Release Date:

July 9, 1955

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam

Summary:

Elmer Fudd is the host of the titular program where Bugs Bunny is the guest of honor for the evening’s program, much to Daffy Duck’s annoyance. Elmer and later Yosemite Sam recount some past experiences with Bugs via clips from earlier cartoons.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1348 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon is a parody of “This Is Your Life”, which the title also puns.

This is Warner’s second clip show cartoon, with the first being “His Hare Raising Tale”. This one contains clips from “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” (albeit with a redone background for unknown reasons), “Hare Do”, and “Buccaneer Bunny”.

The cartoon was restored for the Looney Tunes Super Stars Daffy Duck Frustrated Fowl DVD set in 2010, but was cropped to widescreen. The corrected full frame version was put on the Boomerang app in 2017, and then on the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray set in 2020.

This cartoon can basically be seen as the start to the new era where Milt Franklyn was now the prominent composer and his renditions of the opening themes were now used. Evidence includes a special rendition of “Merrily We Roll Along” being used in the opening rings as well as the credits (although the regular 1955-1964 Merrie Melodies ending theme is heard in the “That’s all Folks!” end card) and the cartoon’s premise being treated as a special occasion.

Granny makes a cameo appearance in the audience, with this being the last time her original design is used. This is also the first time she is voiced by June Foray, who would become the new main female voice actress at the studio, following the departure of Bea Benaderet.

This is one of the few Bugs Bunny cartoons to not feature the Bugs headshot, to not feature the “Bugs Bunny in” card, and to not have the words “Bugs”, “rabbit”, “hare”, “bunny”, or “doc” in the title.

The credits are played first before the title card is shown due to the title being read aloud to start the cartoon.

It’s very ironic that Daffy immediately believes that he’s going to be the guest of honor on the program as soon as Elmer says the guest is someone who is thoughtful of others, since this is the period where Daffy is clearly in his selfish jerk persona (and especially since this was his next appearance following “Stork Naked”- not counting his cameo at the end of “Sahara Hare”-, where he was at his most despicable up to that point).

Despite Elmer claiming that he and Bugs met in “Hare Do”, this is factually incorrect as everyone knows they first met in “A Wild Hare”. To be fair, the latter cartoon was 15 years old at the time, so they probably didn’t want to use a cartoon that old.

Ted Bonnicksen and Arthur Davis (mostly the latter) are the sole animators on the new footage.

This is the last cartoon to use the 1955 red-purple rings with the blue background in the intro, and the first to use the 1955-1956 green rings with the red background in the closing titles.

Favorite Scene:

The ending where Elmer and Sam attempt to gift Bugs with a packaged bomb for revenge, only for an oblivious Daffy to greedily take the explosion.

What Happens in This One:

After the credits, the cartoon’s title appears onscreen in front of the curtains on the stage as the announcer says, “This Is a Life?”, before continuing, “America’s most talked about program, brought to you by the Wishy-Washy Washing Machine Company of Walla Walla, Washington. And now, here he is! Mr. ‘This Is a Life?’ himself, Elmer Fudd!” Carrying a book with him, Elmer, as the host, greets the audience, “Good evening, wadies and gentlemen! (laughs) Tonight, we add another name to the wong wist of those we have honored. Someone here in our audience is our guest of honor, and no one knows who it will be”. The camera pans across the audience to reveal Granny, Bugs, and Daffy all sitting in the audience (animated by Arthur Davis).

Elmer continues, “He is a bewoved chawacter who has made his name in motion pictures. One who is thoughtful of others”. Daffy immediately believes as he elbows Bugs, “That’s me! It’s gonna be me!” and continues beaming as Elmer adds, “A spawking personawity, genewous, chawitable, self-effacing”. Daffy chuckles at this and whispers to Bugs, “This would be embarrassing if it weren’t true!” Elmer then walks up to where Daffy and Bugs are seated and presumably asks Daffy, “And what is YOUR name, sir?” Daffy jumps out of his seat and announces, “Daffy Duck’s the name! As if it weren’t inscribed in gold on that little old book (chuckles before rubbing Elmer’s cheek), you master showman, you! You may precede me to the stage, sir!” Elmer then points to Bugs and asks him, “Aren’t you Bugs Bunny?”, to which Bugs replies, “Who, me?” Daffy interrupts, “Never mind HIM! We’ve only got a short time to do my interesting career! Let’s get on with it!” He then takes Elmer’s book and holds the cover in front of his face, “Read the name. Good and loud, mister!” Elmer does so at the top of his voice in an annoyed tone, “BUGS BUNNY!” Daffy looks at the cover himself as his eyes repeatedly bug out in shock as Bugs’ name is indeed there (animated by Davis).

Amidst the applause, Elmer escorts Bugs to the stage, “We’re honowing you tonight, Bugs”, to which Bugs humbly chuckles, “Oh, no, no, not little old me”. Daffy openly expresses his disgust to Granny sitting to his right, “How do ya like that!? Now wouldn’t that gall ya, sister!? This is supposed to be MY life! So what do they do? They take an unknown! And of all things, a rabbit! Who’s interested in a rabbit!?” Noticing that Granny has been looking for something in the middle of his rant, Daffy holds out an umbrella to her, “Is this what you’ve been scratching around for, sister?” Granny replies kindly, “Yes. It is”, before whacking Daffy on the head with it as she becomes irritated, “And now maybe you’ll keep that yellow beak closed for a while! I’m trying to look at the show!” Elmer asks Bugs, who’s sitting down on a sofa on the stage, if he’s really surprised to which Bugs replies while chuckling excitedly, “Oh, I-I-I-I’m all excited! Oh, my!” (animated by Davis)

Elmer continues, “Wet us take a chapter fwom the life of this woveable personawity. His devotion to others, self-sacwifice”. Daffy becomes disgusted by Bugs’ chuckling of humility as he groans while clutching his stomach, “How sickening can ya get!?” When Elmer requests, “Tell us about your life, Bugs”, Bugs’ reply is “Oh (chuckles), I-I’m so unimportant”. This disgusts Daffy even further as he slumps down in his seat, “Easy, stomach. Don’t turn over now. Easy does it”. Elmer asks to “Start fwom the beginning”. Bugs takes this literally, “Well, in the beginning, there was no life. The Earth was forming”. He then becomes dramatic as he jumps off the sofa, “Boom! The Earth shivered from earthquakes! Mountains forming! Oceans boiling! Then-, all’s quiet. A little pool of water forms. In that pool, two tiny amoeba. The start of life”. Elmer explains that this isn’t what he meant, “No, no! That’s TOO far back!” Seeing what Elmer meant, Bugs corrects himself, “Oh, oh, oh, I see. Well, it was on the east side of New York where me parents resided amidst humble surroundings” (animated by Davis up to here). This leads into a flashback from “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” with baby Bugs sucking his carrot bottle. “They was busy preparing the bassinet for the bundle of joy the stork was bringing”.

After the flashback, Bugs continues, “And then, I started to get me first tooth”. Seeing how long this has gone on, Elmer cuts him short, “Uh, never mind, never mind, we won’t start from the beginning”. From his seat, Daffy yells, “Throw him out! Throw him out!”, only for Granny to hit with her umbrella again as she yells, “Shut up!” (animated by Davis) Elmer looks into his book as Bugs is sitting back down on the sofa, “Wet’s begin where you and I met. Oh, you were the cute wittle wascal. I wemember I was out hunting-” (animated by Ted Bonnicksen). A flashback from “Hare Do” is then shown with Elmer using his radar “Wabbit Detector” device and Bugs taking over said device by playing “Hot and Cold” with him, leading to Elmer falling off a cliff. The flashback ends after Bugs is chased by Elmer’s rifle blasts after asking, “Eh, what’s up, doc?”

Back in the present, Elmer remarks, “Thought you were pwetty smart, weren’t ya?”, to which Bugs gives a somewhat sheepish grin about. Elmer continues, “And here’s a voice from your past! Do you wecognize it?” Said voice turns out to be Sam’s as he is heard offscreen, “Why, I knows that ornery flea-bitten critter from WAY back!” Bugs hesitates, “That’s uh-”, before Sam himself enters the stage, “That’s right! Yosemite Sam, the roughest hombre that ever locked horns with a rabbit! Yeah! I’ll never forget the time I had this moth-eaten critter cornered aboard my ship!” (animated by Bonnicksen) The final flashback is taken from “Buccaneer Bunny” where Sam gets blasted by cannons every time he opens the door of a gun port Bugs is hiding in.

When this flashback ends, Bugs elbows Sam while laughing, “Hey, that was a funny one! And then, there was the time you was down in the powder magazine and I threw a match down in it! And the time you found eels in your bed! And I’ll never forget how both of ya looked when I dumped that truckload of cement on ya!” While Bugs is laughing over these past memories, Sam whispers a plan to Elmer. It turns out they have packaged a bomb for revenge as Elmer announces after going up to Bugs, “Mr. Bunny, we your fwiends, have a wittle gift we want to pwesent you with!” Bugs gets up off of the sofa, “For me? Oh, thank you!” before giving Elmer a wacky kiss. “Aw, ya shouldn’t have done it! I wonder what’s in it”. He shakes the gift and hears ticking, figuring out what it is. “Whoops! Oh, eh, I’m, eh, I’m not deserving. You take it”, as he gives it to Elmer. Elmer: “No, you take it!” Sam: “Oh, no! You take it!” Elmer: “No, you take it”. Bugs: “I couldn’t think of it! You take it!” Elmer throws it back to Sam, who throws it back to Elmer, who throws it to Bugs, with each saying “You take it!” Daffy, who hadn’t paid attention to what the gift was, becomes delighted and runs onto the stage and in the middle of Bugs, Elmer, and Sam all tossing the gift back and forth to each other like a game of Hot Potato. Daffy shouts, “I’LL take it!” and catches the gift, causing Bugs, Elmer, and Sam to all give silent shocked faces and turn around, covering their ears for the explosion. Daffy walks out with it while stating, “After all, this should’ve been mine anyway. I really deserve it”, putting emphasis on “I”. He gets it indeed as the bomb explodes on him once he leaves (animated by Bonnicksen up to here). Coming back onto the stage mostly featherless, Daffy gets in Bugs’ face and fumes, “You’re…. you’re… you’re despicable!”, before storming off (animated by Davis).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½