Hurdy-Gurdy Hare is a 1950 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.
Plot[]
While Bugs is sitting in Central Park, he looks through the wanted ads, finally focusing on a job as a Hurdy-Gurdy, thinking at first of "the masters - Beethoven, Brahms, Bach", but soon thinking of all the money his monkey assistant will be able to get from the various apartments he visits. When the monkey tries to stiff Bugs, Bugs chases him off. "Ya can't trust nobody!", he sneers, suddenly thinking he can do the same job as the monkey, but quickly finds out that people willing to give a monkey money aren't willing to give Bugs anything, except a bucket of water on the head.
The monkey runs to the zoo, where he tells a gorilla about what happened, the only intelligible words being Bugs' line "What's up doc? What's up doc?" The monkey dramatizes being kicked by Bugs, which sends the gorilla in a frenzy. The gorilla breaks out of his cage and confronts Bugs. Bugs is able to outwit the gorilla, causing the gorilla to fall multiple times many stories from the apartment building where he's chasing Bugs. At one point, the gorilla falls through the basement and comes up on a lift, holding a newspaper and with his arm through a subway window. Bugs, acting as a conductor, orders the gorilla to "push in, plenty of room in the center of the car!", pausing to aside, "I used to work on the shuttle from Times Square to Grand Central", before pushing the gorilla back underground. Then, aping Ralph Edwards' famous declaration on Truth or Consequences, he asides, "Ain't I a devil??"
Bugs then tries getting away from the gorilla on the outside of the building by climbing up and down a ladder while the gorilla keeps pulling the ladder in the opposite direction, once using the Groucho Marx line, "I've seen you before, I never forget a face. But in your case, I'll make an exception!" Bugs eventually makes his way into one of the apartments. However, he's soon cornered by the gorilla, who chases him into a back room. Bugs spots a violin, and noting that "music calms the savage beast", he starts playing the violin, which causes the gorilla not only to calm down, but to start dancing around. This gives Bugs an idea; he has the gorilla visit the apartments, causing piles of cash to rain down on Bugs. The monkey from earlier is cranking the organ playing the music, which is commonly known as "Artist's Life." Bugs counts all the money coming, saying, "I sure hope Petrillo doesn't hear about this!"
Caricatures[]
Availability[]
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc One
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 4 Disc 1
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Wascally Wabbit (Region 2 only)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack
![(2020) Blu-ray Young Man with a Horn (in HD)[2]](/wiki/File:Lt_young_blu.jpg "Lt young blu.jpg (72 KB)")
Young Man with a Horn (in HD)[2]
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 4
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- When this cartoon aired on MeTV, the newspaper that Bugs Bunny reads is blurred, as two "Help Wanted" ads stated that they were looking for white employees only. This short previously aired uncut in May 2021 and was later shown uncut again on 4 March 2022.
Notes[]
- The working title was "Hare-dy Gurdy Hare".
- This is the first Bugs Bunny short released in the 1950s.
- In one scene, Bugs calls Gruesome Gorilla "King Kong", referencing the monster from the 1933 pre-Code black-and-white monster film of the same name.
- Bugs' last line is a then-topical gag referencing the president of the American Federation of Musicians, James C. Petrillo, who disapproved of recorded music and called his second strike against recording companies in 1948, when the short was still in production.[3]
- This is the final Robert McKimson-directed Bugs Bunny cartoon to use the "plump Bugs" design used by his cartoons beginning with "Easter Yeggs" (1947). Beginning with "What's Up Doc?" later that year, McKimson would re-use the modern design which he previously did in 1943's "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" for the Bob Clampett unit permanently until the WB animation studio closed in 1964.
