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    Elmer Fudd

    Character » Elmer Fudd appears in 2231 issues.

    A very funny and dummy character. He can never seem to catch Bugs Bunny because Bugs always outsmarts him. Characterized by the funny lisp he has, rascally rabbit become wascally wabbit.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Elmer Fudd last edited by gravenraven on 07/04/23 06:23PM View full history

    The hunter in Bugs Bunny cartoons and comics, hes always "wabbit hunting". His trademark line is "shhhhhh..... be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits." He is probably the main "badguy" in Bugs Bunny cartoon/comics, next to Marvin the Martian and Yosemite Sam.

    Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs himself). His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and other antagonizing characters. He speaks in an unusual way, Replacing his Rs with Ls and Ws, so "Watch the road, Rabbit," is replaced with "Watch the woad, wabbit!" Elmer's signature catchphrase is, "Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits", as well as his trademark laughter, "huh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh".

    The best known Elmer Fudd cartoons include Chuck Jones' masterpiece What's Opera, Doc? (one of the few times Fudd bested Bugs, though he felt bad about it), the Rossini parody Rabbit of Seville, and the "Hunting Trilogy" of "Rabbit Season/Duck Season" shorts (Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck!) with Fudd himself, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck.

    Elmer debuts

    Elmer Fudd, resembled the earlier character of Egghead early in his career, is annoyed by the prototype Bugs in Elmer's Candid Camera.

    In 1940, Elmer's appearance was refined, giving him a chin and a less bulbous nose and Arthur Quirk Bryan's "Dan McFoo" voice in what most people consider Elmer Fudd's first true appearance: a Chuck Jones short entitled Elmer's Candid Camera. Later that year, he appeared in Friz Freleng's Confederate Honey (where he's called Ned Cutler) and The Hardship of Miles Standish where his voice and Egghead-like appearance were still the same. In 1941's Elmer's Pet Rabbit; its other title character is labeled as Bugs Bunny, but is also identical to his counterpart in Camera.

    In the interim, the two starred in A Wild Hare. Bugs appears with a carrot, New York accent, and "What's Up, Doc?" catchphrase all in place for the first time, although the voice and physique are as yet somewhat off. Elmer has a better voice, a trimmer figure and his familiar hunting clothes. He is much more recognizable as the Elmer Fudd of later cartoons than Bugs is here. In his earliest appearances, Elmer actually "wikes wabbits", either attempting to take photos of Bugs, or adopting Bugs as his pet. Bugs Bunny has the Elmer confused so there is little wonder as to why Elmer would become a hunter and in some cases actually proclaim, "I hate wittle gway wabbits!" after pumping buckshot down a rabbit hole.

    Elmer's role in these two films, that of would-be hunter, dupe and foil for Bugs, would remain his main role forever after, and although Bugs Bunny was called upon to outwit many more worthy opponents, Elmer somehow remained Bugs' classic nemesis, despite (or because of) his legendary gullibility, small size, short temper, and shorter attention span. In Rabbit Fire, he declares himself vegetarian, hunting for sport only.

    Elmer was usually cast as a hapless big-game hunter, armed with a double-barreled shotgun (albeit one which could be fired much more than twice without being reloaded) and creeping through the woods "hunting wabbits". In a few cartoons, though, he assumed a completely different persona—a wealthy industrialist type, occupying a luxurious penthouse, or, in one episode involving a role reversal, a sanitarium—which Bugs would of course somehow find his way into. In Dog Gone People, he had an ordinary office job working for demanding boss "Mister Cwabtwee". In another cartoon (Mutt in a Rut) he appeared to work in an office and had a dog he called "Wover Boy", whom he took hunting, though Bugs did not appear.

    Several episodes featured Elmer differently. One (What's Up, Doc?, 1950) has Bugs Bunny relating his life story to a biographer, and recalling a time which was a downturn for the movie business. Elmer Fudd is a well-known entertainer who, looking for a new partner for his act, sees Bugs Bunny (after passing caricatures of many other famous 1940s actors (Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby) who, like Bugs, are also out of work). Elmer and Bugs do a one-joke act cross-country, with Bugs dressed like a pinhead, and when he does not know the answer to a joke, Elmer gives it and hits him with a pie in the face. Bugs begins to tire of this gag and pulls a surprise on Fudd, answering the joke correctly and bopping Elmer with a mallet, which prompts the man to point his rifle at Bugs. The bunny asks nervously: "Eh, what's up doc?", which results in a huge round of applause from the audience. Bugs tells Elmer they may be on to something, and Elmer, with the vaudevillian's instinct of sticking with a gag that catches on, nods that they should re-use it. According to this account, the common Elmer-as-hunter episodes are entirely staged.

    One episode where Bugs "lost" in the hunting was Hare Brush (1956). Here, Elmer has been committed to an insane asylum because he believes he is a rabbit. Bugs Bunny enters Fudd's room and Elmer bribes him with carrots, then leaves the way the real rabbit entered. Bugs acts surprisingly (for him) naïve, assuming Elmer just wanted to go outside for a while. Elmer's psychiatrist arrives, and thinking Fudd's delusion has affected his appearance, drugs Bugs and conditions him into believing that he is Elmer Fudd 'after which Bugs starts wearing hunting clothes and acting like Elmer, hunting the rabbit-costumed Fudd, who is in turn acting like Bugs. Their hunt is cut short when Bugs is arrested, as Elmer Fudd is wanted for tax evasion. After Bugs is hauled away, Fudd breaks the fourth wall and tells the audience, "I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz."

    Elmer Fudd has occasionally appeared in other costumes, notably as Cupid. He tries to convince Bugs about love, but Bugs is reluctant, thinking to himself "Don't you look like some guy who's always after me?" and pictures the Elmer in hunter's clothes. The Cupid Elmer plots to get even with Bugs, using his love arrows to make Bugs fall in love with an artificial rabbit at a dog track. Elmer also appeared in this form opposite Daffy Duck in The Stupid Cupid (1944).

    The Bugs–Elmer partnership was so familiar to audiences that in a late 1950s cartoon, Bugs' Bonnets, a character study is made of what happens to the relationship between the two when they each accidentally don a different selection of hats (Native American Wig, Pilgrim Hat, Military Helmets, Bridal Veil and Top Hat, to name a few). The result is comic mayhem; a steady game of one-upmanship that ultimately leads to matrimony.

    In Hare Brush, it is revealed that he is a millionaire and owns a mansion and a yacht.

    Fat Elmer

    For a short time in the 1941–1942 season, Elmer's appearance was modified again, for five cartoons: Wabbit Twouble; The Wacky Wabbit; The Wabbit Who Came to Supper; Any Bonds Today?; and Fresh Hare. He became a heavy-set, beer-bellied character, patterned after Arthur Q. Bryan's real-life appearance, and still chasing Bugs (or vice versa). However, audiences did not accept a fat Fudd, so ultimately the slimmer version returned for good.

    This time period also saw a temporary change in Elmer's relationship with Bugs Bunny. Instead of being the hunter, Elmer was the victim of unprovoked pestering by Bugs. In Wabbit Twouble, Bugs plays a number of gags on Elmer, advising the audience, "I do dis kind o' stuff to him all t'wough da picture!" (A line somewhat ironically would later be said by the Tortoise as he and his friends cheat Bugs out of winning a race). Another short, The Wacky Wabbit, finds Elmer focused on prospecting for gold which would be used to fund the World War II effort. Elmer sings a variation of the old prospector's tune "Oh! Susanna" made just for this cartoon (complete with the phrase "V for Victory"), with Bugs joining in just before starting to hassle Elmer. He made a later appearance in a episode of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries as a Russian version with a simple name "Boris" who owns another comedy club in Russia.

    Elmer-speak

    He nearly always vocalised consonants [r] and [l], pronouncing them as [w] instead (a trait that also characterized Tweety Bird) when he would talk in his slightly raspy voice. This trait was prevalent in the Elmer's Candid Camera and Elmer's Pet Rabbit cartoons, where the writers would give him exaggerated lines such as, "My, that weawwy was a dewicious weg of wamb." to further exaggerate his qualities as a harmless nebbish. That characteristic seemed to fit his somewhat timid and childlike persona. And it worked. The writers often gave him lines filled with those letters, such as doing Shakespeare's Romeo as "What wight thwough yonduh window bweaks!" or Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries as "Kiww the wabbit, kiww the wabbit, kiww the wabbit...!" or "The Beautifuw Bwue Danube, by Johann Stwauss", Stage Door Cartoon's line "Oh, you dubbuh-cwossing wabbit! You tweachewous miscweant!" or the name of actress "Owivia deHaviwwand". Elmer's speech impediment is so well known that Google allows the user to change the search engine language to "Elmer Fudd." Comedian Robin Williams often refers to the impediment as "Fudd syndrome" whenever he accidentally slips up and replaces an 'l' or 'r' with a 'w' sound in a word.

    Part of the joke is that Elmer is presumably incapable of pronouncing his own first name correctly. Occasionally Elmer would properly pronounce an r or l sound, depending on whether or not it was vital for the audience to understand what the word was. (For example, in 1944's The Old Grey Hare, he clearly pronounces the r in the word "picture".) Usually, Elmer pronounces the 'r's and 'l's when one of those letters is in the last syllable of the word (such as "rascal", which he says as "wascal"). This doesn't occur in one-syllable words like "last" ("wast") or in common words like "hello" ("hewwo").

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