Tag Archives: Elmer Fudd

Wabbit Twouble

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Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

We covered the development of Egghead (more specifically, his running-gag ‘brother’ Elmer) into the fully-recognizable Elmer J. Fudd in last Saturday’s upload. But sometimes creators just don’t know when to stop! After Elmer’s star-making role with Bugs Bunny, who had finally evolved into his proper physical and vocal form, in A WILD HARE, the boys at Termite Terrace decided it would be funny to fatten Elmer up to resemble his voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan. It wasn’t. So the chunky Elmer devolved back into his earlier, slimmer version after a handful of pictures.

But Elmer wasn’t the only one evolving at this point. Bugs pretty much looked and sounded like his iconic self, but his personality was still not fully formed. As with the proto-Bugs seen in last week’s upload, we find the wabbit going out of his way to screw-with a peaceable Elmer without any provocation whatsoever. Chuck Jones would soon realize that this sort of thing basically made Bugs a jerk. Thereafter, he normally had to be either threatened or outright attacked, sometimes repeatedly, before borrowing Groucho’s “This means WAR!” line and taking hilarious revenge on the offending party.

From 1941 (less two weeks after Pearl Harbor) WABBIT TWOUBLE. More from OldHorseman.

 

Elmer’s Candid Camera

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Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Although Egghead and Elmer Fudd have been treated as distinct characters in relatively recent ‘toons and comics, here we have more evidence that Elmer originally evolved out of Egghead. In his first fully-recognizable appearance, complete with the iconic Arthur Q. Bryan voice (previously used for the title character in DANGEROUS DAN MCFOO), Elmer is still wearing Egghead’s signature stiff-collar, green, baggy, outdated suit and hat. That, along with the fact that Egghead was actually identified as “Elmer Fudd” on-screen in one earlier picture, and on lobby posters for another, makes it a lock that Elmer and Egghead were indeed the same character…

Or does it?!

Turns out that a case can be made that the baggy-suit guy used as a running gag in cartoons mostly featuring other characters and elements was never Egghead at all, but ‘Elmer’ from the start. Unlike the wide-eyed, verbose, central-player who looked a bit like him and was also created by Tex Avery, he was never explicitly named as Egghead.

If this is the case, it’s a modern error to depict the derby-hatted, proto-Elmer as Egghead, when that was a different character from cartoons of the same period.

In any event, the Egghead and Elmer characters sort of merged in today’s picture to create the Elmer Fudd we all know. He looks like the running-gag proto-Elmer drawn in greater detail, but he is the central star of the cartoon like Egghead.

With Chuck Jones largely taking-over the character from Avery, the new Elmer gets rather a gentle introduction as a would-be amateur nature photographer. Until he gets unprovoked harassment from a certain rabbit, who is only about midway through his own evolution from the little white bunny that messed-up PORKY’S HARE HUNT a couple years earlier into Elmer’s legendary arch-rival: Bugs Bunny.

From early 1940, here’s ELMER’S CANDID CAMERA. More from the OldHorseman.

A Feud There Was

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We launch a new series today: Presenting a vintage cartoon every Saturday morning, just like in the good old days, before the dingbats took over the belfry! We open with a 1938 classic: Warner Brothers’ A Feud There Was, revisiting the celebrated hillbilly feuds in the Appalachian Mountains. There are McCoys here, only they aren’t battling the Hatfields, but the Weavers.

Elmer Fudd is trying, valiantly but unsuccessfully, to bring peace to the mountaintops. The great Tex Avery directed. Mel Blanc does many of the vocals, although that’s the Sons of the Pioneers as the uncredited singing group led by none other than Roy Rogers! More from the OldHorseman.

 

Daffy Duck & Egghead

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Here is one of the early appearances by Daffy Duck in a Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoon from 1938. Besides Daffy Duck 1.0, we also meet his nemesis — Egghead — who would later evolve into Elmer Fudd. It’s a little bit talky, but there’s lots of great sight gags, plus a scene-stealing turtle who stretches ambidexterity into multiple new dimensions. Tex Avery directs. More from the OldHorseman.

 

Elmer Fudd Loses Gun Rights

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Legendary rabbit hunter Elmer Fudd has been stripped of his Second Amendment rights! You heard it correctly. The liberal, cowtowing moguls at Warner Bros. have genuflected to the radical lefties and mandated that Elmer Fudd, in his future quests to hunt down Bugs Bunny on the HBO Max reboot of Looney Tunes Cartoons, will no longer carry any guns, including his iconic shotgun. The Draconian move has left the commentators at Clownfish TV in a tizzy. Tune in and share their rage.