Wideo Wabbit
Encyclopedia
Wideo Wabbit is a 1956 Warner Bros.
cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny
and Elmer Fudd
. The voice of Bugs Bunny and other characters are played by Mel Blanc
while the voice of Elmer Fudd is played by Arthur Q. Bryan
. Bugs' Groucho Marx
and Ed Norton impressions were performed by Daws Butler
who had an uncanny ability to impersonate a whole host of celebrities of the time period.
However, unbeknownst to Bugs, it is a hunting show starring Elmer Fudd
called The Sportsman's Hour, sponsored by The French Fried Fresh Frozen Rabbit Company of Walla Walla, Washington
. He tells the audience how he goes about getting a rabbit. He signals the cue for Bugs to come up out of the hole by push button and 10,000 volts' worth of electricity. When Bugs comes out of the hole, Elmer starts shooting. Bugs starts a fuss about the shooting, and Elmer tells him not to make a scene and everybody is watching ("How d'you expect me to bwast you when you're moving awound wike that?") and Bugs tells Elmer to let them look and that it is his first chance on TV. Elmer takes a couple of shots at Bugs as he runs away and Bugs takes this as professional jealousy, but on a scale he had never imagined. The producer holds a sign up in front of the camera that says "Program Temporarily Interuppted. Please Stand By."
This leads to a chase all over the studio wherein Bugs goes into each and every show in the studio. The first show he does is a parody of You Bet Your Life
with Groucho Marx
called You Beat Your Wife (see "Censorship" for information about this gag). Elmer comes in, and Bugs as Groucho asks Elmer what the secret word was for $50, what his name was and what he was looking for. Elmer says he was looking for a rabbit, a crazy fresh rabbit. In response, Bugs as Groucho says "Oh, a fresh hare fiend." As Groucho, Bugs asks Elmer "Have you stopped beating your wife?" (The question is known for trapping the questionee whether the answer is "yes" nor "no" since neither answer allows for the possibility that the questionee has never beaten his wife and therefore cannot "stop" doing what he has never done in the first place.) As Elmer stutters and stammers for a reply, Bugs walks out and says, "While you're making up your mind, I'll go slip out of these wet clothes — and into a dry martini, eh!" (this line is usually attributed to Robert Benchley
). Elmer sees Bugs in disguise and tells him off, Bugs kisses him and tells him, "Aw, you been peekin'" (a reference to the blindfolds the panel wore to guess the "mystery guest" on What's My Line?
).
Next, Elmer gets hit by a pie by Bugs on a parody of You Asked for It
called You're Asking For It.
Next, Bugs plays Liberace
who is called "Liver-ace", and when Elmer comes in, he is playing the piano. When Bugs sees Elmer, he does his Liberace imitation showing his teeth as piano keys, calling Elmer "his brother George", and tells Elmer to take the candelabra over to Mother. The candles are actually sticks of dynamite; when Elmer walks slowly and stops, there is an explosion. Bugs as Liberace says, "I did that because I want my show to go over with a bang."
Next, Bugs as a studio usher sends Elmer into the show "You Were There" (a takeoff of the show You Are There) depicting Custer's Last Stand
. When he comes out, Elmer has arrows in his back and a tomahawk in his head, prompting Bugs to direct Fudd to Studio C for The Medic
.
The final time, Bugs as a producer, sends Elmer into a show called Fancy Dress Party (Masquerade Party
) where he is now disguised as a rabbit and Bugs as Elmer in his hunting outfit. Bugs goes back on "The Sportsman's Hour" and shoots Elmer in his rabbit suit and then Bugs comes in dressed as Art Carney
's character Ed Norton from The Honeymooners
and gives Elmer a cigar with Groucho Marx's glasses and eyebrows and says "Gee, what a Groucho."
, this time with Daffy Duck
as his victim.
This is the second time that Bugs has played Groucho Marx to avoid Elmer. The first time was Friz Freleng
's cartoon Slick Hare
(1947), but Elmer comes much closer to catching Bugs in that Groucho scene than in the one in Wideo Wabbit, by means of disguise as Groucho's brother Harpo
.
When Bugs is masquerading as Liberace and playing the piano, the part where he gets his fingers tied in a knot was lifted from another Freleng cartoon Rhapsody Rabbit
(1946).
When Elmer is tracking Bugs' footprints while giving tips, music is reused from A Wild Hare
where Bugs taps on Elmer's head and introduces his catch phrase
. Interestingly, McKimson (who directed this cartoon) animated A Wild Hare without receiving screen credit.
The call letters for the TV station in the cartoon, "QTTV", is lifted from KTTV
, a local television station in Los Angeles
.
This is the final Bugs Bunny cartoon which uses the Carl Stalling melody "What's Up, Doc?" over the title cards.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
and Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
. The voice of Bugs Bunny and other characters are played by Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
while the voice of Elmer Fudd is played by Arthur Q. Bryan
Arthur Q. Bryan
Arthur Quirk Bryan was a United States comedian and voice actor, remembered best for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr...
. Bugs' Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
and Ed Norton impressions were performed by Daws Butler
Daws Butler
Charles Dawson "Daws" Butler was a voice actor originally from Toledo, Ohio. He worked mostly for Hanna-Barbera and originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors...
who had an uncanny ability to impersonate a whole host of celebrities of the time period.
Plot
Bugs Bunny is singing "This Is My Lucky Day" when he comes on an ad in the newspaper wanting a rabbit for a show at the QTTV-TV studio. When he gets there, the producer makes Bugs climb a ladder whereupon Bugs asks why he has to climb the ladder and the producer says "Most of our actors, we start at the bottom. We're starting you at the top."However, unbeknownst to Bugs, it is a hunting show starring Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
called The Sportsman's Hour, sponsored by The French Fried Fresh Frozen Rabbit Company of Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
. He tells the audience how he goes about getting a rabbit. He signals the cue for Bugs to come up out of the hole by push button and 10,000 volts' worth of electricity. When Bugs comes out of the hole, Elmer starts shooting. Bugs starts a fuss about the shooting, and Elmer tells him not to make a scene and everybody is watching ("How d'you expect me to bwast you when you're moving awound wike that?") and Bugs tells Elmer to let them look and that it is his first chance on TV. Elmer takes a couple of shots at Bugs as he runs away and Bugs takes this as professional jealousy, but on a scale he had never imagined. The producer holds a sign up in front of the camera that says "Program Temporarily Interuppted. Please Stand By."
This leads to a chase all over the studio wherein Bugs goes into each and every show in the studio. The first show he does is a parody of You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in September...
with Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
called You Beat Your Wife (see "Censorship" for information about this gag). Elmer comes in, and Bugs as Groucho asks Elmer what the secret word was for $50, what his name was and what he was looking for. Elmer says he was looking for a rabbit, a crazy fresh rabbit. In response, Bugs as Groucho says "Oh, a fresh hare fiend." As Groucho, Bugs asks Elmer "Have you stopped beating your wife?" (The question is known for trapping the questionee whether the answer is "yes" nor "no" since neither answer allows for the possibility that the questionee has never beaten his wife and therefore cannot "stop" doing what he has never done in the first place.) As Elmer stutters and stammers for a reply, Bugs walks out and says, "While you're making up your mind, I'll go slip out of these wet clothes — and into a dry martini, eh!" (this line is usually attributed to Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley
Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor...
). Elmer sees Bugs in disguise and tells him off, Bugs kisses him and tells him, "Aw, you been peekin'" (a reference to the blindfolds the panel wore to guess the "mystery guest" on What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
).
Next, Elmer gets hit by a pie by Bugs on a parody of You Asked for It
You Asked For It
You Asked for It is a popular human-interest show created and hosted by Art Baker. Initially titled The Art Baker Show, the program originally aired on American television between 1950 and 1959...
called You're Asking For It.
Next, Bugs plays Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
who is called "Liver-ace", and when Elmer comes in, he is playing the piano. When Bugs sees Elmer, he does his Liberace imitation showing his teeth as piano keys, calling Elmer "his brother George", and tells Elmer to take the candelabra over to Mother. The candles are actually sticks of dynamite; when Elmer walks slowly and stops, there is an explosion. Bugs as Liberace says, "I did that because I want my show to go over with a bang."
Next, Bugs as a studio usher sends Elmer into the show "You Were There" (a takeoff of the show You Are There) depicting Custer's Last Stand
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
. When he comes out, Elmer has arrows in his back and a tomahawk in his head, prompting Bugs to direct Fudd to Studio C for The Medic
Medic (TV series)
Medic is an American medical drama that aired on NBC beginning in 1954. Medic was television's first doctor drama to focus attention on medical procedures, establishing the style for later medical series.Created by its principal writer James E...
.
The final time, Bugs as a producer, sends Elmer into a show called Fancy Dress Party (Masquerade Party
Masquerade Party
A syndicated revival was produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall in 1974, hosted by Richard Dawson and announced by Jay Stewart. The basic premise was the same as the original show. Bill Bixby, Lee Meriweather, and Nipsey Russell were regular panelists. Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried...
) where he is now disguised as a rabbit and Bugs as Elmer in his hunting outfit. Bugs goes back on "The Sportsman's Hour" and shoots Elmer in his rabbit suit and then Bugs comes in dressed as Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
's character Ed Norton from The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...
and gives Elmer a cigar with Groucho Marx's glasses and eyebrows and says "Gee, what a Groucho."
Production details
The part where Bugs is a studio page at the TV studio is repeated again in the 1959 cartoon People Are BunnyPeople Are Bunny
People Are Bunny is a 1959 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson, starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, along with an appearance by a caricature of Art Linkletter named "Art Lamplighter". "People Are Bunny" is a takeoff of the Art Linkletter show People Are Funny where...
, this time with Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
as his victim.
This is the second time that Bugs has played Groucho Marx to avoid Elmer. The first time was Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
's cartoon Slick Hare
Slick Hare
"Slick Hare" is a 1947 Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng. It parodies the Mocambo nightclub in Los Angeles—in the cartoon referred to as "The Mocrumbo". Mel Blanc voices Bugs and an impression of Humphrey Bogart, while Arthur Q. Bryan voices Elmer Fudd...
(1947), but Elmer comes much closer to catching Bugs in that Groucho scene than in the one in Wideo Wabbit, by means of disguise as Groucho's brother Harpo
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
.
When Bugs is masquerading as Liberace and playing the piano, the part where he gets his fingers tied in a knot was lifted from another Freleng cartoon Rhapsody Rabbit
Rhapsody Rabbit
Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 Merrie Melodies animated short subject, featuring Bugs Bunny and directed by Friz Freleng. The short was originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 9, 1946. This short is a follow-up of sorts to Freleng's 1941 Academy Award-nominated short...
(1946).
When Elmer is tracking Bugs' footprints while giving tips, music is reused from A Wild Hare
A Wild Hare
A Wild Hare is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940...
where Bugs taps on Elmer's head and introduces his catch phrase
Catch phrase
A catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
. Interestingly, McKimson (who directed this cartoon) animated A Wild Hare without receiving screen credit.
The call letters for the TV station in the cartoon, "QTTV", is lifted from KTTV
KTTV
KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
, a local television station in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
This is the final Bugs Bunny cartoon which uses the Carl Stalling melody "What's Up, Doc?" over the title cards.
Censorship
- On The WB! and post-2001 Cartoon NetworkCartoon NetworkCartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
, the You Beat Your Wife sequence is edited (for fear that viewers may misconstrue it as a joke about spousal abuse) to remove all references in dialogue to the title, as well as the title of the show on the podium http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/u-z/.- Cartoon Network removed the title using digital editing (similar to what Cartoon Network used for their animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
cartoons to cover up offending words on signs, redesign any can or bottle that contained alcoholic drinks, redesign any firearm that looks realistic, and to cover up nudity on [mostly female] characters) to make the entire platform one color. - The WB! placed a light brown square over the name on the podium (which shifted around and disappeared for one frame).
- Cartoon Network removed the title using digital editing (similar to what Cartoon Network used for their anime
- On the WB, in addition to the above edit, the entire "Custer's Last Stand" sequence was cut.
- ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
left the "You Beat Your Wife" sequence intact, but cut the following scenes (this cartoon though was only shown once because of complaints about this sequence):- A dynamite gag during the Liberace sequence where dynamite sticks are substituted for candles was edited to remove the explosion (though Bugs' comment "I did that because I wanted my program to go over with a BANG!" was left in).
- A gun gag that leaves silhouettes in the wall behind Bugs.
- The "Custer's Last Stand" sequence to remove the shot of Elmer with arrows in his back and a tomahawk in his head.
Availability
- Wideo Wabbit is available, uncut and restored, on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 is a DVD box set from Warner Home Video that was released on October 25, 2005. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical short subject cartoons, 9 documentaries, 32 commentary tracks from animators and historians, 11 "vintage treasures from...
, Disc 2.