A Pest in the House is a 1947 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd.
Summary[]
Elmer Fudd is a manager at a hotel, and Daffy is the bellhop. An angry guest says that if his sleep is disturbed, he will punch Elmer in the nose. Naturally, Daffy disturbs the guest's sleep any time he gets, causing the guest to punch Elmer in the face.
Notes[]
The film is notable for featuring a sort of "in-between" interpretation of Daffy. He is not necessarily the zany, impish interpretation used famously by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, nor is he the greedy, self-preservationist version that Chuck Jones later popularized in the 1950s. As Paul Dini says in the DVD audio commentary for this cartoon, "[In this cartoon, Daffy] is really kind of almost like a sprite. He's just a little, almost elfin creature who's not really out to hurt anybody or has any ill will or malice toward anybody. He's just completely out of his mind."
The Business Man is voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan, who also voices Elmer Fudd, albeit without Elmer's L and R speech impediment. He would later make a cameo appearance as the sleepy announcer whose job gets taken over by Hubie & Bertie and in the bleachers in the 1996 movie Space Jam cheering for Michael Jordan after Michael wins.[1]
The cartoon was followed up in 1948 by "Daffy Duck Slept Here", wherein Daffy (this time as a fellow guest) again doesn't let a hotel patron sleep - in this case Porky Pig.
The name of the "Gland Hotel" is a pun on that of the title establishment in the movie drama "Grand Hotel" (1932).
The businessman's room number is 666, which is a reference to "the number of the Beast", i.e. of the Antichrist, in the New Testament Book of Revelation. This is because of the "Hell" the tired guest had to go through because of Daffy.
This is the final cartoon to use the original MPPDA logo on the credits card. It would be updated to remove the "D" on the logo, resulting in "MPAA" for all cartoons until it was changed again in "The Music Mice-Tro".
