People Are Bunny
Encyclopedia
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 people performed different "stunts" to win money. This was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon released in the 1950s. This is one of the very short cartoons where Daws Butler stars, but however, is uncredited.
is excited by a hunting show called the QTTV Sportsman Hour that offers $1,000.00 for the first viewer to bring a rabbit to Station QTTV. Attempting to convince Bugs Bunny
to come to the station, Daffy first tries a ruse with TV show tickets, but Bugs immediately suspects Daffy is up to no good and declines. Daffy then grabs a gun from Bugs' fireplace and tells Bugs to oblige or be shot.
At the scene of Station QTTV [whose exterior bears more than a passing resemblance to CBS Television City
in Hollywood], Daffy has Bugs at gunpoint when they see a parade of prizes coming out of a studio (car, boat, fur coat, refrigerator, "Key to Fort Knox
", etc.), and they see people going into the show "People Are Phoney" starring Art Lamplighter (voiced not by Blanc but by Butler). With dollar signs in his eyes, Daffy locks Bugs in a telephone booth and runs into the studio. Bugs receives a call in the telephone booth from an announcer who tells Bugs if he correctly answers a question, he will win a jackpot. Bugs answers the math question and the jackpot dispenses through the coin return slot. The announcer then asks Bugs how he knew the answer so quickly. Bugs says, "One thing we rabbits know how to do is multiply."
Meanwhile, Daffy appears as a contestant on "People Are Phoney", where his task is to help a little old lady across the street while on camera. Things backfire in a hurry when the old lady (obviously one of Art's stooges) starts belting Daffy with her umbrella, belligerently declaring she doesn't need help crossing the street. Daffy staggers, is missed by a speeding truck ("Nyaah, ya' missed me!!", he gloats, sticking out his tongue), then gets hit by a motorcycle. Art Lamplighter tells the hysterical audience that Daffy didn't quite make it, and it goes to show that "People Are Phoney".
Sorely mad, Daffy comes back to the telephone booth where Bugs is counting the jackpot. Bugs says he got a call in the phone booth, which Daffy doesn't believe. Bugs says at any time now an announcer might call again. Bugs makes the sound of a ringing phone and cons Daffy into thinking they want another contestant. Daffy pushes Bugs out of the booth, telling Bugs to let him have it. Daffy grabs the "receiver" - now a stick of dynamite - and it explodes as Bugs walks away. He shrugs, "So I let him have it."
Looking for Bugs, Daffy asks a studio usher (actually Bugs in disguise) if he saw a rabbit. Bugs points him to a door, and Daffy is sent to the show "Were You There" (a takeoff of the show You Are There) which happens to be depicting "Indian Massacre At Burton's Bend". Daffy then comes out with his head scalped {"All right, where's the wise guy?", he mutters, slapping his scalp back onto his head}.
At the end, Bugs is disguised as a producer and he tells Daffy that he's suddenly wanted for "Costume Party" (a reference to the real Masquerade Party
), tricking him into donning a rabbit costume. The show he is sent to is the QTTV Sportsman Hour to which Daffy intended to bring Bugs, and Bugs collects the fee Daffy wanted for himself. When Daffy protests that he is no rabbit but a duck, the host declares it is now duck season, and a bunch of hunters shoot at Daffy. Bugs shrugs off Daffy's plight, noting, "Eh, they always shoot blanks on TV," Daffy, his beak full of bullet holes, mutters "'Blanks', he says." Emptying a stack of buckshot from his mouth, he offers them to Bugs: "Have a handful of blanks! Sheesh!"
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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,...
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson
Robert McKimson
Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
, starring 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 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...
, along with an appearance by a caricature of Art Linkletter
Art Linkletter
Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...
named "Art Lamplighter". "People Are Bunny" is a takeoff of the Art Linkletter
Art Linkletter
Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...
show People Are Funny
People Are Funny
People are Funny is an American radio and television game show, created by John Guedel that remained popular throughout the 1940s. The program ran from 1942 to 1960. The program's stunts and audience participation were calculated to reveal the humorous side of human nature...
where people performed different "stunts" to win money. This was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon released in the 1950s. This is one of the very short cartoons where Daws Butler stars, but however, is uncredited.
Plot
Watching TV, Daffy DuckDaffy 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...
is excited by a hunting show called the QTTV Sportsman Hour that offers $1,000.00 for the first viewer to bring a rabbit to Station QTTV. Attempting to convince 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...
to come to the station, Daffy first tries a ruse with TV show tickets, but Bugs immediately suspects Daffy is up to no good and declines. Daffy then grabs a gun from Bugs' fireplace and tells Bugs to oblige or be shot.
At the scene of Station QTTV [whose exterior bears more than a passing resemblance to CBS Television City
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in Hollywood], Daffy has Bugs at gunpoint when they see a parade of prizes coming out of a studio (car, boat, fur coat, refrigerator, "Key to Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
", etc.), and they see people going into the show "People Are Phoney" starring Art Lamplighter (voiced not by Blanc but by Butler). With dollar signs in his eyes, Daffy locks Bugs in a telephone booth and runs into the studio. Bugs receives a call in the telephone booth from an announcer who tells Bugs if he correctly answers a question, he will win a jackpot. Bugs answers the math question and the jackpot dispenses through the coin return slot. The announcer then asks Bugs how he knew the answer so quickly. Bugs says, "One thing we rabbits know how to do is multiply."
Meanwhile, Daffy appears as a contestant on "People Are Phoney", where his task is to help a little old lady across the street while on camera. Things backfire in a hurry when the old lady (obviously one of Art's stooges) starts belting Daffy with her umbrella, belligerently declaring she doesn't need help crossing the street. Daffy staggers, is missed by a speeding truck ("Nyaah, ya' missed me!!", he gloats, sticking out his tongue), then gets hit by a motorcycle. Art Lamplighter tells the hysterical audience that Daffy didn't quite make it, and it goes to show that "People Are Phoney".
Sorely mad, Daffy comes back to the telephone booth where Bugs is counting the jackpot. Bugs says he got a call in the phone booth, which Daffy doesn't believe. Bugs says at any time now an announcer might call again. Bugs makes the sound of a ringing phone and cons Daffy into thinking they want another contestant. Daffy pushes Bugs out of the booth, telling Bugs to let him have it. Daffy grabs the "receiver" - now a stick of dynamite - and it explodes as Bugs walks away. He shrugs, "So I let him have it."
Looking for Bugs, Daffy asks a studio usher (actually Bugs in disguise) if he saw a rabbit. Bugs points him to a door, and Daffy is sent to the show "Were You There" (a takeoff of the show You Are There) which happens to be depicting "Indian Massacre At Burton's Bend". Daffy then comes out with his head scalped {"All right, where's the wise guy?", he mutters, slapping his scalp back onto his head}.
At the end, Bugs is disguised as a producer and he tells Daffy that he's suddenly wanted for "Costume Party" (a reference to the real 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...
), tricking him into donning a rabbit costume. The show he is sent to is the QTTV Sportsman Hour to which Daffy intended to bring Bugs, and Bugs collects the fee Daffy wanted for himself. When Daffy protests that he is no rabbit but a duck, the host declares it is now duck season, and a bunch of hunters shoot at Daffy. Bugs shrugs off Daffy's plight, noting, "Eh, they always shoot blanks on TV," Daffy, his beak full of bullet holes, mutters "'Blanks', he says." Emptying a stack of buckshot from his mouth, he offers them to Bugs: "Have a handful of blanks! Sheesh!"
Trivia
- This is the second time in which Bugs disguises himself as an usher to send someone into a show that involved Indians. The first was Wideo WabbitWideo WabbitWideo 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...
where Bugs sends Elmer Fudd into a TV studio playing "You Were There" which was reenacting Custer's Last StandBattle of the Little BighornThe 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...
. In fact, the animation of Bugs telling the other character to hurry up and get dressed is reused footage from "Wideo Wabbit".
Availability
"People Are Bunny" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Superstars DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen.Censorship
- On the FOX version of "The Merrie Melodies Show," the part where Daffy walks up to Bugs after getting blasted by the hunters, spits out a handful of buckshots, and groans, "Blanks, he says! Have a handful of blanks" was cut with a fake iris-out after Bugs says, "Eh, they [the hunters] always use blanks on TV."
- The syndicated version of The Merrie Melodies Show leaves in the ending, but replaces Daffy getting shot by the hunters with a still shot of Bugs.http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsp.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20000824153029/www.megalink.net/~cooke/looney/ltcutsp.html
External links
- People Are Bunny at Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
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