance, he promptly replaced Daffy Duck as the most popular Warner Bros. character. Daffy, jealous of his cartoon counterpart's ascension to fame, has on many occasions attempted to dethrone the rabbit. But he has never truly succeeded, always being outsmarted by the clever hare.

However, as time passed on, Bugs and Daffy's rivalry has turned friendlier in nature as the two usually hang out together in most cartoons and Bugs considers Daffy his best friend despite his faults, to which Daffy says the same thing.

Bugs will usually try to placate the antagonist and avoid contention, but when a villain pushes him too far, Bugs may address the audience and invoke his catchphrase "Of course you realize this means war!" before he retaliates, and the retaliation will be devastating. This line was taken from Groucho Marx and others in the 1933 film *Duck Soup* and was also used in the 1935 Marx film *A Night at the Opera*. Bugs would pay homage to Groucho in other ways, such as occasionally adopting his stooped walk or leering eyebrow-raising (in *Hair-Raising Hare*, for example) or sometimes with a direct impersonation (as in *Slick Hare*).

Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters (such as Cecil Turtle in *Tortoise Beats Hare*, or, in World War II, the Gremlin of *Falling Hare*), his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage. Most of Bugs' adversaries are extremely dim-witted, and Bugs is easily able to outwit and torment them, although on occasion they will manage to get the best of Bugs. Daffy Duck, who is arguably more intelligent but less clever, is unaffected by Bugs' usual schemes, which usually results in the two trying to outsmart the other with Bugs always triumphing in the end. However, there are only 5 that successfully defeated Bugs in the end of the cartoon, which are Elmer Fudd, Cecil Turtle, the Gremlin from *Falling Hare*, the unnamed mouse from *Rhapsody Rabbit*, and the fly from *Baton Bunny*.

During the 1940s, Bugs started off immature and wild (similar to Daffy), but by the 1950s his personality matured and his attitude became more refined and less frenetic. Although often shown as highly clever, Bugs is never actually malicious, and only acts as such in self-defense against his aggressors.

Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the 1934 film *It Happened One Night*, in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire.

The carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs Bunny's most well-known catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?", which was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny short, 1940's *A Wild Hare*. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in his native Texas and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the short was first screened in theaters, the "What's up, Doc?" scene generated a tremendously positive audience reaction. As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent films and cartoons. The phrase was sometimes modified for a situation. For example, Bugs says "What's up, dogs?" to the antagonists in *A Hare Grows In Manhattan*, "What's up, Duke?" to the knight in *Knight-Mare Hare* and "What's up, prune-face?" to the aged Elmer in *The Old Grey Hare*. He might also greet Daffy with "What's up, Duck?" He used one variation, "What's all the hub-bub, bub?" only once, in *Falling Hare*. Another variation is used in *Looney Tunes: Back In Action* when he greets a bubble gun-yielding Marvin The Martian saying "What's up, Darth?" (a reference to Darth Vader from the *Star Wars* film series).

Several Chuck Jones shorts in the late 1940s and 1950's depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases, intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Mexico (*Bully For Bugs*), The Himalayas (*The Abominable Snow Rabbit*) and Antarctica (*Frigid Hare*) all because he "shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee." He first utters that phrase in 1945's Herr Meets Hare, when he emerges in the Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When Hermann Göring says to Bugs, "Zair is no Las Vegas in Chermany" and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says, "Joimany? YIPE!", as Bugs realizes he's behind enemy lines. The confused response to his "left toin" comment also followed a pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in *My Bunny Lies Over The Sea*, while thinking he's heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it provides another chance for an ethnic stereotype: "Therrre's no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!" (to which Bugs responds, "Uh...what's up, Mac-doc?"). A couple of late-1950s/early 1960s shorts of this ilk also featured Daffy Duck traveling with Bugs ("Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?!").

Bugs Bunny has some similarities to figures from mythology and folklore, such as Br'er Rabbit, Nanabozho, or Anansi, and might be seen as a modern trickster (for example, he repeatedly uses cross-dressing mischievously). Unlike most cartoon characters, however, Bugs Bunny is rarely defeated in his own games of trickery. One exception to this is the short *Hare Brush*, in which Elmer Fudd ultimately carries the day at the end; however, critics note that in this short, Elmer and Bugs assume each other's personalities—through mental illness and hypnosis, respectively—and it is only by becoming Bugs that Elmer can win. However, Bugs was beaten at his own game. In the short *Duck Amuck* he torments Daffy Duck as the unseen animator, ending with his line, "Ain't I a stinker?" Bugs eventually feels the same wrath of an unseen animator in the short *Rabbit Rampage* where he is in turn tormented by Elmer Fudd. At the end of the clip Elmer gleefully exclaims, 'Well, I finally got even with that scwewy wabbit!"

Bugs wears white gloves, which he is rarely seen without, although he may remove one and use it for slapping an opponent to predicate a duel. Another glove-less example is *Long-Haired Hare*, where Bugs pretends to be the famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and instructs opera star "Giovanni Jones" to sing and to hold a high note. As Giovanni Jones is turning red with the strain, Bugs slips his left hand out of its glove, leaving the glove hovering in the air in order to command Jones to continue to hold the high note. Bugs then nips down to the mail drop to order, and then to receive, a pair of ear defenders. Bugs puts on the ear defenders and then zips back into the amphitheater and reinserts his hand into his glove as singer Jones is writhing on the stage, still holding that same high note.

Bugs Bunny is also a master of disguise: he can wear any disguise that he wants to confuse his enemies: in *Bowery Bugs* he uses diverse disguises: fakir, gentleman, woman, baker and finally policeman. This ability of disguise makes Bugs famous because we can recognize him while at the same time realizing that his enemies are stumped. Bugs has a certain preference for the female disguise: Taz, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam were fooled by this sexy bunny (woman) and in *Hare Trimmed*, Sam discovers the real face of "Granny" (Bugs's disguise) in the church where they attempt to get married. Bugs dressed as a female hunter, a temptress, the beautiful Brunhlide, a sexy lady and many others to fool Elmer Fudd and he also kissed him in his nose twice (Bugs and Elmer also happily got married in the end of *Rabbit of Seville* [Elmer as the bride and Bugs as the groom], as well as in *Bugs' Bonnets*). For all the gullible victims off all these disguises, however, for some reason, Daffy Duck and Cecil Turtle were among those who are never fooled.

Bugs Bunny may also have some mystical potential. In *Knight-Mare Hare* he was able to return to his bunny form (after being transformed into a pig) by removing his pig form as if it were a suit. Merlin of Monroe (the wizard) was unable to do the same thing. Later Bugs Bunny defeated the Count Blood Count in a magical spell duel. However, the story was a dream and Bugs Bunny's victory over Count Blood Count was a result of his intellect, not an innate magical power.

## Trivia

* When Mickey Mouse and Bugs met in *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*, they both had the same amount of screentime, because of a deal between Disney and Warner Brothers. While both protagonists, Mickey is the exact opposite of Bugs as he is proven to be more wiser, helpful and thoughtful and less arrogant and troublesome while Bugs seems to show very little consideration for others often.
* While being the main protagonist, Bugs has also been a villainous character who defeated Porky Pig, John Sourpuss (although he is far more evil than Bugs), Elmer Fudd (in earlier shorts such as Wabbit Twouble or The Wacky Wabbit), and Daffy Duck. He does, however, receive his comeuppance in most shorts among torment and receiving his fair share of being the victim of punishment.
* He is the one of the only few Looney Tunes character to have more than one archenemy, another one being Foghorn Leghorn.
* He got second place on the official WarnerMedia's March Madness Bracket Challenge on their Twitter and Instagram, but lost to Yang Xiao Long in the final round.
* Bugs appears to have a bad sense of direction, as anytime he tries to go somewhere he wishes to go to, he ends up in a different area and says he knew should’ve taken a left turn at Albuquerque, New Mexico.
* In *Looney Tunes Back in Action*, Bugs got shot by Elmer Fudd for the first time since Daffy Duck was fired, which was a poor decision Kate Houghton made without thinking (Even Bugs himself was aware that the punchline couldn't work without Daffy).