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“Be vewy vewy quiet; I'm hunting wabbits.”
―Elmer Fudd in various appearances
Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character, one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny alongside Yosemite Sam. He has one of the most disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs himself). But it was evidenced that the true origins of Elmer were that he was actually created by Fred "Tex" Avery in 1937, as a "Running Gag" character with small, sometimes squinty eyes, with a derby hat and with a green suit. His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and/or other antagonizing characters. He speaks in an unusual way (rhotacism), replacing his Rs and Ls with Ws, so "Watch da 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 gloat, "huh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh." The best known Elmer J. 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. He is also a billionaire, who lives in a mansion and owns a yacht.
"Elmer Fudd" as he appears in Tex Avery's A Day at the Zoo (copyrighted in 1938 and released in 1939).
In 1937, Tex Avery created a very early version of Elmer Fudd simply called "Elmer", and introduced him in "Little Red Walking Hood", as a mysterious hero whistling everywhere he goes. In this cartoon, he had a derby hat, small squinty eyes, big reddish nose, a high collar around his neck, a green long sleeve shirt, green pants, and a bald head. At the end of the cartoon, the character tells the villain, the big bad wolf, that he is "the hero in this picture" after he hits the wolf in the head with a mallet. He then continued to make more appearances in the Warner cartoons in 1938, such as in "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" (made and copyrighted in 1937, released in 1938) (also Prototype-Elmer's second appearance), "Cinderella Meets Fella" (1938), "A Feud There Was" (the first time he is fully called "Elmer Fudd") (1938), "Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas" (1938), "Hamateur Night" (made and copyrighted in 1938, released in 1939), A Day at the Zoo (made and copyrighted in 1938, released in 1939) and "Believe It or Else" (1939), mostly as a "running gag" character. In A Feud There Was (1938), Elmer made his entrance riding a motor scooter with the words "Elmer Fudd, Peacemaker" displayed on the side, the first onscreen use of that name. Elmer then appeared on early merchandise and of early Looney Tunes books in 1938 and 1939, and even on the lobby cards for "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" and for "Cinderella Meets Fella" with his name attached on them.
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. It was in this cartoon that the popular "milk-sop" wabbit voice was later used for Tex Avery's character, Elmer Fudd. Bryan was found because of the voice—a veteran of radio, he was a mainstay on The Grouch Club, of which a series of Warner Bros produced short films were made. Bryan appeared in a number of them. Sometime later on in this year, some new drawings and redesigns of Elmer Fudd were being created by character designers, Charlie Thorson and Bob Givens. In 1940, Elmer's appearance was refined, giving him a chin and a less bulbous nose (although still wearing his old clothing that he was wearing in Tex Avery's earlier cartoons) 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", actually Elmer's Ninth appearance, in which a rabbit drives Elmer insane; the rabbit was an early appearance of what would become Bugs Bunny, beginning their long-standing rivalry. Later that year, he appeared in Friz Freleng's "Confederate Honey" (where he was called Ned Cutler) and The Hardship of Miles Standish where his voice and "Little Red Walking Hood" appearance were still the same. He would get his next design in "Good Night Elmer".
Elmer's first hunting debut, however, was "A Wild Hare" in 1940. It is the first cartoon to feature Elmer in his usual hunting outfit and the fifth cartoon to feature Bugs Bunny (Bugs debut in "Porky's Hare Hunt" (produced and copyrighted in 1937, and released in 1938), as a zany white rabbit). Shortly after "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", another Elmer cartoon that has Elmer wearing his oldest clothing from 1937, they changed Elmer's appearance to look very chubby. After four cartoons and a short two-minute film named "Any Bonds Today?", however, he went back to his "A Wild Hare" design.
He actually only appeared in about 37 (out of 168) of the original Bugs Bunny cartoons, although he did co-star with other characters in many other shorts, along with several of his own solo appearances, amounting to 71 classic shorts total.
Elmer Fudd was originally voiced by Mel Blanc between 1937 and 1938, Danny Webb between 1938 and 1939 (only in Cinderella Meets Fella (1938) and Believe It or Else (1939)), Roy Rogers in 1938, only doing a singing voice in "A Feud There Was", and radio actorArthur Q. Bryan between 1939 and 1959, but on seven occasions during Bryan's lifetime, the voice was provided by Mel Blanc: in Good Night Elmer (1940), Blanc did Elmer's crying; in The Wacky Wabbit (1942), Blanc did Fudd's screams of fear; in The Big Snooze (1946), Blanc spoke as Fudd crying, "Oh, agony, agony!"; in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), only a single line was needed, and bringing in Bryan was not cost effective; in Quack Shot (1954), Blanc did Elmer's Peter Lorre-esque laugh after he is shot in the face by his toy battleship; in Wideo Wabbit, Blanc did Elmer's cry of pain; and in What's Opera, Doc?, Elmer's furious scream "SMOG!" was dubbed by Blanc, although Bryan had voiced the rest of the part. In The Stupid Cupid (1944), since Elmer has no dialogue in the cartoon, Frank Graham provided his laugh. Later, during the musician's union strike of 1958, Dave Barry did the voice for Elmer's co-starring appearance in Pre-Hysterical Hare, as Bryan was ill during production of the cartoon.[1] Elmer was originally going to be voiced in that cartoon by Daws Butler.[2]
In 1959, Bryan died aged 60, and Hal Smith was selected to replace him as Elmer, but after just two cartoons were recorded by the new actor, and another was made in which Fudd has no lines and therefore no voice, the character was soon retired. Although in more recent years other voice actors have alternated as Elmer'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 1980s, 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 lithograph issued following Blanc's death, Elmer is not shown among the characters bowing their heads in tribute to Blanc.
Other voice actors[]
Besides Arthur Q. Bryan, other actors have voiced Elmer:
Elmer Fudd made appearances in several television specials in the 1970s and 1980s, and some cameo roles in two of the Looney Tunes feature-film compilations.
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 in basic head design, name and lack of intellect. On the other hand, a younger version of him makes a single appearance in the episode Plucky's Dastardly Deed, and is named "Egghead Jr", the "smartest kid in class".
Elmer also had a guest starring appearance on Histeria! in the episode "The Teddy Roosevelt Show", in a sketch where he portrayed Gutzon Borglum. This sketch depicts Elmer/Gutzon's construction of Mount Rushmore, accompanied by Borglum's son Lincoln, portrayed by Loud Kiddington. Elmer made another appearance on Histeria!, this time in his traditional role, during a sketch where the bald eagle trades places with the turkey during Thanksgiving weekend, featured in the episode "Americana".
Fudd also appeared on The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries in the first season episode A Ticket to Crime as detective Sam Fudd; at the end he took off his clothes and turned into Elmer.
A four-year-old version of Elmer was featured in the Baby Looney Tunes episode "A Bully for Bugs", where he kept taking all of Bugs' candy, and also bullied the rest of his friends. He was also shown with short blond hair. He appeared in most of the songs.
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 and the Borg in Star Trek).
In Loonatics Unleashed, his descendant, Electro J. Fudd, tried to prove himself the universe's greatest hunter by capturing Ace Bunny, but settled for Danger Duck instead. Elmer himself also makes an appearance in the form of a photo which shows he presumably died at the hands of a giant squirrel.
Elmer Fudd appears in The Looney Tunes Show episode "Best Friends" voiced by Billy West, though only as part of the Merrie Melodies segment, and not part of the main plot. Portrayed as a wealthy businessman coming home after a hard day's work, he sings about his love of "gwiwwed cheese" sandwiches. He later had a brief cameo appearance in "Fish and Visitors" as a weather forecaster briefly exclaiming about the rainy weather and doing his famous chuckle at the end. In "Working Duck," Elmer Fudd appeared as a newsman where he reports that Daffy Duck was fired from his position as a security guard after falling asleep during a nighttime bank robbery where $10,000,000.00 were stolen. Later on, Elmer Fudd reports that EnormoCorp went out of business due to the worst business decision in the history of business caused by its CEO Daffy Duck (who succeeded the previous CEO Foghorn Leghorn who retired) where he went with the "Proceed as Planned" choice instead of the "Delay the Merger" choice when he mistook Pete Puma as the new muffin man. As a result of this, Elmer mentioned that 10,000 of it's workers are now out of a job and states that experts fear that the world economy could collapse. Elmer also states that disgraced CEO Daffy Duck could not be reached for a comment. In "A Christmas Carol," Elmer Fudd reports on Foghorn Leghorn's plans to end the heat wave on Christmas. Elmer Fudd later joins the other characters in the Christmas song called "Christmas Rules" at the end of the episode. In "Dear John," Elmer Fudd reports on Daffy Duck winning a spot on the city council. Elmer Fudd later reports on Daffy Duck's apparent death where he supposedly lost control of his parade float and drove into the St. Bastian River. In "The Black Widow," Elmer Fudd reports on the theft of the Hillhurst Diamond from the museum caused by someone called "The Black Widow."
Elmer appears as part of the TuneSquad team in Space Jam. In one part of the game he and Yosemite Sam shoot down the teeth of one of the Monstars dressed in black suites while Misirlou is heard in the background.
Elmer took on a more villainous role in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, 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.
Elmer Fudd appears in Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run voiced again by Billy West. He appears as a spy working for the Mexican general Foghorn Leghorn.
Printed Media[]
Video games[]
Theme Parks[]
Miscellaneous[]
In December 2009, Elmer made an appearance in a Geico commercial where the director tells him to say rabbits instead of "wabbits". He was again voiced by Billy West.
According to the Looney Tunes fans, there are various songs where the lead singer vaguely sounds like Elmer including "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, "Sweating Bullets" by Megadeth, and "Someday" by Sugar Ray.
In 2000, Mark V. McCollum had recorded the song called "Kill The Wabbit" (which is apparently based on the Looney Tunes short "What's Opera, Doc?") and named Elmer being the lead singer as Ozzy Fudd. Live at the Comedy Tonight club in San Francisco 1992 (which is from the VHS tape), Mark is seen on the stage asking the audience "Speaking of dudes, what would it be like if Elmer Fudd had a punk sun? And his punk sun was into heavy metal and Ozzy Fudd had a hit video on MTV. Did you ever think what there would be like? I have." and performing the song as he portrays the voice impression of Elmer. While it is currently unknown whatever happened to Mark V. McCollum, the song is often credited to other bands such as Metallica and Megadeth.
Impact on Popular Culture[]
The search engine Google has been translated into many languages, some of them for sheer comedic purposes. One of the novelty languages is "Elmer Fudd."
Comedian and actor Robin Williams also performed a famous sketch where he sang the Bruce Springsteen song "Fire" as Elmer Fudd.
On the TV show The Big Bang Theory there is a recurring character named Barry Kripke, who talks like Elmer.
Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh expressed dissatisfaction with Republican candidate Mitt Romney on a September 10, 2012, radio broadcast, by saying, "I know that Romney ticks you off. He might as well be Elmer Fudd as far as we're concerned. We're voting against Obama." This led to jokes about Limbaugh's apparent endorsement of Fudd as a replacement for Romney, as in one YouTube video, Limbaugh: Elmer Fudd replaces Romney.
In the Israeli Eductaional TV series Shuster and Shuster (Hebrew: שוסטר ושוסטר), the main antagonist, Gabriella Bushmitz (גבריאלה בושמיץ), talks like Elmer Fudd.
Theme Song | Fly Like an Eagle | The Winner | I Believe I Can Fly | Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem) | I Found My Smile Again | For You I Will | Upside Down ('Round-N-'Round) | Givin' U All That I've Got | Basketball Jones | I Found My Smile Again | I Turn to You | All of My Days | That's the Way (I Like It) | Buggin'| We Win | Jump | Everybody Wants to Rule the World | Tom Sawyer | Run Wild | The Crowd Go Crazy | We're Not Gonna Take It | Space Jam Rap Battle | Everything's Not Awesome | Man in the Mirror | BBC | You Wouldn't Know (feat. Ellen McClain)
Locations
Moron Mountain | Looney Tune Land | The Tune Stadium | Schlesinger Gym | Server-verse | Harry Potter World | DC World | Mad Max World | Austin Powers World | Casablanca World | Game of Thrones World | The Wizard of Oz World | The Matrix World | Wonder Woman World | The LEGO Movie World | The Lord of the Rings World | The Mask World | Ready Player One World | Scooby-Doo World | The Flintstones World | The Jetsons World | Yogi Bear World | Gremlins World | The Goonies World | Beetlejuice World | Ninjago World | Adventure Time World | The Powerpuff Girls World | Teen Titans Go! World
