GQ about a Bugs Bunny cartoon

Cafe Society
1

A friend of mine is trying to find the 1950 Bugs Bunny short “Hillbilly Hare” on DVD or VHS. If you’re a Bugs fan you may remember it: it’s the one in which Bugs calls an increasingly violent square dance for two hillbillies. I know that Looney Tunes has released many of their cartoons on DVD (Golden Collection & Premiere Collection), but I haven’t been able to find a complete listing of the 56 shorts contained and the name doesn’t appear in the ones that are listed. Does anybody know if this cartoon is included on any of the DVDs/videotapes?

Also, for those who remember the BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER HOUR from the 1970s- were any of those cartoons new or were they merely rehashes and compilations of older (pre 1970s) cartoons?

Thanks.

2

A friend of mine has the “complete” Bugs Bunny collection on laserdisc. It’s even got the one with Bugs stranded on the desert island in WWII with all the insensitive comments toward the Japanese guy (“Here’s some scrap iron, Mr. Moto!”); this short was, as I understand it, later removed from releases due to some indignant letters to Warner Brothers.

But it doesn’t have the hillbillies one, which I remember vividly from childhood (“And who maght YEW be?” “Well I MAGHT be Teddy Roosyvelt, but I AIN’T!”). As near as I can figure, this may be the only instance in history of Political Correctness taking a stand against negative portrayals of hillbillies, who appear to be fair game in all other cases.

Sorry I don’t have more thorough research; all I can say is that yes, I’ve seen it, but it apparently hasn’t been available for quite a while. Maybe you could try eBay? Or maybe there’s an on-line trading place for hard-to-find videos like Eraserhead, Song of the South, etc.?

3

This page lists the 50’s Bugs cartoons and where they’re available. They include the newest DVD collections and Hillbilly Hare isn’t on them. Only on out-of-print VHS or LD.

4

I’ve come across this cartoon recently (within the last month) being broadcast on Teletoon here in Canada. I watched it briefly in a fit of nostalgia before continuing to surf on past, so I don’t know if it was edited to cut out violence or not (I suspect so).

5

Do you get Boomerang on your cable or satellite TV system? This weekend they’re going to do a weekend-long Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes marathon, so if you watch long enough you’ll probably see it. This cartoon also airs fairly regularly during Cartoon Network’s Saturday airing of Looney Tunes and during the half-hour or hour-long slots that are shown on Boomerang on most Saturdays. Check Cartoon Network’s site and click on the Boomerang link and its programming schedule for more details.

6

All that I have to add is:

Whirl whirl twist and twirl
Jump around like a flying squirrel
In to the pigpen you all know how
Wallow around like a big fat sow…

7

Found on the world wibe web. . .

Bugs is dressed as a female hillbilly and asks the guys for
jukebox money…

(Bugs is handed a nickel and he puts it into the jukebox.)

BUGS: (Girl voice.) Thanks just all to pieces. Sow Belly Trio comin’ right
up…

(A trio appears in the jukebox – a fiddle player, an accordionist and a
guitar player. The guitarist calls the square dance:)

CALLER: (Spoken.) Let’s all square dance. Places all. (The scene cuts
to the boys and Bugs forming to start dancing. They follow the instructions
of the caller.)

CALLER: Bow to your corner, bow to your own.
(Singing.) Three hands up and ‘round you go,
Break it up with a dosey-do.
Chicken in the bread pan kickin’ out dough,
Skip to ma Lou my darling.
The old lady out you pretty little thing,
Promenade around the ring,
Big foot up and little foot down,
Make that big foot jar the ground.
Lady step back and two gents in,
Back you go and forward again.
Step right up with an elbow swing,
Skip to ma Lou my darling.

(Bugs nonchalantly dances away from the brothers towards the jukebox.)

CALLER: Allemande left with the old left hand
Follow through the right an’ left grand.

(Bugs removes his disguise while still dancing, dons a floppy hat and grabs
a fiddle.)

CALLER: Meet your honey with a great big smile
Promenade Indian style.

(Bugs unplugs the jukebox with his foot and takes over as the fiddler and
caller, all without missing a beat. The brothers continue to do as the caller
says:)

BUGS: (Singing.) Promenade across the floor,
Sashay right on outa the door.
Out the door and in to the glade,
And everybody promenade.

(Bugs prances outside, fiddling for all he’s worth.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Step right up, you’re doin’ fine,
I’ll pull your beard, you pull mine.
Yank it again, like you did before,
Break it up with a tug o’ war.

(The beard tug of war gets the brothers onto a wooden bridge. Bugs snips
their beards with scissors so they lose their grip and fall off of the bridge
into a stream.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Now into the brook and fish for the trout,
Dive right in and splash about.
Trout, trout, pretty little trout,
One more splash and come right out.

(The brothers promenade out of the stream onto dry land, dripping.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Shake like a hound dog, shake again,
Wallow ‘round in the ol’ pig pen.

(The brothers jump into a nearby hog waller.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Wallow some more, you all know how,
Roll around like an old fat sow.

(The boys stand up in the mud. They both have a pig dance partner now.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Allemande left with your left hand,
Follow through with a right-left grand.
Now lead your partner, the dirty ol’ thing,
Follow through with an elbow swing.

(The brothers lose their new partners and return to dry land.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Grab a fence post, hold it tight,
Womp your partner with all your might.
Hit him in the shin, hit him in the head,
Hit him again, the critter ain’t dead.
Wop him low and wop him high,
Stick your finger in his eye.
Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound,
Bang your heads against the ground.

(Bugs continues to fiddle away.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Promenade all around the room,
Promenade like a bride and groom.

(Bugs leads the boys to a hay baler machine. He opens a door in the machine
for them to enter.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Open up the door and step right in,
Close the door and into a spin.
Whirl, whirl, twist and twirl,

(Bugs throws a switch, turning on the baler.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Jump all around like a flyin’ squirrel.
Now don’t you cuss and don’t you swear,
Just come right out and form a square.

(The “output” of the baler is a large toaster. It “pops”, and the boys are
ejected as part of two bales of straw. The scene cuts to a meadow. Bugs is
again leading the brothers (who are no longer “baled”) with his calling.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Now right hand over and left hand under,
Both join hands and run like thunder.
Over the hill and over the dale,
Duck your head and lift your tail.

(The call, “duck your head” comes in time for the running brothers to avoid a
low-hanging tree branch. “Lift your tail” gets them safely over a rail
fence.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Don’t you stray and don’t you roam,
Turn it around and promenade home.

(“Turn it around” prevents the boys from running off the edge of a cliff.
They both wipe their brows in relief.

BUGS: (Singing.) Corn in the crib pen, wheat in the sack,
Turn your partner, promenade back.

(Unfortunately for the brothers, “promenade back” takes them back over the
edge of the cliff. They “walk on air” for a bit before gravity takes over.
Bugs looks over the edge of the cliff at the brothers below. They’ve landed at
either side of a small stream. He talks to them almost gently:)

BUGS: And now you’re home.
Bow to your partner
Bow to the gent across the hall.

(At the end of their bow, the brothers collapse back into the stream.)

BUGS: And 'dat is all.

(Bugs ends it with a final fiddle flourish. Iris to black…)

(end)

8

Sorry about the :)s

The website had a : followed by a ) to indicate a speaker.

9

God, you have to love the Web!

It’s not quite up there with “What’s Opera, Doc?”, but it’s close!

10

The indispensable CD The Carl Stalling Project has the complete background score to Hillbilly Hare, although it doesn’t (!) have the square dance itself. :frowning: Still, well worth owning.

11

I think bugs saying “thanks just all to pieces” is one of the funniest lines in there.

12

My local library has a copy on video, want me to steal it for you?

:smiley:

just kidding.

acyually, why don’t you check your local public library?

13

If mine did, I would consider it. I love that cartoon.

So many BB cartoons were about music. “What’s Opera, Doc?” (hi, BrotherCadfael), and that one where Bugs wages war against the operatic singer (“What do they do in the city? When skies are drippy?”). There must be a hundred songs I never heard outside a WB cartoon, so I only know the bits they sang.

“Hello, my baby,
Hello, my honey,’
Hello, my ragtime gal…”

Regards,
Shodan

14

I believe Michigan J. Frog did sing the whole thing at least once.

15

Many of the incidental tunes in Warner Bros (and Bugs Bunny in particular) cartoons were old Vaudeville hits of the 1890s: “Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms” (invariably the tune picked out on a piano before it explodes); “The Daughter of Rosy O’Grady,” (Bugs is dressed in “Irish” costume, doing an exhausting step/tap dance), “Oh Dem Golden Slippers,” “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” and of course the Michigan J. Frog material.
There’s a wealth of social history in old cartoons–especially Warner’s!

16

“Hillbilly Hare” was THE favorite Bugs cartoon in my family. Hilarious.

17

I have the square dance on a CD I burned (yarrrr… pirate!) I think I downloaded it from Kazaa. (It might have been from those long-ago days at Napster.) So I know it’s out there.

18

Oh, man, I just watched that one this afternoon on my lunch break. “Long Hair Hare.” (I just got the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD.)

19

Sampiro, I tried to send you an email, but I got “550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND” bounce message. I guess you need to update your email address in your settings.

20

Same here. Sampiro, email me, I have a copy of Hillbilly Hare.