Daffy Duck & Egghead

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Template:Infobox Shorts wTabs Daffy Duck & Egghead is a 1938 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.

Plot

Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic Joe Penner) is annoyed by a rotoscoped shadowman in the audience who doesn't sit down. Egghead shoots the audience member and the member falls after going through extended "death throes". Egghead hears a call from the grass, and out comes Daffy Duck biting his nose (just like he did to Porky Pig in "Porky's Duck Hunt"). While fighting, a tortoise (with a voice imitating radio comic Parkyakarkus) comes and tries to give Daffy and Egghead new weapons. When the tortoise goes away, Egghead uses his real gun and Daffy tries to make him shoot the apple on his head. Egghead misses all the times, even when Daffy's near him, so Daffy puts a blind sign and a cup of pencils and the disguise glasses on Egghead, with Daffy saying, "Too bad." Daffy then walks away and sings a song by himself, in a set-piece drawn in a different style from the rest of the cartoon, and also containing the subdued, early form of Daffy's lisp, which is absent in the rest of the film:

My name is Daffy Duck,
I worked on a Merry-Go-Round,
the job was swell, I did quite well
till the Merry-go-round broke down.
(Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo-hoo!)
The guy that worked with me,
Was a horse with a lavender eye,
Around in whirls, we winked at girls
Till the Merry-go-round broke down.
(plays flute)
Up and down and round we sped,
That dizzy pace soon went to my head,
Now you know why I'm dizzy, And do the things I do,
I am askew [or "a screw"] and you'd be too
If the Merry-go-round broke down.
(Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo!)
If the Merry-go-round broooooooookkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeee (while stretching his neck, so far that he got multiple blue lines around his neck instead of just one) down (calmly; not singing)

Daffy then shakes hands with his reflection from the lake and they both dive back into the water.

Later, Egghead finally catches Daffy, using a glove which knocks Daffy on the head. Egghead jumps for joy, until an ambulance comes. A duck comes out and thanks Egghead for catching Daffy. The duck describes Daffy as "Crazy! Looney-tuney! and more importantly 100% nuts!!" However, the two ducks start acting crazy again, and Egghead acts crazy himself.

Availability

• (1988) VHS - Cartoon Moviestars: Daffy!
• (1988) LaserDisc - Cartoon Moviestars: Daffy! and Porky!
• (1992) VHS - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Vol 2: Firsts
• (1992) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Vol 1, Side 2, Firsts
• (2005) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Four (with the "dubbed" ending cue instead of the original ending cue because the restored DVD version uses the 2nd USA dubbed version's soundtrack)
• (2011) DVD - The Essential Daffy Duck, Disc 1
• (2020) Streaming - HBO Max

Censorship

On Cartoon Network (American feed only; overseas Cartoon Network channels have this uncut, though Cartoon Network America has aired this uncut once), Boomerang (American feed only; overseas Boomerang channels have aired this uncut), and The WB, the scene where Egghead shoots an audience member after telling him to sit down was cut. The "shooting the annoying audience member" gag later seen in "Rhapsody Rabbit" and "The Ducksters" was left uncut on Cartoon Network and Boomerang (the WB also censored the gag in "Rhapsody Rabbit" and "The Ducksters" never aired on the WB).

Notes/Goofs

• The cartoon's ending is later reused in the ending of Walter Lantz's Andy Panda cartoon, "Knock Knock" (1940), which marked the debut of Woody Woodpecker (coincidentally both cartoons from different studios were written by Ben Hardaway).
• Only cartoon where Daffy's collar is blue instead of white.
• Daffy would sing his own variation of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" again, albeit with different lyrics, in "Boobs in the Woods" (1950).
• This cartoon was re-released in the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on April 20, 1946. The original opening, credits, and closing tile cards were found and restored with the release of the third volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection in 2005.
• In 1995, Turner made recreated opening titles for this cartoon. The opening was from "Wacky Wild Life", followed by a recreated BR Merrie Melodies card, then the original title card fades in. The other cartoon to have recreated Blue Ribbon titles in the Turner "dubbed version" is "The Night Watchman".
• The second USA and EU dubbed versions use the 1941-55 MM end cue.
• The 1941-55 rendition replaces the 1937-38 rendition on the DVD release, the second USA dubbed print, and the EU dubbed print for reasons unknown. Dubbed Version 1 keeps the end cue while dubbed version 2 does not, meaning that the DVD used dubbed version 2 as their soundtrack source.
• French and Polish redubs of this short have Daffy and Egghead-post opening credits scene dubbed. The original audiotrack for Blue Ribbon or DVD releases and other foreign 1995 dubbed versions, however, have this line muted.
• The Turner dubbed versions both US and EU are sourced from a 2-strip technicolor print despite the fact it is a 3-strip technicolor cartoon.
• The restored version replaced the original ending theme with the 1941-1955 "Merrily We Roll Along" themes. The same thing would happen to "Speaking of the Weather".
• The man in the audience is writer Tedd Pierce.

Gallery

Daffy Duck and Egghead: two "nuts"

Egghead shooting an audience member, a scene that has been censored on the WB and most Cartoon Network and Boomerang feeds

Daffy Biting Egghead's Nose

The turtle makes Daffy and Egghead duel with guns

The Nut-House Duck thanks Egghead for capturing Daffy

Egghead's model sheet

Daffy's model sheet

Comparisons of Blue Ribbon title cards of the cartoon between the original reissue version (top) and the Turner "dubbed version"'s recreated version (bottom)

Lobby Card