Elmer Fudd: “It's wabbit season, and I'm hunting wabbits, so be vewy, vewy quiet!“
Remember Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Elmer J. Fudd. Cartoons were a big part of Saturday mornings when I was a youth and Elmer J. Fudd was one of the major characters in them. Bugs Bunny was his archenemy. Together they created one of the fiercest rivalries in cinematic history. Both, of course, are part of the stable of fictional Warner Brothers cartoon characters.
Elmer J. Fudd’s origin is widely disputed though. He began life in the late 1930s as a character known as Egghead created by Tex Avery. Egghead had a squat body, a long bulbous nose, and an egg-shaped head from which he got his name. Chuck Jones, who briefly, provided the voice of Egghead, redesigned him for the 1940 Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes cartoon “Elmer’s Candid Camera”. Chuck Jones had Fudd take on more human-like characteristics. Arthur Q. Bryan provided the babyish voice.
Elmer Fudd was a multi-millionaire and owned a yacht yet displayed a definite lack of intelligence. With that lack of intelligence, how in the world did he acquire his millions? I must have missed the answer to that question.
Elmer’s speech is immediately recognizable. He replaces his R’s and L’s with W’s. That sound pattern actually has a name. It’s called rhoticism. Can you imagine him being pubwic speakew?
Elmer J. Fudd’s life’s mission was to capture or kill Bugs Bunny. Usually, though, he ended up seriously injuring himself while Bugs escaped by taking advantage of Fudd’s lack of intelligence. Elmer Fudd’s character provided my youthful mind with much optimism. I knew I had to be more intelligent.
One of Elmer Fudd’s best known cartoons is considered a masterpiece by many. It’s the 1957 “What’s Opera, Doc?’ http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1atzuy directed by Chuck Jones. Once again Elmer Fudd is hunting wabbits. It’s an opera this time so he and Bugs Bunny will sing opera, dance, and even eat the scenery. This is one of the few times Fudd actually bested the bunny. But Fudd feels bad about it.
Elmer J. Fudd was originally voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan, a radio actor. He died in 1959 at the age of 60. Hal Smith, Otis Campbell the town drunk on “The Andy Griffith Show, replaced Bryan but only voiced two cartoons. Arthur Q. Bryan voiced Elmer Fudd for two decades but was never given screen credit. Mel Blanc, the voice actor for all Warner Brothers major male cartoon characters, except Elmer Fudd, had a clause in his contract which required him to receive screen credit. But it is Arthur Q. Bryan’s characterization that is most remembered.
After Hal Smith’s voice-over, one more Fudd cartoon was made but he had no lines so Elmer J. Fudd was retired. In the years since, he has had guest appearances and alternately played by other voice actors.
Today Elmer J Fudd has come out of retirement and joined with DC/Looney Tunes comics. Fudd frequents Porky’s Bar. He is no longer the hapless hunter bested by Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Instead he is a hired killer lured out of retirement on the hunt for Bugs, a hitman, who has killed someone Fudd loved. Bugs tells Fudd, though, that Batman hired him to do the killing. Elmer J. Fudd’s new mission is to search Gotham City hunting for vengeance. He’s absolutely hawd-boiwed.
Elmer J. Fudd has obviously evolved into a much darker character.
Elmer J. Fudd Trivia
1 Was Elmer Fudd married?
Answer: Yes Mrs. Fudd appeared in a 1958 Merrie Melodies short with Daffy Duck and Barnyard Dawg. The short was entitled Don’t Axe Me. That was the only time where Fudd was married.
2. 2 What does the “J” stand for in Elmer J. Fudd?
Answer: J is the traditional middle initial for toons who do not have a middle name
3. Elmer J. Fudd originally started out as a wildlife photographer. True or False
Answer: TRUE In his first episode, “Elmer’s Candid Camera” which aired in 1939, he’s a photographer trying to shoot Bugs Bunny with a camera rather than as hunter trying to shoot him with a gun.
To see my VLOG go to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocOYP3L9Ges
