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Big House Bunny is a 1950 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng.

Plot[]

Needing to get away from hunters, Bugs digs a tunnel and accidentally winds up in Sing Song Prison. As he tries to walk away, prison guard Sam Schultz beats Bugs with a billy club, telling him, "Trying to pull an escape, #777174, huh?" Bugs replies, "Oh, you're mistaken, Doc! You see, I'm not #777174 - I'm only 3 1/2." Sam finds this fine, and soon Bugs is in a prison uniform, breaking rocks with the prison number "3 1/2" as Bugs says, "Eh, my mother told me there'd be days like this."

When Sam tells Bugs he'll be in prison for fifty years, Bugs tries to make an escape, telling Sam that a different prisoner is escaping over the wall. Bugs puts his own ball, to which he's chained, in the cannon, which Sam fires, pulling Bugs over the wall. Sam chases after Bugs and brings him back.

When Sam attempts to put Bugs into a jail cell, Bugs pulls a switch by tricking Sam into thinking the outside of the cell is the inside, and vice versa. This results in Sam being locked up instead. When this ploy fails, Sam vows to place Bugs in solitary confinement for 99 years, to which Bugs replies, "You wouldn't be so tough if you weren't wearing that uniform!" Sam takes the bait and doffs his jacket and cap, while Bugs, in a striped prison tunic and hat, does the same. After a few fight gestures from Sam, Bugs concedes and dons Sam's guard uniform, leaving Sam to unthinkingly don the prison garb, at which point Bugs summons the guards and gets Sam locked up instead. Although now free to leave through his tunnel, Bugs is having too much fun to quit outsmarting Sam, so, posing as a sympathetic guard, he hands Sam an 'escape kit', complete with map and pickaxe. Sam digs into a jungle and starts walking through it. As soon as he reaches the end of the jungle, he sticks his head out of the plants and hears a loud scream by the warden yelling "SCHULTZ! Just what is the meaning of this?" Behind the office door, the warden yells at Sam, "I won't stand for anymore of your nonsense. Now get out! Out!" Sam leaves the warden's office and says, "I hate him." Bugs walks around the prison, turns around, sees Sam running after him, and runs away. Bugs runs up a scaffold and descends like an elevator, and Sam tries to do the same thing but ends up being hanged. Sam yells in anger, but then the warden yells, "SCHULTZ! OFFICE!"

Sam walks into the warden's office, but it's Bugs disguised as the warden. He tells him to come in, offers him a cigar, and tells him to pull up a chair and sit down. Sam pulls up the electric chair, and Bugs tells him to have a light, but Bugs pulls the switch that turns on the electric chair, and Sam is electrocuted. Bugs takes the cigar out of his mouth but accidentally takes the fake mustache off. Sam notices, takes a bat, jumps on the desk, and tries to hit Bugs with it, but misses. Bugs runs out of the office, and Sam chases him, but Bugs runs back into the office. Sam runs into the office, too, and sees the real warden sitting at the desk, but he still thinks it's Bugs. Sam hits the warden on the head, and a large lump grows on his head when he gets up. Sam takes his hat off and knocks the lump back into his head. In his office, the warden says, "I've had all the tomfoolery I'm taking from you! Quiet! One more slip, you strudel-brained bonehead, and you'll be looking for another job. Now get out! OUT!" Sam walks out with purple eyes, and he has finally had enough. He opens the door, yelling for Bugs to get out. With Bugs gone, Sam is delighted... until he hears the warden over the intercom say, "SCHULTZ! OFFICE!"

Sam, in a prison uniform breaking rocks, wonders who was the "stool pigeon" who squealed on him. Bugs stands on a stool, acting like a pigeon.

Caricatures[]

Quotes[]

Bugs: Neh, my mudder told me dere'd be days like dis.

Bugs: Eh, ya wouldn't look so tough if you wasn't wearin' dat uniform.

Warden: SCHUUUUUUUUULTZ!!! Just what is the meaning of this? (cut to outside the warden's office) I WON'T STAND FOR ANY MORE OF YOUR NONSENSE, NOW GET OUT!! OUT!!!
Yosemite Sam as Sam Schultz: I hate him.

Warden: SCHULTZ!!! OFFICE!!!

Warden: I'VE HAD ALL THE TOMFOOLERY I'M GONNA TAKE FROM YOU! QUIET!! ONE MORE SLIP, YOU STRUDEL-BRAINED BONEHEAD, AND YOU'LL BE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER JOB, NOW GET OUT!! OUT!!!

Sam: I'd like to know what dirty stool pigeon squealed on me.
(Cut to Bugs standing on a stool, puffing his chest, and cooing like a pigeon.)

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • The entire scene of Bugs running up onto a gallows, pressing a button that lowers him like an elevator, and Sam Schultz doing the same, only to get hanged was cut when aired on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, ABC, and both the syndicated and the FOX version of The Merrie Melodies Show.[2]
    • The ABC version also cuts the part where Bugs (posing as the warden) offers Sam a cigar and a seat on the electric chair and pulls the lever that activates it.[2]
    • The Merrie Melodies Show version also edits out the part where after Sam is locked in one of the cells, Bugs poses as a crooked prison guard who gives Sam a prison escape kit and Sam tunnels his way out and into his boss' (the warden's) office, though the electric chair scene that ABC edited is left uncut here.[2]
  • MeTV airs this short uncut, including the often censored gallows scene.

Notes[]

  • When this cartoon was used in The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, the gallows scene was drastically changed. Instead of Sam being hanged after pressing the gallows button, there is brand-new animation added in which he gets launched into the air.
  • Vitaphone release number: 1815[3]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. https://archive.org/details/1976motionpictur3301213libr/page/121/mode/1up?view=theater
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-b.aspx
  3. Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts (in en). McFarland, page 299. ISBN 978-0786412792. 

External Links[]

Preceded by
Homeless Hare
Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1950
Succeeded by
What's Up Doc?
Bugs Bunny Shorts
1938 Porky's Hare Hunt
1939 Prest-O Change-OHare-um Scare-um
1940 Elmer's Candid CameraA Wild Hare
1941 Elmer's Pet RabbitTortoise Beats HareHiawatha's Rabbit HuntThe Heckling HareAll This and Rabbit StewWabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to SupperAny Bonds Today?The Wacky WabbitHold the Lion, PleaseBugs Bunny Gets the BoidFresh HareThe Hare-Brained HypnotistCase of the Missing Hare
1943 Tortoise Wins by a HareSuper-RabbitJack-Wabbit and the BeanstalkWackiki WabbitFalling Hare
1944 Little Red Riding RabbitWhat's Cookin' Doc?Bugs Bunny and the Three BearsBugs Bunny Nips the NipsHare Ribbin'Hare ForceBuckaroo BugsThe Old Grey HareStage Door Cartoon
1945 Herr Meets HareThe Unruly HareHare TriggerHare ConditionedHare Tonic
1946 Baseball BugsHare RemoverHair-Raising HareAcrobatty BunnyRacketeer RabbitThe Big SnoozeRhapsody Rabbit
1947 Rabbit TransitA Hare Grows in ManhattanEaster YeggsSlick Hare
1948 Gorilla My DreamsA Feather in His HareRabbit PunchBuccaneer BunnyBugs Bunny Rides AgainHaredevil HareHot Cross BunnyHare SplitterA-Lad-In His LampMy Bunny Lies over the Sea
1949 Hare DoMississippi HareRebel RabbitHigh Diving HareBowery BugsLong-Haired HareKnights Must FallThe Grey Hounded HareThe Windblown HareFrigid HareWhich Is WitchRabbit Hood
1950 Hurdy-Gurdy HareMutiny on the BunnyHomeless HareBig House BunnyWhat's Up Doc?8 Ball BunnyHillbilly HareBunker Hill BunnyBushy HareRabbit of Seville
1951 Hare We GoRabbit Every MondayBunny HuggedThe Fair Haired HareRabbit FireFrench RarebitHis Hare Raising TaleBallot Box BunnyBig Top Bunny
1952 Operation: RabbitFoxy by Proxy14 Carrot RabbitWater, Water Every HareThe Hasty HareOily HareRabbit SeasoningRabbit's KinHare Lift
1953 Forward March HareUpswept HareSouthern Fried RabbitHare TrimmedBully for BugsLumber Jack-RabbitDuck! Rabbit, Duck!Robot Rabbit
1954 Captain HareblowerBugs and ThugsNo Parking HareDevil May HareBewitched BunnyYankee Doodle BugsBaby Buggy Bunny
1955 Beanstalk BunnySahara HareHare BrushRabbit RampageThis Is a Life?Hyde and HareKnight-Mare HareRoman Legion-Hare
1956 Bugs' BonnetsBroom-Stick BunnyRabbitson CrusoeNapoleon Bunny-PartBarbary-Coast BunnyHalf-Fare HareA Star Is BoredWideo WabbitTo Hare Is Human
1957 Ali Baba BunnyBedevilled RabbitPiker's PeakWhat's Opera, Doc?Bugsy and MugsyShow Biz BugsRabbit Romeo
1958 Hare-Less WolfHare-Way to the StarsNow, Hare ThisKnighty Knight BugsPre-Hysterical Hare
1959 Baton BunnyHare-abian NightsApes of WrathBackwoods BunnyWild and Woolly HareBonanza BunnyA Witch's Tangled HarePeople Are Bunny
1960 Horse HarePerson to BunnyRabbit's FeatFrom Hare to HeirLighter Than Hare
1961 The Abominable Snow RabbitCompressed HarePrince Violent
1962 Wet HareBill of HareShishkabugs
1963 Devil's Feud CakeThe Million HareHare-Breadth HurryThe UnmentionablesMad as a Mars HareTransylvania 6-5000
1964 Dumb PatrolDr. Devil and Mr. HareThe Iceman DuckethFalse Hare
1979 Bugs Bunny's Christmas CarolFright Before Christmas
1980 Portrait of the Artist as a Young BunnySpaced Out Bunny
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 (Blooper) Bunny
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 From Hare to Eternity
2004 Hare and Loathing in Las VegasDaffy Duck for President
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