What is Elmer Fudd?

Elmer Fudd
First appearance	Elmer's Candid Camera (March 2, 1940)
Created by	evolution from Tex Avery's Egghead
Voiced by	Arthur Q. Bryan (until 1959) Hal Smith (1960-1961) Mel Blanc (1970s & 1980s) Billy West (1991 - present)

Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters. He has one of the more convoluted and disputed origins in the Warner Brothers cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs Bunny himself). His aim is to shoot Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself.

His stock line is: "Shhhhhhhh, be vewwwy, vewwwy quiet; I'm hunting wabbits, heheheheheheh", although it varies in certain cartoons.

Egghead

In 1937, Tex Avery introduced a new character in his cartoon short Egghead Rides Again. Elmer's friendly ancestor, Egghead has a bulbous nose, funny/eccentric clothing, a voice like Joe Penner, and an egg-shaped head. Many cartoon historians believe that Egghead evolved into Elmer over a period of a couple of years. Egghead made his second appearance in 1937's Little Red Walking Hood and then in 1938 teamed with Warner Brothers' newest cartoon star Daffy Duck in Daffy Duck and Egghead. Egghead continued to appear in a string of cartoons in 1938: The Isle of Pingo Pongo, Cinderella Meets Fella, and A-Lad-In Bagdad. In A Feud There Was (1938) Egghead made his entrance riding a motorscooter with the words "Elmer Fudd, Peacemaker" displayed on the side, the beginning of that name. Egghead alternates from having a Moe Howard haircut to being bald and wearing a brown derby, a baggy suit, and a high-collared shirt. His voice, laugh, and mannerisms are very much like those of Joe Penner. Egghead is thought to be the prototype of Elmer Fudd. Egghead himself returned decades later in the compilation film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. More recently, he also made a cameo appearance at the end of Looney Tunes: Back in Action and was also given in his own story, which starred him alongside Pete Puma, in the Looney Tunes comic book.

Egghead has the distinction of being the very first recurring character created for Leon Schlesinger's Merrie Melodies series, which had previously contained only one-shot characters.

In the 1939 cartoon Dangerous Dan McFoo, a new voice actor Arthur Q. Bryan was hired to provide the voice of the hero dog-character and it was in this cartoon that the popular "milk-sop" voice of Elmer Fudd was created. Elmer Fudd has long since remained the antagonistic force in many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons. Egghead was voiced by Mel Blanc, later Cliff Nazarro and finally Arthur Q. Bryan. Later he is voiced by Joe Alaskey, later Tom Kane and finally Billy West.

Elmer emerges

In 1940, Egghead/Elmer's appearance was refined giving him a chin and a less bulbous nose (although still wearing Egghead's clothing) and Arthur Q. 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. Happy Rabbit drives Elmer insane. Later that year, he appeared in Friz Freleng's Confederate Honey (where he's called Ned Cutler), The Hardship of Miles Standish and Jones' Good Night Elmer where his voice and Egghead-like appearance were still the same. Jones would use this Elmer one more time, in 1941's Elmer's Pet Rabbit. The other title character here is labelled 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.

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. Somehow knowing not only that Elmer would lose, but knowing how he would lose, made the confrontation, counterintuitively, more delicious. Despite being the antagonist, Elmer lacked the malice of a true villain.

Elmer was usually cast as a hapless big-game hunter, armed with a double-barreled shotgun 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. He appears in the video game as the boss of the era Stone Age and in as the boss in the Vikings era.

Some episodes where Elmer was featured differently was one where Bugs Bunny was relating his life story to a biographer, and recalls a time when it was a downturn for the movie business. Elmer Fudd was a well known producer, who seeks out Bugs Bunny (after not being interested in many other famous 1940s actors who are also out of work like Bugs). Elmer and Bugs do a one joke gag cross country where Bugs is dressed like a pinhead, and does not know the answer to a joke when Elmer hits him with a pie in the face. Bugs begins to tire of this gag and pulls a surprise on Elmer, answering the joke correctly once and spraying Elmer with seltzer, to which Elmer points 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. It was revealed at that point that the common Elmer as hunter episodes may in fact be entirely staged.

One episode, Hare Brush, where Bugs "lost" in the hunting was where Elmer is committed to an insane asylum because he tells everyone he is a rabbit but escapes when he bribes Bugs Bunny with carrots. Bugs acts naïve, assuming he just wanted to go outside. A psychiatrist drugs Bugs and convinces him that he is Elmer Fudd ("I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a manison and a yacht") to which Bugs starts wearing hunting clothes and acting like Elmer, and hunting the Elmer in a rabbit costume, who is 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 screwy wabbit, but I am not going to Alcatwaz", implying the insanity was only staged as part of a plan to avoid his upcoming arrest.

Elmer Fudd has occasionally appeared in other costumes, namely a 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 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.

Fat Elmer

For a short time in the early 1940s, 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-belly character, patterned after Arthur Q. Bryan's real-life appearance, and still chasing Bugs (or vice versa). Audiences did not accept a fat Fudd, so ultimately the slimmer version (which was only fat in the head, literally and figuratively) 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'rough 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 episode, The Wacky Wabbit, finds Elmer focused on prospecting for gold which would be used to fund the World War II effort. Elmer sings "V for Victory" to the tune of "Oh! Susanna", with Bugs joining in just before starting to hassle Elmer.

Elmer's peak

The best known Elmer Fudd cartoons include Chuck Jones' masterpiece What's Opera, Doc? (one of the few times Fudd succeeded in besting Bugs, and he feels 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.

He nearly always misplaced r and l with w (a trait that also characterized Tweety Bird) when he would talk in his slightly raspy voice. That characterization seemed to fit his somewhat timid and childlike persona. Naturally, the writers often gave him lines filled with those letters, such as doing Shakespeare's Romeo as "Soft, 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", or the name of actress "Owivia deHaviwwand".

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 Gray Hare, he clearly pronounces the r in the word "picture")

Later appearances

Elmer would also appear frequently on the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures as a teacher at Acme Looniversity, where he was the idol and favorite teacher of Elmyra Duff, the slightly deranged animal lover who resembles Elmer both in basic head design and lack of intellect.

Elmer also had a guest spot in the Histeria! episode "The Teddy Roosevelt Show" as Gutzon Borglum. This sketch depicts Elmer/Gutzon's construction of Mount Rushmore, accompanied by Borglum's son Lincoln, portrayed by Loud Kiddington.

Elmer appears as part of the TuneSquad team in Space Jam.

Elmer took on a more villainous role in , in which he is a secret agent for the Acme Corporation. In his scene, Elmer chases Bugs and Daffy through the paintings in the Louvre museum, taking on the different art styles as they do so. At the end, Elmer forgets to change back to his normal style after jumping out of the pointillism painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, allowing Bugs to easily disintegrate Elmer by blowing a fan at him.

Fudd also appeared on The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries in the first season episode A Ticket to Crime as detective Sam Fudd and at the end he took off his clothes and turned into Elmer.

An even more villainous Elmer appeared in two episodes of Duck Dodgers as The Mother Fudd, an alien who would spread a disease that caused all affected by it to stand around laughing like Elmer (a parody of the Flood in Halo).

Elmer Fudd appeared in the Drawn Together episode "Gay Bash" voiced by Chris Edgerly.

In Loonatics Unleashed, his descendant, Electro J. Fudd, tried to prove himself the universes greatest hunter by capturing Ace Bunny, but settled for Danger Duck.

In , Elmer Fudd (voiced by Noel Blanc) was portrayed, actually shooting and killing Bugs Bunny. He then twists Bugs Bunny's neck, leaving a trail of blood as he drags his lifeless body away.

Elmer Fudd appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Rodigitti" voiced by Quinton Flynn. In a segment that parodies 8 Mile, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd engage in a rap battle with Elmer loses.

In Halo 2 a grunt may say, "Shh, me hunting heritecs", a parody the "Shh, I'm hunting for wabbits" line Elmer often uses.

The voice of Elmer Fudd

Fudd was originally voiced by radio actor Arthur Q. Bryan, but twice in Bryan's lifetime the voice was provided by the versatile Mel Blanc. Once, in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), only a single line was needed, and bringing in Bryan was not cost effective. Later, during the musician's union strike of 1958, Blanc did it for Pre-Hysterical Hare. There is no documented reason for Bryan's absence, leaving some fans to speculate that he refused to cross the picket lines. In 1959, Bryan passed away, and Hal Smith was selected to replace him as Elmer, but the character was soon retired. Although other voice actors have alternated as Fudd's voice, Bryan's characterization remains the definitive one. He was never credited onscreen, because Blanc had a clause in his contract that required him to receive a screen credit and, perhaps inadvertently, denied the same to other voice performers. Blanc would take on the role regularly in the 1970s and 80s, supplying Elmer's voice for new footage in compilation feature films and similar TV specials, as well as some all-new specials. He admitted in his autobiography that he found the voice difficult to get "right", never quite making it his own. In Speechless, the famous print issued following Blanc's death, Elmer is not shown among the characters bowing their heads in tribute to Blanc. Elmer has also been voiced by Daws Butler, Greg Burson, Jeff Bergman, Billy West, Tom Kenny, and others over the years.

Elmer Fudd in pop culture

Elmer's easily mimicked voice lends itself to endless takeoffs. In recent times, Robin Williams has parodied Elmer doing Bruce Springsteen's song "Fire": "I'm dwivin' in my cah / I tuwn on the wadio ... 'Cause when we ki-i-i-iss / FIWE!" or as Marlon Brando's character in A Streetcar Named Desire saying "Stewwa!" During a stand-up performance, Gilbert Gottfried once performed a parody with Elmer in a scene from Apocalypse Now: "Da howaww...da howaaww."

"Elmer Fudd" is one of the language options in Google languages.

See also

• List of cartoons featuring Elmer Fudd

External links

• Elmer now has his own version of Google