What's your Favorite Looney Tune?

The greatest was “The Rabbit of Seville,” no question. But there were a host of great ones. Let’s see…
“Rabbit Hood” (“Don’t you worry, never fear! Robin Hood will soon be here.”)

“Bugs & Thugs” (“Would I turn on the gas if my friend Rocky was in there?”)

“Hillbilly Hare” (“Keep it up, you’re doing fine, I pull your beard, you pull mine… Hit him low, hit him high, stick your finger in his eye…”)
Now I enjoyed the “rabbit season/duck season” episodes, but frankly, I always thought Daffy Duck was much funnier as a lunatic (in the early cartoons) than as a greedy, stupid, foil for Bugs Bunny (in the later years). So, I loved Daffy as the Mad Moustache Bandit (painting moustaches on every face he saw) more than in anything else.

Since Feed the Kitty and Hillbilly Hare have been identified, that just leaves…

High Diving Hare

Robin Hood Daffy

There are several, including Buccaneer Bunny and Captain Hareblower

Ballot Box Bunny

Daffy Doodles

And sorry, Myron Van Horowitzski and xeqter, but neither Droopy nor Tex Avery were Warner Bros., the studio responsible for Looney Tunes.

I did a little search on Google and both names are used. I s’pose they just changed it. It’s not brain surgery after all.

Alex

Thanks to ArchiveGuy for identifying “Daffy Doodles.”

But while Tex Avery’s “Droopy Dog” cartoons were not done for Warner Brothers, Tex himself did many great cartoons for Warner, before moving over to MGM. In fact, Tex Avery’s “A Wild Hare” is the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon. Oh, Warner had used a zany rabbit in a few earlier pieces, like “Hare-um, Scare-um,” but “A Wild Hare” is the first cartoon in which all of Bugs’ classic mannerisms (the carrot, the “What’s up, Doc” line, etc.) appeared.

But Tex’s specialty at Warner was mock documentaries and travelogues.

My all-time favorite is The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, where Daffy dreams he is Duck Twacy.

“Follow that car!” “It keeps 'em on their toes”

Sorry, I should’ve been more specific–of course Avery did some work for Warners (over 60 shorts, including the classic I Love to Singa), but the films for which he’s typically best known, including the one listed by xeqter, were later in his career (although he did an early “Red Riding” spoof at Warners, unseen by me)

I only have about 600 WB cartoons on video, so it’s hard to pick a best or favorite. But one I laugh at, no matter how many times I see it, is “Bully for Bugs” where he and the bull have it out down in Mexico.

About “Duck Dodgers in the 24th and 1/2 Century” here’s a trivia question that I’m sure you all can answer. What character on the best science-fiction TV show ever, called it his “second favorite thing in the universe?”

Well, I admit my favorite is the one featuring Michigan J. Frog (a/k/a the singing frog). And “What’s Opera Doc.” But my favorite that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the one where Bugs is conducting the opera and makes the guy hold the note until his face turns purple, his collar pops off, and the building falls down around him.

“Is this one of his household gods?”
“Well…yeah…it’s kinda the Egyptian god of frustration.”

Everyone’s favorite balding, paranoid security chief–Mr. Garibaldi. Should I expect my Golden Geek award in the mail?
(I forgot to mention in my earlier post that “Duck Amuck” comes in second on my list of favorites.)

because I just saw a cartoon on the “Acme Hour” on the Cartoon Network which I thought had been banned by the Italian Defamation League. It’s Chuck Jones’s “A Hound For Trouble,” (1951) starring Charlie Dog, that one-shtick mutt who’s always looking for a master. If you haven’t seen this one, it’s where Charlie stows away on a boat and ends up in Italy. While hunting for a master, he gets mixed up with a restaurant owner, drives away diners, and does the most hilarious (and insulting to Italians) song-and-dance number. Do you remember these lyrics?

At’sa matter, at’sa matter??
Hey!!
At’sa matter for you?
You eata my raviola
And my pasta fagiole too
I’mma give you caccitore
And a pizza that’s good to chew
At’sa matter you no like me??
Hey!!!
At’sa matter for you??

Mr. Pug had never seen this 'toon before and I thought he was going to wee-wee his pants during this song. This one’s my favorite.

Any of the duck/rabbit season trilogy.

“What’s Opera Doc” and “Rabbit of Seville”.

“Duck Amuck” and “Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century”.

But my current favorite? “Robin Hood Daffy”. Yoiks, and away!!!

From “The Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion”:

The square dance from Hillbilly Hare-

Let’s all square dance!

Places all.
Bow to your corner, bow to your own.
Three hands up and round you go,
break it up with a do si do.
Chicken in the breadpan, kickin’ out dough,
Skip to m’loo my darlin’.

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.

The lady steps back and two gents in,
back you go and forward again.
Step right up with an elbow swing,
Skip to m’loo my darlin’

Allemande left with your old left hand,
follow through with your right left hand.
Meet your honey with a great big smile;
Promenade, Indian-style.

Bugs takes over:

Promenade across the floor
sashay right on out the door.
Out the door, into the glade,
Everybody promenade!

Step right up, your doin’ fine,
I’ll pull your beard and you’ll pull mine.
Yank it again like you did before,
break it up with a tug-o’-war.

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!

Shake like a hound, shake again,
wallow around in the old pigpen.
Wallow some more, you all know how,
roll around like an old fat sow.

Allemand with your left hand,
follow through with your right left hand.
Now leave your partner, the dirty old thing,
follow through with an elbow swing.

Grab a fence post, grab it tight,
whomp your partner with all your might
Hit him in the shin, hit him in the head,
Hit him again, the critter ain’t dead!

Whop him low, and whop him high,
stick your finger in his eye.
Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound,
bang your head against the ground.

Promenade all around the room,
promenade like a bride and groom.
Open up the door and step right in,
close the door and into a spin.

Whirl, whirl, twist and twirl,
jump around like a flying squirrel.
Now don’t you cuss and don’t you swear,
just come right out and form a square.

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.

Don’t you stray and don’t you roam,
turn around and promenade home.
corn in the crib, wheat in the sack,
turn your partner,promenade back.

Hillbillies walk off the cliff

And now you’re home; bow to your partner.
Bow to the gent across the hall.
And that is all!

I nearly forgot about that! I must say that the Rabbit/Duck season is my favorite Looney Tune cartoon of all time, hands down.

Sorry if this is off-topic, but it is my favorite theme: I have it on a 3 Stooges CD, and I believe the theme is “Oh, the Merry-Go-Round Went Down”… So this would be my favorite Looney Tune!

Thanks
Quasi

You can catch the classic, in it’s entirety, I Like to Singa at

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/theater/showcase/index.html?

The Marc Antony & Cleo cartoon wherein Cleo gets into the cookie mix and Marc Antony thinks she’s been baked into a cookie (cut out with a kitten-shaped cutter, too!) and is so sad, and curls up with the kitten-shaped cookie… that used to make me cry when I was a little girl, even though I knew the kitty was really ok… just seeing the dog be so sad would make me cry.

I like the Rabbit Season/Duck Season one too, and Hair-Raising Hare, and Duck Dodgers. But there was also one with Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny and those strange bird-like aliens…

That would be Long Haired Hare, one of Jones’s best…I especially love Bugs as the bobby-soxer asking for an autograph with a dynamite pen…

Of course I always love Bugs in drag.

Which makes watching the cartoons easy since he almost always is.

I’m also partial to Ali Baba Bugs, a wondrous parable of greed: “Down-down-down! Go-go-go! Mine-mine-mine!” “I’m rich! I’m independent! I’m socially secure! I’m comfortably-well-off!” (I’ve read some teachers are using it in Bible classes, along with One Froggy Evening and, for altruism, Feed the Kitty - that last one always makes me tear up.)

I remember a Sylvester and Tweety set in Venice, with Granny in a gondola contentedly murmuring, “This is so cacciatore.” I think in the same one Sylvester gets whomped by a bridge bearing a warning sign: “Lowla Bridgeada.” I pity the little kids who didn’t know from Gina Lollabrigida.

Two favorites:

  1. The very-often-already-mentioned “One Froggy Evening.” A friend of mine was also a big fan of this one, so a couple of years ago, I bought one of those greeting cards where you can record a message of 10 seconds or so. For his birthday, when he opened it up, it played the first few lines of the “Hello, My Baby” song (I had drawn the frog on the card as well, covering up the regular picture that came with it). It was the funniest greeting card of all time.

  2. I think this one was a Tex Avery one: it was called, simply, “Slang.” There was a guy who had gone to the pearly gates and had to tell St. Peter his story, using (obviously) a lot of slang. St. Pete didn’t understand the slang and took everything literally, so the entire cartoon was what he was picturing as the guy was talking:
    Guy: “She really put on the dog [St. Pete imagines a girl wearing an actual dog], and the dress fit like a glove [girl shown wearing a large glove]…” and so on. I haven’t seen it in years, but I wish I could see it and record it. The same with “One Froggy Evening,” actually.

I don’t remember the name of this one, but it had Daffy as Sherlock Holmes and Porky Pig as Watson. They’re after this huge gangster-type guy called the Shropshire Slasher. Daffy’s strategy is to yell and scream at him, resulting in the Shropshire Slasher beating the tar out of him repeatedly. One of the funniest parts is when this lady comes in and offers him some flowers. I think Daffy starts shouting something about how selling daisies in a public place is illegal, but it turns out this is the Shropshire Slasher’s mother. (This results in yet another beating.) Of course the extremely meek Porky is easily able to get the Shropshire Slasher’s cooperation.

“Porky Pig’s Feat”. Porky and Daffy are trapped in a hotel because they can’t pay the bill. The overbearing manager is banging on their door, Daffy yanks the carpet from under him, and he falls down a lo-o-o-ng spiral staircase: “Ooh! Eee! Ah! Ooh! Ah! Ow! Eee! Ooh! Ow!”

Furious, the manager races up the stairs again, bangs on the door, Daffy yanks the carpet, they hear him screaming in pain.

Pull back to reveal the manager standing behind them, saying “Ooh! Eee! Ah! Ooh! Ah! Ow!”