Rabbit Seasoning is a 1952 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 Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...

, and 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...

. It is the sequel to Rabbit Fire

Rabbit Fire

Rabbit Fire is a 1951 Looney Tunes cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. Directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese, The short is notable for being the first film in Jones' "hunting trilogy"—the other two films being Rabbit Seasoning and Duck! Rabbit, Duck!. It is also...

, and the second entry in the "Hunting trilogy

Trilogy

A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...

" directed by Jones and written by Michael Maltese

Michael Maltese

Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...

. (The only major difference in format between Rabbit Fire and Rabbit Seasoning is that the former takes place during the spring

Spring (season)

Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...

, while the latter takes place in autumn

Autumn

Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....

. The third cartoon, Duck! Rabbit, Duck!, takes place in the winter

Winter

Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...

.) Produced by Edward Selzer for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., the short was released to theaters on September 20, 1952 by Warner Bros. Pictures and is widely considered among Jones' best and most important films. In Jerry Beck

Jerry Beck

Jerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....

's 1994 book The 50 Greatest Cartoons

The 50 Greatest Cartoons

The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, consisting of articles about, and rankings of fifty highly-regarded animated short films made in North America, as well as many other notable cartoons. It generated a significant...

, Rabbit Seasoning is listed at number thirty.

Plot

The cartoon finds a row of signs

Burma-Shave

Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small, sequential, highway-billboard signs.-History:...

 saying it's rabbit season ("If you're looking for fun, you don't need a reason. All you need is a gun, it's Rabbit Season!"). Bugs Bunny 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...

 again are arguing over which of them is “in season” (it is really Duck Season, as Daffy says in the beginning), while a befuddled Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...

 tries to figure out which animal is telling the truth. Between using sneaky plays-on-words, and dressing himself in women's clothing (including a Lana Turner

Lana Turner

Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...

-style sweater), Bugs manages to escape unscathed, while Daffy repeatedly has his beak blown off, upside-down, and sideways by Elmer.

"Pronoun trouble"

Rabbit Seasoning is most noted for an extended dialogue sequence in which Bugs' plays-on-words cause Daffy "pronoun

Pronoun

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...

 trouble":

Bugs: It's true, Doc. I'm a rabbit, alright. Would you like to shoot me now or wait 'til you get home?

Daffy: Shoot him now!!!! Shoot him now!!!!

Bugs: You keep outta this! He doesn't have to shoot you now!

Daffy: He does so have to shoot me now! (to Elmer) I demand that you shoot me now!

(Elmer looks at the camera, unsure if Daffy knows what he's talking about. As Daffy sticks his tongue out at Bugs, he is shot. Daffy puts his beak in its place and pushes the tongue back in and walks back over to Bugs, gun smoke pouring out of his nostrils.)

Daffy: (to Bugs) Let's run through that again.

Bugs: Okay. (deadpan

Deadpan

Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...

) Would you like to shoot me now or wait till you get home.

Daffy: (similarly) Shoot him now; shoot him now.

Bugs: (as before) You keep outta this, he doesn't have to shoot you now.

Daffy: (re-animated) Hah! That’s it! Hold it right there! [to audience] Pronoun trouble. (to Bugs) It's not "He doesn't have to shoot you now". It's "He doesn't have to shoot me now."

(Pause)

Daffy: (angrily) Well, I say he does have to shoot me now!! (to Elmer) So shoot me now!!!

(Elmer obliges and lets him have it. Daffy puts his beak back to normal and rushes to Bugs in a pose with him pointing a finger at him with his mouth open.)

Bugs: Yes?

(Daffy looks at the camera and forcibly pulls his arm back and closes his beak.)

Daffy: (shakes his head) Oh no you don't. (shakes head again) Not again. Sorry.

(Daffy walks over to Elmer.)

Daffy: This time we'll try it from the other end. Look, you're a hunter, right?

Elmer: Wight!

Daffy: And this is rabbit season, right?

Elmer: Wight!

Bugs: (interrupting, pointing at Daffy) And if he was a rabbit, what would you do?

Daffy: Yeah, you're so smart! If I was a rabbit what would you do?

Elmer: Well, I'd... (Points gun at Daffy)

Daffy: (Looks at the camera in horror) Not again! (gets shot)

(Daffy puts his beak back and walks over to Bugs with a deadpan expression.)

Daffy: (re-animated) Ha-ha-ha, very funny, ha-ha-ha! (resumes deadpan expression)

After another series of gags and tricks, the cartoon ends as Daffy exposes Bugs' attempt at distracting Elmer by cross-dressing, and Bugs asks Elmer if he would like to "shoot him now, or wait 'til you get home." Daffy, catching the argument before it starts (but missing the "him" referring to himself), tells Elmer to wait until he gets home, and the two of them go off to Elmer's lodge. One gunshot later, Daffy storms out the door back to Bugs, re-aligns his beak, and says his signature line: "You're desthpicable".

Availability

Rabbit Seasoning is currently available on both Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on October 28, 2003. It contains 56 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements...

and Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection

Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection

Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection is a collection of animated shorts released on DVD by Warner Brothers, created as a more family-friendly, affordable companion to the higher priced Looney Tunes Golden Collection sets aimed at collectors. The collection contains cartoons from the Merrie Melodies...

.