Release Date:

December 15, 1956

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote

Summary:

Wile E. Coyote uses a “Univac” computer to help him come up with schemes to catch Bugs Bunny.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1430 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This is the second pairing of Bugs and Wile E. and the second time overall where Wile E. speaks (due to the Roadrunner cartoons lacking dialogue).

The type of computer seen here is obviously very different to the ones used nowadays (another instance of an old-fashioned computer appears in the live-action 1969 film “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes”, one of MANY criminally underrated and extremely hilarious live-action Disney movies from the 1960’s and 1970’s).

Although he never dresses in drag at any point in this cartoon, Bugs seems to wear clothing in a feminine way here, such as wearing a nightcap over his ears when reading in bed, wearing a feminine apron when making breakfast, having his ears tied up like a housewife when vacuuming, and wearing a sunbonnet when picking carrots from the carrot patch.

The title is a pun for “to err is human”.

Some of the visible choices on the computer for selections (I’m not listing what Wile E. actually selects in the cartoon here as that’s what the “What Happens in This One” section is for) include “slug”, “goat”, “potato bug”, “owl”, “llama”, “ant eater”, “toad”, “woodpecker”, “hoop snake”, and “chipmunk” for animals, “tree”, “nest”, “trap”, “mud”, and “water” for habitats, “padlock”, “tin lock”, and “steel lock” for types of locks, “When”, “Who”, and “Why” for question starters, “Then” and “Later” for in-between, and an exclamation point and colon for punctuation.

With this cartoon, I have now officially caught up with Anthony’s Animation Talk as this is the latest Warner cartoon he has done in an in-depth review on. He started in March 2020, originally doing commentaries for each cartoon, but due to YouTube’s frustrating copyright system, he had to start reworking them as reviews beginning in 2021, still going in chronological order in a way but also going back and doing earlier cartoons on occasion (he also doesn’t upload every day, while the cartoon posts have been published every weekday). Doing videos also takes a lot longer than writing blog posts.

Favorite Scene:

Wile E. spelling out a simple question by selecting two separate buttons: “What” and “Now”, and pulling a lever for question mark.

What Happens in This One:

Wile E. comes out of his cave carrying a foldable cardboard elevator that he puts atop Bugs’ hole. After descending down it, he comes back up with Bugs captured in a bag. Using his carrot, Bugs pokes out two holes in the bag, one for his head to come out and the other to allow his hand to pull his head out from the other hole by the ears. He asks while using the hole where his arm came out to munch his carrot, “Eh, whatcha got in the bag, doc?” (animated by Ben Washam)

Upon hearing this, Wile E. stops and puts Bugs down, “Oh, uh, I say, I’m terribly sorry. One mustn’t be rude. Even to one’s breakfast”. Acting confused, Bugs asks, “Breakfast?” Wile E. pulls out his card, “Permit me to introduce myself. My name is Coyote (pronounces it as Coyotay”). Wile E. Coyote, Genius”. His card reads, “Wile E. Coyote Genius. Have Brain Will Travel”. Noticing this, “Have brain, eh?”, Bugs gets up, still having the bag on him, “Hey, that must be very handy at times!” Wile E. replies as Bugs begins getting himself out of the bag, “Why, yes, it has its advantages. Eh, for example, you asked me just now what I had in the bag. And I was supposed to say a rabbit. To which you would reply, ‘What are you going to do with him?’ (chuckles) Then I was supposed to say something stupid, which would enable you to get very clever, and so on and so on and on. When by this time, we BOTH know very well that there is NOTHING left in the bag!” Looking down in the bag, Bugs asks, “There isn’t?” before telling him, “I, um, I don’t like to disagree with no genius, doc, but eh… but there IS!” Wile E. chuckles at this and takes the bag to look into it himself, “Well!” Once he does, he gets an explosion in his face, revealing there was a dynamite stick in there. Wile E.’s head ends up charred, with his muzzle drooping. Bugs then dances back into the foldable elevator, be-bopping to “Sweet Georgia Brown” before descending back into his hole. Wile E. goes in after him, oblivious that Bugs has sent up two dynamite sticks back up with the platform. They explode, destroying the elevator and causing its sides to collapse. A now fully-charred Wile E. remarks, “Poor chap. He had his chance. Now he must take the consequences!” He retreats back to his cave, carrying the collapsed elevator sides with him (animated by Abe Levitow).

Having unboxed a “Univac” Electronic Brain computer (“Do It Yourself Kit”), Wile E. chuckles to himself after he’s set it up, “Finished! Wile E., you’re such a genius!” He looks out of a hole in his cave with a telescope, “Now to see what our little friend is doing!”, and spots Bugs locking up his hole with a large combination lock. Wile E. goes back to the computer for answers, “Hmm. Now, uh, let’s see”, and selects respective choices for animals, habitat, and lock types aloud, “Hmm… Rabbit. Mm-hmm. Uh…. hole. Yes. Uh, combination lock. Yes!” He pulls a lever on the computer, causing various lights an arrow pointing downward to a blinking “Answer” sign to all flash as a slip of paper comes out from under the “Answer” sign. Wile E. looks at what the paper advises him, “Entree May Be Gained By Use of Burglary Methods. Combination To Safe Is R. 34-6-27-89-12-00. Good Luck” (animated by Richard Thompson).

That night, Wile E., wearing a burglar hat and robber mask, folds up a fake window in front of Bugs’ still-locked hole, and “opens” the window like a burglar before working on the combination. Bugs, reading in bed, hears the noise from above and without a word, uses a hammer to smash a glass case, “In Case of Coyote, Break Glass”. Inside said case is a banana peel that he throws toward the bottom of the ladder leading into his hole. Wile E. slips on the peel, sending him flying into the “Coyote Disposal”, a chute-like device that deposits him out of the cliff side into mid-air. He falls- with his hat and mask coming off in the process- and lands offscreen with a clattering noise (animated by Thompson).

The next morning, Bugs is preparing for breakfast by squeezing carrots like oranges to drink carrot juice and puts two carrots in a toaster, all the while scatting to “Start the Day Right”. Witnessing all of this on his “Rabbit-Scope”, Wile E. selects some more choices, “Breakfast. Toaster. Carrots”. The answer he gets for this is “Substitute Hand Grenades For Carrots In Toaster”. Wile E. goes to Bugs’ hole and uses two hooks to yank the respective carrots out of the toaster and then drops the two grenades into the toaster’s respective holes. Still scatting to “Start the Day Right”, Bugs prepares to get his toasted carrots, only for the grenades to be ejected out very high as one of them explodes on Wile E. After the explosion, a charred Wile E. realizes the other grenade in mid-air is about to explode on him as he lets out an “Oh no….”, before it does so. Bugs looks at his toaster and confides, “One of these days, I’m gonna have to have that spring fixed” (animated by Washam).

Back in his cave at the computer, Wile E. spells out a question by pushing separate buttons, “What” and “Now” and then pulls a lever for question mark. Looking over the unseen answer, Wile E. gives an evil glare to his left. It turns out he’s been advised to plunge Bugs out of his hole with a plunger. An extension pipe from another hole to Wile E.’s left emerges out of this hole and sucks up everything in its way such as a butterfly and the paper Wile E.’s answer was on- that he put on the ground next to him- before sucking in Wile E. himself. The plunger still moves on its own for a bit before Wile E. jumps out with the plunger stuck on him and having him scrunched down massively with only his feet being visible (animated by Ken Harris).

Later, Bugs is vacuuming his walls and ceiling just as Wile E. returns to the hole with a dynamite stick and his latest answer, “Slip TNT Stick Into Vacuum Cleaner”. Wile E. does so and sneaks off to hide. Bugs then comes out with the vacuum bag skipping daintily and dumps the contents of the bag into a nearby trash can. The dynamite that Wile E. slipped in there explodes and twists the can, rendering it in a now-crushed state. It’s revealed that Wile E. was hiding inside the can as he comes out not only charred but also with a black eye, followed by the lid shortly landing on him (animated by Harris).

Wile E. silently looks over his next answer, “Well… How About Trying A Booby Trap In The Carrot Patch?” Using a rope and pulley system, Wile E. hoists a large rock above the carrot patch and ties the other end of the rope around a random carrot, so that once Bugs pulls this carrot out, the rock will fall on him. Wearing a sunbonnet on his head and a large blue bow around his neck and carrying a basket while singing “Time Waits for No One” with substitute lyrics (“Carrots wait for no one; so I’ll pick them now; before they are eaten by some slobby cow!”), Bugs picks some carrots from the patch, but nothing happens when he takes the one tied to the rope. After Bugs leaves, Wile E. comes back in confused at the rope stalling before it finally zooms away before he can grab it himself. Looking at the rock falling on him from above, Wile E. runs back to his cave and sweats nervously as he types more choices on the computer, “Rock. Falling. What’ll. I. Do!?” The computer’s answer for this is, “Go Back and Take Your Medicine”. Without questioning, Wile E. runs back to under the boulder and willingly stands there for it to crush him, which it does. From the computer’s main screen, Bugs opens up the door in front of it, revealing that he controls the computer and was giving Wile E. backfiring advice this whole time! He confides, “Of course, the REAL beauty of this machine is that it has only ONE moving part!”, before fluttering his eyebrows slyly (animated by Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕