The Wacky Wabbit

The Wacky Wabbit
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Airdate:	2 May 1942
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	7903
Vitaphone Number:	603
Runtime:	7 minutes, 23 seconds
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Elmer Fudd
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc (uncredited) Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited)
Director:	Robert Clampett
Written By:	Warren Foster
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Sid Sutherland Robert McKimson (uncredited) Virgil Ross (uncredited) Rod Scribner (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	Thomas McKimson (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

The Wacky Wabbit is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert Clampett.

Plot

The fat Elmer Fudd is singing "Oh! Susanna" while prospecting for gold to donate to the war effort: "Oh, Susanna, don't you cwy for me, I'm gonna get me wots of gold, "V for Victowy!", not to mention a "Buy US Savings Bonds and Stamps" sign.

Bugs Bunny appears during the second verse and finishes it with Elmer, singing harmoniously. From that point on, Bugs pesters Elmer without apparent provocation, from scaring him with the cattle skull over his face, throwing the dynamite back to him, to burying Elmer in the hole he was digging, to cutting off Elmer's suspenders and revealing the girdle he's wearing: "Don't waugh. I'll bet pwenty of you men wear one of these."

Instead of fleeing, Elmer turns toward revenge, especially when he observes that Bugs has a gold-filled tooth: "I'm came hewe for gold, and I'm gonna get it!" A fight ensues, and Elmer comes up the apparent "winner", holding up a gold tooth, saying, "Euweka! Gold at wast! Heh-heh-heh-heh!" Elmer grins and laughs his usual laugh, and at the same time Bugs mocks Elmer with the same words, dropped-"r" and laugh, revealing that his tooth is intact and that Elmer is holding his own knocked-out gold tooth.

Availability

(1987) VHS
Elmer!

(1988) VHS
Cartoon Moviestars: Elmer!

(1988) LaserDisc
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs! and Elmer!

(1990) VHS
Bugs Bunny Collection

(1992) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2, Side 5: Bob Clampett

(2000) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 7: Welcome to Wackyland

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc Three

Streaming

Boomerang App (2017 - 2024)

HBO Max (2020 - 2023)

Max (2023 - 2024)

Notes

• Much like "Wabbit Twouble", directed by Bob Clampett the previous year, this short features Bugs as the aggressor, provoking Elmer for no apparent reason.
• Fat Elmer would wear a girdle with his underwear again in "Fresh Hare".
• A short clip from this cartoon appears in the opening credits of the Futurama episode "Love's Labour Lost in Space".
• This is one of the pre-1948 shorts to fall into the public domain, as United Artists, the copyright holder of the pre-1948 shorts at the time, failed to renew the copyright by 1970.
• This short contains a special "Merrily We Roll Along" ending cue. This cue would replace the original ending music for the Blue Ribbon reissues of "The Merry Old Soul", "Booby Hatched", "Tick Tock Tuckered", "Trap Happy Porky", and "Peck Up Your Troubles". Unlike most special ending cues, the cartoon's ending cue was preserved in the 1995 dubbed version.
• According to one of Cartoon Network's 2001 June Bugs marathon bumpers, after this cartoon's release, animation director Chuck Jones explicitly established a rule in future Bugs Bunny cartoons that Bugs Bunny must always be provoked in order to give the rabbit a valid reason to torment his enemies, as opposed to Bugs tormenting them for no reason whatsoever like in this one.

Gallery

Lobby card

Lobby card

Animation drawing