Release Date:

January 4, 1941

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd

Summary:

Elmer Fudd buys Bugs Bunny as a pet and lives to regret it when Bugs proves to be an obnoxious house guest.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This is the first time where Bugs is given his name, although he speaks in a different voice in this cartoon and wears yellow gloves. While the different voice was a one-time thing, Bugs also wore yellow gloves in HBO Max’s “Looney Tunes Cartoons” (2020-2023).

In a newspaper ad for this cartoon, Elmer was referred to as “the Wabbit Man”.

Although Bugs at one point refers to himself as “a potential Easter Bunny”, he comments in “Easter Yeggs” (1947) that he’s glad he doesn’t have to deliver Easter eggs for a living.

In only his second appearance, Bugs complains about having to eat carrots! Since this is on topic, I would like to bring up the fact that Mel Blanc actually hated carrots himself (they tried to use substitute produce like apples and celery but nothing sounded like a carrot) and would pause recording Bugs’ lines every time he ate a carrot so Blanc could spit it out in a wastebasket.

What I Like About This One:

Elmer stopping his rendition of “While Strolling Through the Park One Day” to take a quick look at lingerie in a window (animated by Rudy Larriva).

After Elmer purchases Bugs, Bugs asks him what he’s got in the box. When Elmer answers, “A wabbit. A wittle gway wabbit”, Bugs pops up from the other end and warns, “Listen, bub. Be careful of who you call a ‘wittle gway wabbit’!” (animated by Larriva).

Bugs complaining about the wire home Elmer constructed for him: “Frankly, old man, I don’t like it. It stinks!” Upon seeing a bucket of vegetables, he is offended when Elmer tells him it’s his dinner, while Bugs blames Elmer of starving him to death while eating them (animated by Ken Harris).

Although Bugs is seen with a full stomach in the next scene, he complains about how Elmer is “stuffing his great big face while cold little rabbits lie out here starving!” (animated by Phil Monroe).

As Elmer turns on the radio, Bugs barges into the house, changes the radio to dance music and gets an annoyed Elmer to dance with him. After speaking in a Katharine Hepburn voice about how Elmer dances divinely, he gets thrown out (animated by Monroe).

Bugs stopping Elmer from going in to the bathroom while holding a magazine. “I beg your pardon, sir! Please wait your turn!” (animated by Monroe).

After Elmer throws Bugs out of the shower, Bugs pretends to drown in ankle-high bath water. After being “rescued”, Bugs acts like he’s sorry, and asks Elmer to give him a kick in the rear. When Elmer does, Bugs says for the very first time, “Of course, you know this means war!” (Robert Cannon animated this entire scene).

Elmer chasing Bugs into his bedroom and turning on the light only for Bugs to yell, “TURN OFF THAT LIGHT!” Elmer does so, before getting wise, and chasing Bugs out of the house. As he returns to his room, he is again shouted at by Bugs to “TURN OFF THAT LIGHT!” (animated by Phil DeLara).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕