Release Date:

October 1, 1955

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Reading a book of “Tales of Knighthood and Gallantry” after having washed his ears (rather than hair), Bugs Bunny gets transported back into medieval times from an apple falling onto his hairdryer. He encounters a large arrogant knight, a fire-breathing dragon whose fire he extinguishes with a seltzer, and a sorcerer known as “Merlin of Monroe”.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1349 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon is loosely based off of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (Jones also used Twain as an inspiration when he created the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, specifically the novel “Roughing It”).

This is the first of a few Jones cartoons from this period to be written by Tedd Pierce rather than Michael Maltese, due to the latter having contributed to a number of cartoons from Walter Lantz around this time. This is also Jones’ first collaboration with Pierce since “You Were Never Duckier” from seven years prior (Pierce would still mainly write for McKimson around this time, doing so until his departure in the early 1960’s).

“Knight-Mare” is obviously a pun for “nightmare”. Warner Bros. previously used this for “Bosko’s Knight Mare” all the way back in 1933.

Ernie Nordli did the layouts for this one.

Another change that occurred at the studio in 1955 was Jones and Freleng both now being allowed to be credited by their nicknames. This is the very first cartoon where Jones is credited as “Chuck Jones” rather than “Charles Jones” or “Charles M. Jones”. He wouldn’t start being consistently credited as that (as his next three cartoons, “Two Scents Worth”, “Guided Muscle”, and “One Froggy Evening” all still credit him as “Charles M. Jones”) until “Bugs’ Bonnets”, the first cartoon of 1956 (one cartoon released after that, “Gee Whiz-z-z-z”, has him credited as “Charles M. Jones” for the final time).

“Merlin of Monroe” is clearly a pun for Marilyn Monroe.

The author of “Tales of Knighthood and Gallantry” is named “Burton”. This is a reference to production manager John Burton (who would soon take Eddie Selzer’s place as producer when Selzer retired in the late 1950’s).

Favorite Scene:

Bugs extinguishing the dragon’s fiery breath with a seltzer.

What Happens in This One:

Reading “Tales of Knighthood and Gallantry” while wearing a robe and having his ears in a hairdryer, “And thus, it transpired that they came together in mortal combat and each vowed to undo the other”, Bugs stops to inform us, “Eh, just washed my ears and I can’t do a thing with ‘em!” He continues while munching his carrot, “And so, they met. Brandying their weapons. And the black knight (pronounces the “k”) struck Sir Lan-silly-it, such a resounding buffet (pronounces it how it’s spelled) on the helm that everything went black”. At this moment, a loose apple from the tree above him falls off and lands on Bugs’ hairdryer with a clang, disconnecting it and knocking him out (animated by Ben Washam).

The scenery changes from the then-present day farm back to medieval times. Upon coming to, Bugs initially only sees the interior of his hairdryer, “Well! Everything certainly is black, alright!” He then gets off of his chair and starts walking around while groping, “Sure gets dark suddenly this time of year. Wonder where my hole is”. Bugs ends up walking right into a lance pointed towards him, “Whoops! What the-?” After feeling how sharp the lance is, Bugs lets out a “Yipe!” and lifts up his hairdryer to find this lance coming from a large knight sitting on his equally large horse. Bugs asks a variant of his catchphrase, “Eh, what’s up, duke?” The knight answers, “Surrender, varlet! Thou art the prisoner of me lance!”, before the visor on his helmet shuts in front of his face. “I art?”, Bugs wonders before questioning, “And whom-so-ever art thou in thy cast-iron tuxedo?” (pronounces “iron” as “i-ron”) The knight lifts his visor and replies, “I, knave, am Sir O of K, Earl of Watercress, Sir Osis of the Liver, Knight of the Garter, and Baron of Wooster-cester-shister-shyster-schuster-shuster-shister-shire…shire”. His visor then closes again (animated by Washam).

Bugs remarks, “My! He’s a BIG one!” before telling him, “Hey, uh, look, Pressure Cooker, I bet you know a lot of my friends”. He accidentally pricks his finger slightly on the lance before continuing, “Like, uh, Duke of Ellington, Count of Basie, Earl of Hines, Cab of Calloway, Satchmo of Armstrong-”. The knight lifts his visor again and arrogantly refers to them as, “Upstarts and rogues! Never heard of them!” Bugs becomes offended, “Rogues, eh? Upstarts, eh?”, before climbing the lance up to the knight’s face and then getting into his suit of armor by backing the knight’s face down into it, “Look, Sir Rup of Figs! Don’t go around insulting my friends or I shall get me a can opener and open thee up like a can of solid-packed tomatoes!” (uses British pronunciation of latter word) The knight backs his face out of his armor, “What!? Wouldst tilt with me!?” Bugs slides backwards off the lance and begins putting up his dukes, “Tilt with thee, I WILL and I WON’T wilt! Just lend me a weapon, that’s all! That’s all!” (animated by Ken Harris)

The knight pulls out a very large, over-sized sword, “Very well. Thou, stupid scoundrel, prepare to meet thy fate!” He hands the sword to Bugs, with said sword being way too heavy for him to hold up so he puts it down. As the knight leaves while chortling, Bugs strains to pick the sword up and ends up flying backward, landing behind-first in his hairdryer. Seeing the knight coming down the hill in the distance, Bugs gets up, puts the hairdryer back on his head, and attempts to lift up the sword again. In between shots of the knight charging down the hill, Bugs tries a few more attempts to pick up the sword, pushing its hilt with his feet, kicking it but only succeeding in injuring his foot, and attempting to propel it up with a stick perched on a rock like a teeter-board, only for the stick to snap in half from the sword’s weight. Seemingly giving up, Bugs puts a blindfold over his eyes and begins to smoke one last cigarette. At the last moment, he sticks his foot out, causing the horse to trip and send the knight flying into the top window of the castle, and falling down all the stairs from inside as the camera pans downward (animated by Richard Thompson).

With his hairdryer now off of his head, Bugs thinks to himself, “Putting that 8 ball in the side pocket is all very well, but it still don’t explain what I’m doing in this booby-hatchery or how I’m getting out!” A dragon snorting fire through its nostrils passes by, causing Bugs to get a whiff of the smoke, “Do you smell brimstone?” Upon seeing the dragon, he remarks, “Ho, boy! What big horny toads they do have around here!” The dragon begins breathing fire towards him, causing Bugs to duck back down into his hole. He comes back up with a seltzer and extinguishes the dragon’s fire with it, until there are no more flames emitting. Seeing that he can now barely breathe out a small cloud of smoke, the dragon begins weeping like Stan Laurel before sadly galloping away (animated by Harris).

Having disposed of his robe as well, Bugs walks towards the castle of “Merlin of Monroe” and figures, “Maybe the person who lives in this silo can tell me where I’m at and how to get out of being AT here!” (animated by Thompson) Once Bugs walks in, Merlin is revealed to be an elderly-type magician wearing a propeller beanie. “Come right in. How do you do? My name is Merlin. I’m a sorcerer”. Acting intrigued, Bugs asks, “Ya are? Really? A sorcerer? Hey, come on, let’s ya sorce. Huh, please? Huh, please?” Merlin complies as he takes out a tiny ball of “Magic Powder” (whose smoke cloud reads “Pouf” whenever it poofs), “Why, of course. Anything to oblige a guest”. He throws the powder at Bugs and seemingly turns him into a pig. Bugs, however, unzips out of the pig skin like a costume, much to Merlin’s shock, “You know, uh, that’s a good trick, Merl, old girl. Uh, can you do this one?” Bugs lights his thumb like a lighter, complete with flame burning on it. Figuring he can do it, Merlin attempts to do it to no avail, and keeps turns away from Bugs when he tries to watch him. Bugs then takes out a ball of Magic Powder himself and gets Merlin’s attention with, “Hey, uh, Merl?” and throws the powder at him. Now a propeller beanie-wearing donkey, Merlin attempts to unzip the donkey skin off of him, only to find he’s still a donkey underneath. He unzips donkey skin after donkey skin numerous times, only to still remain a donkey every time (animated by Abe Levitow).

Bugs walks away while stating, “Well, that gives HIM a hobby!”, referring to Merlin’s predicament, “But, uh, I still ain’t nearer to my natural habitat”. He then passes a bowl of fruit and notices an apple looking like the very one that knocked him out at the start of the cartoon. “Well, why not? After all, they laughed at the man when he discovered penicillin”. He throws the apple into the air and has it land on his head (animated by Levitow), sending him back to the present where the whole thing was apparently a nightmare, as Bugs is still in his chair wearing his robe and hairdryer. Peeking out from the hairdryer before removing it offscreen, Bugs walks away, sighing in relief, “Wow! What a relief! Thank goodness it was… just a… nightmare?” He walks past a propeller beanie-wearing donkey that looks exactly like the transformed Merlin, but then dismisses it, “Nah, impossible. Couldn’t be him?” The farmer suddenly tells the donkey, “Alright, Merlin. Giddy-up. Get along, now!”, causing Bugs to turn around and give a shocked expression (animated by Washam).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½