Duck! Rabbit, Duck!

• Main
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

"F-r-i-c-a-s-s-e-e-i-n-g" beat "D-u-c-k"

"Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers and gunpowder and cordite!" —Daffy Duck

Duck! Rabbit, Duck!, voted no. 30 on The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes list, was a 1953 Looney Tunes short. It is the third in a set of Bugs-Daffy-Elmer cartoons known as The Hunting Trilogy, the others being "Rabbit Fire" (1951) and "Rabbit Seasoning" (1952). Like the other two films in the trilogy, it centers on Elmer in hot pursuit of big game -- and Bugs' and Daffy's efforts to each shift his focus away from themselves and onto the other by disputing just which hunting season it actually is. As always, confusing Elmer is the key to both comedy and success, but neither Bugs nor Daffy secure their safety this time -- it's a random game warden who drives Elmer over the edge at the end when he announces it's baseball season. As Elmer pursues a baseball driven repeatedly out of his reach by his own shotgun blasts, Daffy confidently reveals that it's actually duck season -- prompting an entire army of hunters to appear and bombard him. The cartoon ends on a smoking Daffy reattaching his bill and telling Bugs, "You're despicable!"

Tropes used in Duck! Rabbit, Duck! include:

For tropes common to all three shorts in The Hunting Trilogy, see that page.

• Casual Danger Dialog: Bugs Bunny, as always.
• Chekhov's Gun: Daffy burning "duck season" signs at the start looks like a one-off gag, but it leads right into the ending.
• Bowdlerization: See the Hunting Trilogy page for information on what is frequently edited from this cartoon.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Daffy, had he not admitted it was really duck season at the end, would probably have escaped that final barrage.
• Snow Means Cold: The cartoon is set in a lush snowscape, and opens on Daffy taking down and burning every "Duck Season" sign he can find to stay warm.
• Snow Means Death: Implied by the hunting theme, but ultimately averted.
• Take a Third Option: Subverted. It looks like it's going to end on a similar note to Rabbit Fire, with a new, third season displacing "duck" and "rabbit" -- but then we are reminded it really is duck season by Daffy, who is immediately punished for it.