Show Biz Bugs

Show Biz Bugs
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Airdate:	2 November 1957
Runtime:	7 min. 1 sec.
Series:	Looney Tunes
MPAA Number:	18328
Production Number:	1465
Copyright Renewed:	22 April 1985
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc
Director:	Friz Freleng
Written By:	Warren Foster
Producer:	Eddie Selzer
Animated By:	Gerry Chiniquy Art Davis Virgil Ross
Layout Artist:	Hawley Pratt
Background Artist:	Boris Gorelick
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Milt Franklyn

Show Biz Bugs is a 1957 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.

Plot

Arriving at the theater where he and Bugs are appearing (a quarter for a single block), Daffy is furious to discover that the rabbit's name on the marquee is above his in much larger letters. Rebuffed by the unseen manager's claim that he gives his performers billing "according to drawing power", Daffy is determined to prove that he's the star of the show.

That evening, Bugs and Daffy are performing an on-stage number to "Tea for Two". Daffy, tired of Bugs hogging up all the cheering and applause (especially after the reception Bugs gets for his "Shave and a Haircut" bit) even though Daffy himself is genuinely talented, decides to try numerous numbers on his own in order to impress the audience. Taking off his suit and hat so that he is now only wearing his cummerbund, bow tie and gloves, he begins on the spot with a backbreaking time step to "Jeepers Creepers".

Then Daffy does a trained pigeon act. He sets up various pigeon-sized acrobatic equipment and releases the pigeons from a box, but the pigeons fly out the window. Daffy tap dances his way off the stage and peeks out, only to get hit with a tomato.

Bugs then does a sawing in half trick, and Daffy is the volunteer. Daffy claims that the trick is fake. As Bugs saws him in half, the audience applauds. Daffy yells "Don't applaud him! Look! I'm not cut in half! Stop applauding! It's a fake!" When he lifts his torso, it is revealed that Bugs did saw him in half. Daffy says to the audience "Good thing I got Blue Cross."

Next, Daffy tries to sabotage Bugs' own act, playing the song "Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms" on the xylophone by sticking TNT in it, which he fails to do.

Finally, after Bugs did a juggling act and in order to impress the audience, Daffy performs a deadly stunt (which he refers as "An act that no other performer has dared to execute!"), a stunt so deadly that he has to warn those in the audience who have "weak constitutions" to leave the theater for his performance, by drinking gasoline, nitroglycerin, gunpowder, and uranium 238. ("shake well,") Swallows a lit match ("Girls, you better hold onto your boyfriends!"), causing him to explode. The audience loves the performance, and an impressed Bugs tells Daffy that they want more. Daffy, who is now a transparent ghost and is ascending to heaven, states, "I know, I know, but I could only do it once."

Previous Film References

• The xylophone gag was previously used in the Private Snafu short "Booby Traps" and the Bugs/Yosemite Sam short "Ballot Box Bunny", only in both cases the instrument used was a piano. The song used in each case, as in "Show Biz Bugs", is "Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms".
• Two of the acts have been used in an earlier Porky Pig cartoon called "Curtain Razor". One saw a man named Crawford Coo do a pigeon act, but the birds flew out of the window. It was later used in "Unnatural History". And the last one saw a fox do the same act Daffy does attempting to show Porky he is a star, and, much like "Show Biz Bugs", the final act in "Curtain Razor" has been censored on Cartoon Network to remove him ingesting gasoline (the syndicated version on Merrie Melodies also cuts the gasoline-drinking and edits it even further by cutting out the fox swallowing a match).

Television

• Warner Bros. Syndication package (1964-1990)
• Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends [Syndication and Fox] (1990-1994)
• Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon (1994-1999)
• The Bugs and Daffy Show [Cartoon Network] (1999-2004)
• The Bugs Bunny Show [Boomerang] (2000-2002)
• The Looney Tunes Show [Cartoon Network] (2001-2004]
• Looney Tunes on Boomerang (2003-2005; 2013-present)
• Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network (2009-2015)
• Bugs Bunny and Friends [Me TV] (2021-present)
• Sunday Night Cartoons [Me TV +] (2021-present)
• Toon In with Me [Me TV] (2021-present)

Availability

(1985) VHS
A Salute to Friz Freleng

(1993) LaserDisc
Looney Tunes Curtain Calls: Classic Music and Show Business Cartoons

(1998) VHS
Superior Duck

(2004) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc Four

(2005) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 2 Disc 2

(2005) DVD
Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 3

(2010) DVD
The Essential Bugs Bunny, Disc 1

(2012) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc One

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc One

(2013) DVD
Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Looney Tunes, Disc 1

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 2-3 Repack

(2018) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack

(2020) Blu-ray
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, Disc 3

(2023) Blu-ray
Cats Don't Dance

Streaming

Boomerang (2017 - )

iTunes ( - ) (restored)

Censorship

The scene at the end of this cartoon where Daffy performs his final act by drinking dangerous chemicals is now almost always edited on American (and, in one case, British) TV to prevent imitation of the stunt. However, this scene is often edited in different ways depending on channel. It is worth noting that MeTV aired the ending entirely intact.

• The CBS version in the 1970s and 1980s, the WB version, and even the version shown on the CBBC channel deleted the ending entirely by ending the cartoon after Daffy gets frustrated at Bugs messing up "Those Endearing Young Charms" on the booby-trapped xylophone, performs the tune himself, and gets blown up.
• Cartoon Network and Boomerang (American feed) used to air the original ending uncut, but then edited it by removing Daffy drinking the gasoline by cutting to a shot of Bugs looking on in shock after his juggling act. In 2003, Cartoon Network and Boomerang aired a new edited version of the short that ended the cartoon after the xylophone gag (similar to how it was cut on CBS, The WB, and CBBC). As of 2011, Cartoon Network and Boomerang have aired this short uncut and uncensored.
• The version shown on the syndicated version of The Merrie Melodies Show, several local station airings, and ABC's Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show didn't delete the entire ending, but did cut Daffy drinking the gasoline so that way it looks as if he drinks the nitroglycerin first. This is also how the short is shown on Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (not counting the Disney Channel edit shown below).
• Nickelodeon's version aired this cartoon with the gasoline drinking left in (despite Nickelodeon's other cuts to characters ingesting dangerous chemicals, as shown on "Porky's Midnight Matinee" and "Bye Bye Bluebeard"), but cut the part where Daffy strikes the match, asides to the audience "Girls, you better hold on to your boyfriends," and swallows the match. This edit makes it seem as if Daffy exploded from "shaking well" after swallowing the uranium 238.
• When Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (which includes clips from this cartoon as the climax) aired on The Disney Channel, Daffy's death defying act was edited so severely that the only scenes left were Daffy holding the bottle of nitroglycerin and the explosion from after the match swallowing (making it seem as if Daffy's holding the nitroglycerin caused the explosion).

Goofs

• There is an extra light dot on the top left of the "Directed by Friz Freleng" card, which can be shown fading in when the credits change to the director's credit.
• When Bugs is applauding Daffy's "final act", his tail disappears for a frame.

Notes

• "Show Biz Bugs" portrays the modern interpretation of Daffy in a more sympathetic light: In this film, Daffy is a jealous and arrogant competitor to Bugs, but his shabby treatment by the theater management and audience is depicted as being unfairly out of proportion to the genuine talent he possesses.
• This is the only theatrical cartoon with the Exploding Piano Gag where a xylophone is used instead of a piano.
• The basic setting and conflicts of this film were reprised for the linking footage for The Bugs Bunny Show television series.
• This is the final cartoon of Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie.
• The title music was used at the beginning of the "Behind the Tunes" documentaries on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs.
• The gag with Daffy's torso split in half and him walking out while lifting up his torso would later be used by Abe Levitow in the Tom and Jerry cartoon "O-Solar-Meow".

Gallery

Title card (Cartoon Control Room Airing)

Lobby card

Lobby card

Time to start the show

Colorized lobby card

Publicity artwork

External Links

• "Show Biz Bugs" at SuperCartoons.net
• "Show Biz Bugs" at B98.TV
• "Show Biz Bugs" at the SFX Resource
• ok.ru