This Is a Life?

This Is a Life?
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Airdate:	9 July 1955
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	17054
Production Number:	1348
Vitaphone Number:	2488
Runtime:	7 minutes, 2 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	1 March 1983
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Elmer Fudd Granny Yosemite Sam
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited) June Foray (uncredited)
Director:	I. Freleng
Written By:	Warren Foster
Producer:	Eddie Selzer
Animated By:	Ted Bonnicksen Arthur Davis Ken Champin (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	Hawley Pratt
Background Artist:	Irv Wyner
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Milt Franklyn

This Is a Life? is a 1955 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.

Plot

Elmer Fudd hosts the titular show, sponsored by the Wishy Washy Washing Machine Company from Walla Walla, Washington. Bugs Bunny is the guest of honor, much to the disgust of Daffy Duck. Granny, who's sitting next to Daffy, is growing very irritated by Daffy due to disgust that he's being a very bad sport over not having the spotlight and anger over the fact that he's being very annoying before she finally whacks Daffy over the head with a parasol and angrily tells him to shut up.

Meanwhile, Elmer interviews Bugs, which Bugs starts off by an interpretation of the start of the universe and then his birth. However, Elmer finds this too tedious and asks him about his first encounter with Bugs when he was out hunting. However, Bugs intervenes with Elmer until he walks off a cliff. Yosemite Sam later arrives to reminisce the time Bugs infiltrated his ship and blasted him with cannonballs. Elmer and Sam plan to present Bugs with a special gift, a time bomb, in appreciation of their "friendship," but Daffy, stubbornly refusing to believe that he was not the guest, grabs the gift and takes the resulting explosion. Naturally, Daffy tells the rabbit, "You're despicable."

Caricatures

• Ralph Edwards - Elmer parodies his role as the host of This is Your Life.

Availability

(1993) VHS
Yosemite Sam's Yeller Fever

(1996) VHS
Looney Tunes Collection - Yosemite Sam

(2003) VCD
Wideo Wabbit

(2010) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl (cropped to widescreen)

(2017) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature Vol. 2, Disc 1

(2020) Blu-ray
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, Disc 2 (restored in fullscreen and HD)

Streaming

Boomerang App (-) (restored in fullscreen)

HBO Max (2020 - 2022) (restored)

Max (2024 - ) (restored)

Censorship

• When this cartoon aired on the syndicated version of Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny & Friends, the second shipboard cannon blast to Yosemite Sam's face, taken from "Buccaneer Bunny", was cut.
• When this cartoon was shown on ABC, in addition to the Merrie Melodies cut, further cuts were made:
  • Granny hitting Daffy with her umbrella to keep him from ranting about not being chosen for This is a Life? after Daffy finds it on the ground.
  • Daffy shouting, "Throw him out! Throw him out!" during the show and Granny hitting Daffy with her umbrella again while screaming, "SHUT UP!!" though Daffy's first "Throw him out!" shout was retained.
  • Elmer and Sam placing a bomb in the gift package before giving it to Bugs.
  • Daffy returning on stage after foolishly taking the package for himself and getting blown up by it and growling, "You're despicable!" to Bugs.

Notes

• This cartoon is a parody of 1952's This Is Your Life.
• This cartoon reuses footage from "Buccaneer Bunny" and "Hare Do".
  • It also reuses animation from "A Hare Grows in Manhattan", although this scene is redrawn and recolored and has a different background from its original appearance, likely in preparation for the upcoming sale of pre-1948 shorts to Associated Artists Productions, which would otherwise make this short unusable to Warner Bros.'s television market at the time due to rights issues. However, "Buccaneer Bunny" was also sold to Associated Artists Productions as well, although scenes from that cartoon was not cut on networks that only had the rights to the post-1948 cartoons for unknown reasons.
• Most of this cartoon was used in the TV special Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television, but the clip from "Hare Do" of Elmer using an Army surplus radar to hunt Bugs has been replaced with Bugs and Elmer's vaudeville act from "What's Up Doc?"
• This is one of the few Bugs Bunny cartoons not to feature Bugs in the color rings or the "Bugs Bunny in" title card before the opening credits.
• This is the first Merrie Melodies short to feature the 1955-56 green color rings with a red background (only at the end, the opening titles use the 1954-55 red rings with a blue background). The end titles for some of the 1955-56 titles would have the red rings instead of the green rings.
• The opening titles for this short are cropped. This happens in all prints, including the original negative. This ending titles are not affected.
• This cartoon has a special opening cue.
• This short is unusual in that the title card does not appear between the Merrie Melodies card and the credits card. Rather, it appears after the credits as part of the story. This would happen again in "Three Little Bops".
• The introduction to This Is a Life? after the credits is also voiced by Mel Blanc, in a voice similar to that of Foghorn Leghorn, despite the fact that Foghorn Leghorn doesn't appear in this cartoon. ("Brought to you by the Wishy Washy Washing Machine Company of Walla Walla, Washington")
• This is the first time in which June Foray voices Granny. She would go on to voice the character up until her death in 2014.
  • Additionally, this is the last Golden Age cartoon with Granny's original design used from her debut in "Canary Row", as it was the last cartoon starring Granny in production before the studio's initial shutdown in 1953. Starting from her next appearance, "Red Riding Hoodwinked", she would be redesigned with a simpler, shorter appearance due to budget cuts.

Gallery

Comparison of scene from "A Hare Grows in Manhattan" (left) and this short (right)

TV Title Cards

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (Final Season)

External links

• This is a Life? at the SFX Resource