 The fictional cartoon character Elmer J. Fudd,
now one of the most famous Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies characters, also
has one of the more convoluted and disputed origins in the Warner Brothers
cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs Bunny himself).
Elmer emerges
In 1940, Egghead/Elmer's appearance was
refined giving him a chin and a less bulbous nose (although still wearing
Egghead's style of clothing) 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. A prototypical Bugs Bunny drives Elmer
insane. Later that year, in Tex Avery's A Wild Hare, Bugs reappears, but
this time with carrot, Brooklyn/Bronx accent, and "What's Up, Doc" all in
place for the first time. Elmer has a better voice and a trimmer figure,
too. Elmer's role in these two films, that of would-be hunter, dupe and foil
for Bugs, would remain his main role forever after and although Bugs Bunny
was called upon to outwit many more worthy opponents, Elmer somehow remained
Bugs' classic nemesis, despite (or because of) his legendary gullibility,
small size, short temper, and shorter attention span. Somehow knowing not
only that Elmer would lose, but knowing how he would lose, made the
confrontation, counterintuitively, more delicious.
Elmer was usually cast as a hapless game hunter, armed with a
double-barreled shotgun and creeping through the woods "hunting wabbits." In
a few cartoons, though, he assumed a completely different persona--a wealthy
industrialist type, occupying a luxurious penthouse--or, in one hilarious
episode involving a role reversal, a sanitarium!--which Bugs would of course
somehow find his way into.
Elmer's easily-mimicked voice lends itself to endless takeoffs. In recent
times, Robin Williams has parodied Elmer doing Satisfaction (originally by
The Rolling Stones): "I'm dwivin' in my cah... a man comes on the wadio..."
or as Marlon Brando's character in A Streetcar Named Desire saying "Stewwa!"
On some occasions, Elmer would not round off the r or l. |
