“What’s all the hubbub, Bub?” is another of those lines stolen from the radio.
This is actually a serious issue. As reported in “Cartoon Confidential” (a wonderful little book) a lot of the Warner Bothers cartoon lines were direct seals from the radio. The catchphrases we pick up from Bugs Bunny are really second-hand survivors from the days of radio:
“Mmmmm…Could be”
“What’s all the Hubbub, Bub?”
“Walll, now, I WOULDN’T say THAT!”
and so on. But the originators didn’t think it was that funny. The guy who played Senator Claghorn virtually had his act stolen by Foghorn Leghorn. The lady who originally came up with the “Boop-oop-a-Doop” felt that Betty Boop purloined her act (not a WB cartoon, I know, but the point is the same) and took Fleischer Studios to court over it. I think she had a point – the greater exposure of the cartoons made HER, the originator, look like a cheap imitation.
I haven’t read the other posts yet, but I just had to say that. I thought of that today, as I always do in this situation. I’m stuffed because I ate something I adore too fast, and there’s just one bite left. I can hardly face it, but I can’t bear to leave it, so I force it down, and in my head I hear:
I don’t care if the hubub line was stolen, it’s still my favorite, too. It all in the delivery. The best being from the short about gremlins : “What’s all the hubub, (pause) Bub?”.
And from that same one Bugs pushes the gremlin out of the way with his foot ( a great visual ), grabs the sledgehammer and says (of the bomb) " hey Bub, let me take a wack at it".
Also there’s one cartoon where Bugs and/or Fudd are singing something about “that ol’ shotgun”. A friend and I have been trying to remember it for years. It must have been a rare one, only saw it once. Anybody???
Small hijack: Being a graphic artist I once cosidered designing a T-shirt showing a black (race) and blue (sad) Elmer, with guitar, caption reading: Elmore Fudd.
But I thought it might be too obscure. Any thoughts?
“My stars…if an iiinnntersting monster can’t have and iiinnntersting hairdo, I don’t know what the world is coming to, bobbypins please” I love that quote.
[slight hijack] the best part of Bugs cartoons is that he can do anything and the other characters go along with it! [/slight hijack]
“It’s stupendous, it’s collosal! Why one might even go so far as to say … it’s mediocre.” Daffy
“I’m getting very angry.” Marvin the Martian
“My name is Gretel.”
“And my name is Ha-ansel.”
“Ha-ansel? Ha-ansel? Ha-ansel?” Bugs
“Hmm. I like the way that comes out. Wile E. Coyote, Su-uper Genius.” One of the few cartoons in which Wile E. speaks.
“And remember, kids! MUD spelled backwards is DUM!” Bugs
“My gal is a high ball stepper.
Ginger with salt and pepper.
Lookit how she dances,
How she stampses,
Oh, how she skippers and prances!” Bugs - please excuse the wrong words in this one.
“Well, here we are! Pismo Beach and all the clams we can eat!” Bugs
I’m bound to think of some more.
(It is now apparent to me that I have watched faaaar too much television.)
“The Five o’clock whistle’s on the blink,
The whistle won’t blow, so whaaaat’d ya think?
My father’s still at the factory,
'Cause he don’t know what tiiiiiime
It happens
T’be!”
Milk of magnesia, ace of spades (or some other card), and some other stuff I can’t remember…
One that has remained forever in the rotation of nonsense phrases my brothers and I recite is, “I want an Easter egg! I want an Easter egg!” (Picture that kid pounding on Elmer’s disguised head with a hammer as he repeats this over and over…)
In a bit not in a regular Warner Brothers cartoon, Porky Pig is a carpenter hammering nails. He hits his thumb with the hammer and says,
"Oh, son of a bi-bi-, son of a b-b-b-b, son of a gun!"
Then he turns to the camera and says, “Ha, Ha. Y-you thought I was g-gonna say 'son of a bitch, didn’t ya?”
Foghorn Leghorn: “This is gonna cause more confusion than a mnouse at a burlesk show!”
Speedy Gonzales: “I like that pooseycat! He’s silly!”
Witch Hazel (June Foray): “That’s sharp enough to split a hare!”
Sylvester (to Elmer Fudd, in “Back Alley Oproar”): “Don’t you have any artisthic sensthe?”
Tweety Bird, after sending “Catstello” crashing to earth; imitating Lou Costello: “Pussycat faw down and go boom!”
Yosemite Sam: “I hate that rabbit!”
Tasmanian Devil: “How come you say you monkey when you got powder-puff tail like rabbit?”
Bugs, at the end of “Hurdy-Gurdy Hare”: “I sure hope Petrillo [president of the musicians’ union] doesn’t hear about this!”
I thought of a Foghorn Leghorn I love. He’s babysitting the little brainy kid, and they’re playing hide-and-seek. He hides in a grain bin. The grainy kid does some calculations, goes to a completely different spot, and digs Leghorn out of the ground. Leghorn goes over to the bin, begins to open the lid, then says, “On second thought, I better not look. I just might be in there!”
Does anyone remember the names of the sheepdog/coyote tag teams? They’d punch in, and then spend their shifts playing the protective sheepdog/scheming coyote roles. They’d take their lunch breaks together, and then when the whistle blew at the end of the day, the second duo would take over.
There was Ralph, Sam, and George (I think). Who was the fourth?
