Egghead

Egghead is a character in Looney Tunes created by Tex Avery. Egghead was the fourth recurring character created for Leon Schlesinger's Merrie Melodies series, which had previously contained only one-shot characters, and the first after the other characters before him and Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's move to MGM.

History[]

Throughout the late-1930s, Avery used Egghead in most of the character's pictures such as "Egghead Rides Again" and "Daffy Duck and Egghead", while Ben Hardaway, Cal Howard, and Cal Dalton use Egghead in only two cartoons such as "A-Lad-In Bagdad", and "Count Me Out". Egghead was originally slated to appear in "Confederate Honey" and "The Hardship of Miles Standish", but when Friz Freleng returned and took over Dalton's and Hardaway's director roles, Egghead was scrapped and the recently-finalized Elmer Fudd was used.^[3]

Egghead debuted in the 1937 cartoon "Egghead Rides Again". Egghead initially was depicted as having a bulbous nose, and an egg-shaped head, upon which he upon which he was bald in his first appearance and had a Moe Howard haircut only in three cartoons such as, "Daffy Duck and Egghead", "A-Lad-In Bagdad", and "Count Me Out". His voice, laugh, and mannerisms were very much like those of Joe Penner, except in his first appearance in "Egghead Rides Again" where his voice and mannerisms were much more like those of Daffy Duck.

Confusion with Elmer Fudd[]

Main article: Elmer Fudd#Early appearances

It is often confused by documentaries, fans, and even Warner Media that Egghead was a predecessor Elmer Fudd, and that he and another character in the Avery's cartoons starting with "Little Red Walking Hood" were the same individual. However, animation historian Michael Barrier was one of the first to expose the true relation of Elmer to Egghead, stating that the man in "Little Red Walking Hood" is actually Elmer Fudd, showing Egghead as a separate character. Further approving this theory is the similar character with the name "Elmer" was seen on the model sheets for "Little Red Walking Hood", the lobby card for "The Isle of Pingo Pongo", in the cartoon "A Feud There Was", and promotional material at the time.^[3] Additionally, the early Elmer Fudd was only used by Avery, whilst Egghead was inherited to Hardaway and Dalton.

Further confusing the matter is that in the compilation film, "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters", where Mark Kausler voices Egghead,^[4] the Looney Tunes Back in Action movie, and in Looney Tunes Cartoons, Egghead is depicted as the early Elmer Fudd design instead of his design where he had hair in "Daffy Duck and Egghead", bearing Elmer Fudd's clothes and derby hat from Avery's cartoons. In official listings of cartoons in DVD/Blu-ray sets by Warner Media, Elmer's early cartoons from "Little Red Walking Hood" to "Believe It or Else" are mistaken as those of Egghead. In recent years, sets like Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 do list Elmer and Egghead as separate characters in the description on the back of the volume.