Looney Tunes: Difference between revisions
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''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' were two series of theatrical cartoon shorts running from [[The Golden Age of Animation|1930]] to [[The Dark Age of Animation|1969]]. Initially produced by Leon Schlesinger for distribution by [[Warner Bros]], in 1944 the studio took the unit over entirely.
Originally, [[Artifact Title|as the names indicate]], these cartoons were meant to rip off the sweet, sentimental musical shorts then in vogue: for instance, Disney's ''[[Silly Symphonies]]''. That basing cartoons around popular public-domain
The first set, ''Looney Tunes'', was introduced with 1930's ''"[[Sinkin' In The Bathtub]]"'' featuring [[Uncle Tomfoolery|minstrel-like]] mascot [[Bosko the Talk Ink Kid]], and for its first decade relied more heavily on recurring characters and thus lower budgets. ''Merrie Melodies'', introduced in 1931's ''"[[Lady, Play Your Mandolin]]"'' featuring the ([[Captain Ersatz|suspiciously Mickey Mouse-esque]]) character "Foxy", were initially intended as the [[Animated Music Video|music videos of their day]], basically animated commercials for the Warners-owned sheet-music library.
When ''Looney Tunes'' switched to color in 1942, and the ''Merrie Melodies'' line ditched the music around the same time in favor of its own rising
Over the course of their tenures at 'Termite Terrace', as the WB animation studio was informally known, the legendary directors [[Chuck Jones]], [[Tex Avery]], [[Bob Clampett]], [[Friz Freleng]], [[Frank Tashlin]], and [[Robert McKimson]]
'''<big>Looney Tunes Main Cast</big>'''
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* '''[[Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird|Granny]]''' -- "Little Red Walking Hood" 1937, Avery. A kind, elderly woman most remembered as Tweety's owner, and [[Cool Old Lady|who packed a hidden amount of badass-ery]] when inflicting pain on Sylvester when he tried to catch Tweety.
* '''Elmer Fudd''' -- "Elmer's Candid Camera", 1940, Jones. One of only three humans in the regular cast, the others being Yosemite Sam and Tweety's owner Granny. The [[Butt Monkey]], often [[Too Dumb to Live]]. An avid hunter, thus Jones' favourite adversary for both Bugs & Daffy, reaching a peak in the iconic [[Duck Season! Rabbit Season!|Rabbit Season]] trilogy. Less popular with the other
** Note that there is some controversy over when exactly Elmer debuted, depending on whether or not you count Egghead, who was called "Elmer" in some of his later cartoons.
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* '''[[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner|Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner]]''' -- "Fast and Furry-ous", 1949, Jones. A speedy bird and the coyote who uses a variety of backfiring Acme Company traps and mail-order gadgets to try to catch him -- 'try' being the operative word. The coyote was named in his first face-off against Bugs (''Operation: Rabbit''), where he became "Wile E. Coyote, [[Mad Scientist|Super Genius]]". The Roadrunner remains mute to this day. Incidentaly, Time Warner Cable for a long time used them as the mascot for their "Roadrunner" internet service; no longer the case since the company was spun off as independent from Time Warner in 2009.
* '''[[Speedy Gonzales]]''' -- "Cat-Tails for Two", 1953, McKimson. Another [[Funny Foreigner]] and good-natured [[The Trickster|Trickster]] who moves at [[Super Speed]] to help his poor Mexican mouse friends get cheese from "el gringo pussygato" (usually Sylvester). Has a lethargic cousin named (inevitably) "Slowpoke Rodriguez" who uses a gun to incapacitate cats instead. [[Dork Age|For obvious reasons]], the Speedy
* '''The Tasmanian Devil''' -- "Devil May Hare", 1954, McKimson. The destructive, hurricane-spinning, [[Extreme Omnivore]] who talks in [[Hulk Speak]] when he talks at all. Though he only appeared in five Golden Age-era cartoons, he is nowadays considered as popular as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, having been nicknamed Taz and often appearing in merchandise, comic book stories, and even his own TV spinoff (''[[Taz-Mania]]'').
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For more detailed information on the recurring cast, refer to the franchise's [[Looney Tunes/Characters|character sheet]].
The cartoons starring this pantheon originated many of the classic [[Animation Tropes]], co-opting or perfecting most of the rest. Being primarily character-driven comedy, with the various stars working and reworking their shticks solo or in combination, their comedic style is firmly rooted in vaudeville, early Broadway, and silent-film
The freewheeling house style was also heavily influenced by, well, the house movies. Answering [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|accusations of excessive violence from parental action groups in later years]], Jones noted that these shorts were originally intended to ride with such sweet, wholesome family fare as ''[[Little Caesar]]'' and ''[[The Public Enemy]]''. "We didn't make them for kids," he explained. "We made them for ourselves."
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The merchandising for Looney Tunes products ceased production when AOL ended its merger with Time Warner in order to save money (it did the complete opposite), and Cartoon Network hasn't been kind to the Tunes until November 2009, when they began running the classic shorts again. [[Cartoon Network]] is even producing [[The Looney Tunes Show|a third new set of animated shorts featuring the original characters!]]
It is impossible to discuss the impact of animation on any culture in the world without mentioning these characters and their famous shorts. They have a global influence equaled only by [[Classic Disney Shorts|a certain group of cartoons]]. Not only by dint of their quality and originality, but by the scope of their exposure,
For a complete filmography of the original cartoons, [[Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Filmography|visit this page.]] For a taste of the best shorts the series has to offer, refer to ''[[The 50 Greatest Cartoons]]'' list, as well as ''[[The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes]]'' list. For the 2011 animated sitcom that premiered on Cartoon Network, go [[The Looney Tunes Show|here]].
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: Pepé Le Pew in most (if not all) of the cartoons he was in (though there were times when the roles were reversed and Pepe became the hunted; and the only cartoon where he wasn't an [[Abhorrent Admirer]] was Arthur Davis's "Odor of the Day"); Daffy Duck in Frank Tashlin's "The Stupid Cupid"; the Mama Bear in "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears"; and the [[Brawn Hilda|portly Slavic-accented female]] bunny Millicent from "Rabbit Romeo."
** Pepe and the cat are special cases; the cat freaks out at his interest mainly because he's a skunk, with all the attendant odor problems. When the tables are turned (often from Pepe either having his stench covered or removed), her attitude flips around as well and she becomes even more aggressive than Pepe was, [[Irony|intimidating the hell out of him]].
* [[Accordion Man]]: Some characters are subject to this.
* [[Accidental Athlete]]: Happens to Cool Cat in ''Bugged by a Bee''. Subverted in that the bee gets all the credit in the end and not Cool Cat.
* [[Adipose Rex]]: A lot of the medieval-based Looney Tunes portray their kings as fat (and often [[Fat Bastard
* [[Affably Evil]]: Marvin the Martian most notably, who was intentionally created to be incredibly dangerous but very softspoken and polite.
** Also Elmer Fudd, on occasion.
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* [[Animated Anthology]]: The [[Cartoon Network]] show, titled ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]''. In addition to a [[Framing Device]], there will be a revival of the original ''Merrie Melodies'' concept in the form of two-minute music videos featuring the Looney Tunes themselves, as well as 2½-minute CG Road Runner shorts.
* [[Anticlimax]]: "The Wild Chase" is about Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner racing each other. {{spoiler|The cartoon ends with Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote crossing the finish line instead.}}
* [[Anti-Sneeze Finger]]: In the ''
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote.
* [[Anvil on Head]]: Pretty much an iconic feature of
* [[Arch Enemy]]: Bugs and Elmer, Sylvester and Tweety, Coyote and [[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner|Road Runner]].
* [[Art Evolution]]: The earliest shorts had a '''very''' strong Disney influence in their animation (no surprise, considering the studio was founded by [[Harman And Ising Hugh|Harman and Rudolph Ising]], as well as [[Friz Freleng]], all of who were former employees of Disney) but in the mid to late 30's [[Tex Avery]] and [[Bob Clampett]] slowly but surely began trying to veer off into a less Disney like cartoon style. [[Chuck Jones]] initially did VERY Disney like shorts with his Sniffles cartoons, until he decided to drop the saccharine stuff and do funny cartoons-and while Bob and Tex had already abandoned most of the Disney-esque art by the 40's, [[Chuck Jones]] and Rob Mckimson's personal art styles wiped out any remaining trace of the original Disney influence that was clinging to the studio at that point.
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** Actually, a lot of historical-themed Looney Tunes shorts have this, but get away with it because of the [[Rule of Funny]].
** Many shorts relied on [[Hollywood History]], or the overly-patriotic American history taught widely in schools at the time (''i.e''. giving Christopher Columbus a [[Historical Hero Upgrade]], Native Americans a [[Historical Villain Upgrade]], ''etc''.)
*** In "Southern Fried Rabbit", Yosemite Sam claims to be holding the Mason Dixon Line, not letting any 'Yankees' across it. When Bugs tells him that the Civil War is long since over, Sam says he's no clock watcher. Later on, he catches some Yankees, but they're actually the New York
* [[Art Shift]]: "Bartholomew versus the Wheel" isn't drawn in the typical style (looking more like something from ''Harold and the Purple Crayon'').
** Neither is "Senorella and the Glass Huarache," which seems to resemble a mid-60s or '70s [[De Patie]]-Freleng cartoons. (Not much of a surprise, as many [[De Patie]]-Freleng staff members worked on this short.)
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* [[Ash Face]]: A regular gag whenever firearms or explosions are involved. Sometimes the basis for a blackface gag.
* [[Aside Glance]]
* [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]: Hitler's speech in "Russian Rhapsody," which includes bizarre references to Friz Freleng, Heinrich (German version of Henry) Binder (Henry Binder was one of the associate producers of WB cartoons when Leon Schlessinger was there), "What's Cooking, Doc?", someone named "Tim O'Shenko",<ref>
* [[Ass in a Lion Skin]]: ''Very'' common, with rabbits as ducks (and vice-versa), cats as skunks, pigs as eagles, dogs as chickens, coyotes as roadrunners...
* [[Assumed Win]]:
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** Also seen in the 1955 short "This is a Life?". Daffy assumes the program will be a retrospective about himself, when instead it's about Bugs.
* [[Ate the Spoon]]:
* [[Author Existence Failure]]: It's interesting to imagine what Milt Franklyn might've come up with for the remaining
* [[Backwards-Firing Gun]]: Bugs causes guns to do this in a variety of implausible ways, once by simply moving the iron sight to the other end of the barrel....
* [[Bad Guy Bar]]: The bar from "Lady Play Your Mandolin". Keep in mind, this short was made and is obviously set during Prohibition, and the patrons of the bar proudly proclaim themselves as sinners.
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{{quote|'''Sam:''' (''gets angry, then demurely'') Why did you pour ink on my head? (''gets angry again'')}}
** One particular example is in "The Whizzard of Ow", wherein during the climax, Wile E. Coyote's mode of transportation turns into a crocodile, which proceeds to bite the Coyote's nose off.
* [[Born in the Theatre]]: Most
* [[Bowdlerization]]: When aired on television (and sometimes, home
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: The damage done to it ranges from large cracks to pulverizing it to a fine powder. On more than one occasion, near the end of a cartoon, the film suddenly breaks, leaving the screen white. A character from the cartoon then steps out onto the white screen and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue with this picture."
* [[Breakout Character]]: THE WHOLE SERIES has lived and breathed this trope. It all started with Friz's [[Batman Gambit]] in 1935 to jump start Leon's ailing cartoon studio with several new cartoon characters in the short "I Haven't Got A Hat"-two pups named Ham and Ex, Kitty, Oliver Owl, Beans the Cat and Porky Pig. Porky was an instant hit with audiences, even though the studio thought for some reason that [[Flat Character|Beans]] would be the studio's next bankable star-but he too quickly faded into obscurity while Porky became the studio's star--'''THEN''', two more stars broke out from Porky's cartoons-a little [[Daffy Duck]] from "Porky's Duck Hunt" and the [[Bugs Bunny]] prototype "Happy Hare/Bugs' Bunny" from "Porky's Hare Hunt", "Hare-Um Scare-Um" and "Presto-Change-O." Oh, and Bugs Bunny himself obviously.
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{{quote|'''Wolf:''' Hey, bud. Just a minute, bud. Just who the heck are you anyway??
'''Egghead:''' Who, me? I'm the hero of this picture! (''clobbers wolf with a mallet'') }}
** "The Dover Boys" has a gag similar to the "Little Red Walking Hood" one: a strange, mustached man in a sailor suit wanders through the cartoon several times, looking like a walking [[
* [[Broken Record]]: Two instances: In 1933's "Bosko's Mechanical Man", when a record keeps skipping at "white as..." in "Mary Had a Little Lamb"; and 1961's "Daffy's Inn Trouble" when Daffy's record keeps skipping during "The Latin Quarter", [[Produce Pelting|which prompted the audience to throw fruits and vegetables at him in disgust.]]
* [[Brother Chuck]]: Except for Daffy Duck, a ''lot'' of Porky's old sidekicks seem to have disappeared. Anyone remember Gabby the Goat? How about Beans the Cat, Ham and Ex, and/or Oliver Owl? Oh, and what the heck happened to Porky's love interest, Petunia Pig?
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** There was also a modernized speical called "Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas" which is basically ''A Christmas Carol'' but with Daffy as Scrooge.
* [[Cigar Fuse-Lighting]]: In "Catty Cornered", Sylvester the Cat hides Tweety under an empty can. When the mobster Rocky finds Tweety under the can, he lights a firecracker with his cigarette and places under the can for Sylvester to find.
* [[Circling Birdies]]: Often the result of falling anvils, falling boulders, mallet hits, falling pianos, fights covered up by [[Big Ball of Violence|the big, dusty ball of violence]]. And even then, birdies don't always circle around the character's
* [[Cliff Stack]]: Pretty much created the trope.
* [[Clip Show]]: "His Hare-Raising Tale", "This is a Life?", "Feather Bluster", "Tweet Dreams", "Hare-Abian Nights", and "Freudy Cat".
** "Devil's Feud Cake" was probably the most blatant of all, as it contained very little original
* [[Clothes Make the Superman]]: Subverted hard in "Fast and Furry-ous" (Wile E. Coyote wears a superhero outfit, only to learn the hard way that just because you wear it doesn't mean it grants you the ability to fly). Lampshaded in "Goofy Groceries," "Super Rabbit" and "Stupor Duck."
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Daffy, especially in the earlier shorts. Even later he isn't the most stable of beings at times.
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* [[Dastardly Whiplash]]: Dan
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Porky was often very verbal about the wacky cast around him, especially when paired with Daffy (particularly the pompous Daffy who was trying to be a star, not the wacky one who always got Porky in trouble); Bugs Bunny…pretty much all the time.
* [[Death by Materialism]]: Daffy, often.
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* [[Edited for Syndication]]: Looney Tunes became notorious for being chopped up when shown on many networks, either edited to remove overly violent gags or "insensitive" racial stereotypes. Some shorts were merely edited for time to make room for more commercial breaks. As a result, there was much rejoicing when the Golden Collections presented the cartoons as they were originally seen in theaters. In many instances, it was like watching them for the first time.
** The 1961 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Prince Violent" had its title changed to "Prince Varmint" for television in the 1980s.
** Two cartoons had recent edits that were rather dubious, considering what goes on in today's cartoons. ''The Hasty Hare'' had footage of astronomer I. Frisby ([[No Celebrities Were Harmed|caricature of Friz Freleng]]) writing his resignation removed, and ''Drip-Along Daffy'' had Porky's final line taken
** Surprisingly, a recent showing of part of "Bugs Bunny Bustin' Out All Over" let a butterfly calling Bugs a jackass slip by!
*** The epithet "jackass" has been used on W-B cartoons before. In 1945's ''A Tale Of Two Mice,'' Babbitt tells Catstello (both as mice) that if his plan to get the cheese doesn't work, "I'll...I'll be a jackass!" It doesn't, and Catstello hammers it in ("Jackass! Jackass!! Yer a jackass!! Hee-haw!"). 1950's ''Mississippi Hare'' has Col. Cornpone asking Bugs "If'n I had four legs and went 'hee-haw,' what would I be?" Bugs: "Why, you'd be a jackass." (Resulting in one of Bugs' perfectly timed duels.)
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{{quote|'''Bugs'': Have you ever felt like there's something... [[Paranoia Fuel|watching you?]] Out there, in the audience."
'''Gossamer''': People?! *screams and runs away [[Efficient Displacement|through several sets of walls]]*. }}
* [[Franchise Killer]]: Believe it or not, this has happened to the
* [[Friendly Enemy]]: Ralph E. Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.
* [[Funny Animal]]: Duh. All of them (including the human characters, like Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam)
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* [[Genre Killer]]: For a time, there were many Looney Tunes cartoons which consisted of inanimate objects coming to life when a store (usually a bookstore or a 1930s-style grocery store/pharmacy) closed up shop for the night ("Goofy Groceries", "Have You Got Any Castles", "Speaking of the Weather", etc.) The subgenre of cartoons, at least when it came to Looney Tunes, officially came to an end with 1946's "Book Revue" which, coincidentally, was also the last cartoon Bob Clampett got credit for. Though in a subversion, "Book Revue" is actually the best of this subgenre.
* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Petunia Pig in her later appearences.
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* [[Huge Rider, Tiny Mount]]: Subverted with Red Hot Ryder from "Buckaroo Bugs" (Clampett, 1945).
* [[Human Mail]]: Porky Pig twice tries to get rid of Charlie Dog this way. [[The Cat Came Back|Charlie always gets sent back.]]
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: There're a lot of examples, but the best one is an early [[Chuck Jones]] cartoon called "Good Night Elmer", one of the few cartoons to have Elmer as the star, rather than the antagonist. After doing everything he can to get some
* [[The Hunter Becomes the Hunted]]: Three Pepé Le Pew cartoons ("For Scent-imental Reasons," "Little Beau Pepé ," and "Really Scent") end this way, as does "Rabbit Fire" (the first installment of the "Rabbit Season/Duck Season" trilogy) with {{spoiler|Bugs and Daffy hunting Elmer after it's revealed that it's neither Rabbit Season nor Duck Season -- it's Elmer Season}}.
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: The Merrie Melodies classic "Have You Got Any Castles?" I mean, the climax of the film's final chase scene ends with Rip Van Winkle opening up a book literally labelled ''Hurricane'' which blows everybody away...and then after everyones gone, down falls the book '''[[Gone with the Wind]]'''.
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** A Fractured Leghorn: The short does an "iris out" during Foghorn's rant. He grabs the iris so he can finish.
{{quote|'''Foghorn''': Wouldn't tell 'em I was hungry!}}
** [[Duck Amuck]]: Daffy, exasperated, says "Let's get this picture started!", to which the short does an "iris out" and "The End" appears. Daffy yells out two [[Big No
** ''Hare Ribbin'" has the dog, after having committed suicide, suddenly rising, stopping the iris out to say "This shouldn't even happen to a dog!", and then the iris out closes in on his nose.
** ''Porky The Rainmaker'' (1936) has the iris closing and a farm duck is inside the black area. He bangs on the darkness, then Porky's arm reaches in and pulls the duck back to the outside.
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* [[Jaw Drop]]
* [[Jerkass]]: Michigan J. Frog, Daffy Duck (post-[[Flanderization]]), Foghorn Leghorn ([[Depending on the Writer]]), Yosemite Sam, Tweety (pre-[[Badass Decay]]), Bugs Bunny's prototype Happy Rabbit, Hubie and Bertie.
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* [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]]: From 2003 to 2008, Warner Bros. released the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'' series, spread across six volumes and covering over ''400'' classic cartoons, hours upon hours upon hours worth of commentaries, documentaries, interviews and historical bonus content in general. However, for the kiddies, a [[Vanilla Edition]] series of these DVDs were released called ''Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection'', which were essentially bare bone collections featuring the more well known, family friendly Looney Tunes shorts. The new single-disc Super Stars DVDs follow the [[Vanilla Edition]] practice, but Platinum Edition Vol. 1 is coming to Blu-ray in November and looks like a continuation of the Golden Collection-style releases.
* [[Literal Junk Food]]: Many a short begins with Sylvester looking through the trash as if it were a buffet, using a trashcan lid as a tray.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]:
* [[Long Runner]]: The series ran from 1930 to 1969, just one year shy of 40 years. Of course, various characters came and went during that time.
* [[Lord Error-Prone]]: Daffy, in several [[Chuck Jones]] parody shorts (most notably [[Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century|those starring Duck Dodgers]]). Usually featuring Porky as his [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]].
* [[Loser Gets the Girl]]: In "Muscle Tussle", Daffy loses his girlfriend to a big, white muscular duck at the beach.
* [[Loveable Rogue]]: Charlie Dog (the dog who always harasses
* [[Made of Iron]]: Everyone.
* [[Mad Love]]: Pepé Le Pew, though there are some examples of this from the Bugs Bunny cartoons.
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* [[The Movie]]: Quite a few, actually:
** ''Bugs Bunny Superstar'' (1975), a [[Documentary]] narrated by [[Orson Welles]] and featuring nine '40s cartoons in their entirety along with interviews of Freleng, Avery, and (espeically) Clampett.
** ''The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie'' (aka '''The Great American Chase'') (1979), the first of several [[Compilation Movie
** ''The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie'' (1981), directed by Friz Freleng and only featuring his work. It was broken into three separate stories (one was a remake of "Devil's Feud Cake", one was a crime drama parody, and the final was an awards ceremony), and was the first compilation to build a (more-or-less) coherent storyline by weaving old and new material together.
** ''Bugs Bunny's Third Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales'' (1982), directed by Freleng and mostly made of his work, but also featuring material from some Jones shorts. Unlike the previous entry, it consisted of one long story: Daffy and Bugs competing to be the best salesman but constantly getting sidetracked on the way to their selling locations. It was the first of the compilation films to feature Robert McKimson's work (a brief clip of "Aqua Duck" is seen towards the end).
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* [[Negative Continuity]]: Completely. In many series, characters meet each other for the first time in every cartoon, and any "facts" given about a character in one cartoon (like Elmer being a vegetarian in "Rabbit Fire") are for that cartoon only and aren't intended to carry over into subsequent instalments.
* [[Newspaper Dating]]: Elmer in "The Old, Gray Hare"
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Some [[Real Life]] [[Big Bad
** Prior to Abbott & Costello being caricatured as cats (later mice) as "Babbitt & Catstello," Laurel and Hardy were caricatured as crows in pursuit of a grasshopper in ''A Hop, Skip And A Chump.''
** Bing Crosby tried to stop release of "Bingo Crosbyana" (1936, Freleng) because it depicted him as a vainglorious cowardly fly.
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* [[Packed Hero]]: In "I Gopher You", featuring the Goofy Gophers, one of the gophers gets canned on a tomato packing line, and the other opens every can, until he finds him in the last can. The first gopher tells his friend that he was in the first can and he started at the wrong end.
* [[Pain-Powered Leap]]: A common source of humor; ''
* [[Panty Shot]]: Honey and Cookie in some of the black-and-white Looney Tunes shorts, Red Riding Hood in "The Trial Of Mr. Wolf," "Book Revue" and "Little Red Rabbit Hood," Agnes in "Nasty Quacks," the ice skater in "Land Of The Midnight Fun." Plus a rather unsettling one of Elmer in drag in "The Big Snooze" and even more eyesore from Witch Hazel in '"Bewitched Bunny" and "A Witch's Tangled Hare" and the Scotsman in "My Bunny Lies Over The Ocean."
** Another one in "Uncle Tom's Bungalow."
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* [[Powder Trail]]
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: 1940's ''The Hardships Of Miles Standish'' has a cockeyed Indian plunking a fellow Indian on the head with a bow and arrow. The hurt Indian turns and mouths "Goddamn son of a bitch!" It is rumored that the Indian actually voiced it but was silenced before the cartoon was released.
** The legendary Porky Pig "blooper" in which he hits his thumb with a hammer and stammers "Son of a b-b-b-b...son of a b-b-b...son of a b-b-b-b..gun!" He then [[No Fourth Wall|turns to the camera]] and says "[[Double Subversion|You thought I was gonna say 'son of a bitch,' didn't you?]]" Oh yes, it's real, all
** Just averted in ''Blooper Bunny.'' Daffy's beak gets impaled by the loose plank Bugs noted earlier.
{{quote|'''Bugs:''' ''Now'' can we cut?
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* [[Rearrange the Song]]: There are different arrangements of each of the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes opening themes. In particular, "Merrily We Roll Along" and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" got a ton of adjustments over the years.
* [[Recitation Handclasp]]: Giovanni Jones (the fat opera singer) assumes this posture in "Long Haired Hare."
* [[Recycled in Space]]: During the 1964-1969 [[Dork Age]], the WB animation studio tried recycling the Road Runner formula with woodland animals, resulting in Rapid
* [[Recycled Soundtrack]]: Ten of the eleven Road Runner cartoons directed by Rudy Larriva use the same music cues over and over.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Daffy and Bugs.
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* [[Satan]]: Appears in "Sunday Go To Meetin' Time," "Clean Pastures," "The Hole Idea," the Bugs Bunny short "Devil's Feud Cake", (a semi-remake of the Sylvester Cat short "Satan's Waitin'" only with Yosemite Sam) and "Now Hear This."
* [[Saw a Woman In Half|Saw A Duck In Half]]: "It's a good thing I have Blue Cross," from "Showbiz Bugs."
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** Six cartoons from 1958 had pre-scored background music tracks (called "needle-drop" in the industry) selected by John Seely, employed during a musician's strike. Most of the tracks heard were also used in [[Gumby]] and, soon after, Hanna-Barbera's early TV shows. Those cartoons were ''Prehysterical Hare'' (Bugs Bunny), ''Bird In A Bonnett'' (Sylvester and Tweety), ''Weasel While You Work'' (Foghorn Leghorn), ''Hook, Line And Stinker'' (Road Runner), ''Hip Hip Hurry!'' (also Road Runner) and ''Gopher Broke'' (Goofy Gophers).
* [[Speech Impediment]]: Daffy, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd
** In fact, almost every character's voice is based on one speech problem or another (including the stereotypical accents of Bugs Bunny [New York], Speedy Gonzales [Spanish], Foghorn Leghorn [Southern United States], and Pepé Le Pew [French]). Several tropes on this site have been named after
** [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome]]
** [[Porky Pig Pronunciation]]
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** With some assistance from Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester chalks up a win at the end of 1964's ''A Message To Gracias.''
** With some assistance from Bugs Bunny, the Big Bad Wolf (from the "Three Little Pigs" story) chalks up a win at the end of 1949's ''The Windblown Hare.''
** Shep, the egotistical canine from Chuck Jones' ''Fresh Airedale'', is more [[Took a Level in Jerkass]] than villain, although his
* [[Telegraph Gag STOP]]:
** Used ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akAEIW3rmvQ&t=6m00s I Love To Singa]''. A receptionist receives a telegram from a sleazy deliveryman. She reads it and the camera pans away.
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* [[That's All Folks]]: [[Trope Namer]]
** Once the practice of "That's all Folks!" writing itself out at the end became the standard, there were quite a few cartoons that subverted and/or averted it:
*** ''The Major Lied Till Dawn'' (Tashlin,
*** ''Porky's Duck Hunt'' (Avery,
*** ''Old Glory'' (Jones,
*** ''The Old Grey Hare'' (1944,
*** ''Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs'' (1943,
*** ''A Ham In A Role'' (1949, McKimson) starts off with a dog taking a pie in the face and strumming his lips idiotically, followed by a static "That's all, Folks!" title card.
*** ''The Three Little Bops'' (Freleng,
*** ''Lumber Jack Rabbit'' (Jones,
*** ''What's Opera, Doc?'' (Jones,
*** ''Two Crows From Tacos'' (Freleng,
*** ''Stop, Look, and Hasten'' (Jones,
*** ''Guided Muscle'' (Jones, 1955--"That's all, Folks!" is already written out as the humiliated coyote drags the ending card into shot)
*** ''Whoa, Be-Gone!'' (Jones,
*** ''Nelly's Folly'' (Jones,
*** ''Coyote Falls'' (O'Callaghan,
*** ''Fur of Flying'' (O'Callaghan,
*** ''Rabid Rider'' (O'Callaghan,
*** Several Merrie Melodies films re-edited in the 40s as Blue Ribbon re-releases had "That's all, Folks!" replaced with "The End" in Lydian script over the concentric circles title cards.
*** The 1967 redrawn edition of ''The Village Smithy'' (1937, Avery) has the outline of "That's all folks!" against a red background; a white card is slowly pulled from left to right behind it to cheaply simulate writing itself out (the original print from 1937 has the title writing itself out against a black background). Virtually all other redrawn Looney Tunes either had the Warner-Bros.-Seven Arts closing titles or the spliced-in late 50s That's all Folks! Looney Tunes closing titles.
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*** Completely averted in the "Dork Age" cartoons from 1964 to 1969, where the ending was the abstract WB logo then the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts logo followed by a self-printing "A Warner Bros. (-Seven Arts) cartoon, a Vitaphone release."
*** At the end of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' Porky is one of two policemen with back to the camera dispersing the crowd saying "There's nothing to see here, that's all folks!" He turns to face the camera saying "Hey, I like that!" then assumes the classic pose as he repeats the line, sharing the iris-out with Walt Disney's Tinkerbell.
*** ''Invasion Of The Bunny Snatchers'' (1991, Ford, Lennon) has a premature "That's all Folks" which Bugs stops so the cartoon can continue. It ends with a very poor computer-animated Porky Pig attempting the drum ending
*** ''Blooper Bunny'' (1992, Ford, Lennon) has a quick "That's all Folks!" title card after the Bugs Bunny "special", then at the end after Bugs' final line, we see "That's all Folks!" written by hand on the film tail.
*** ''[[Space Jam]]'' (1996) ends with Bugs starting out the phrase but interrupted by Porky, Daffy, the Nerdlucks, and [[Michael Jordan]].
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* [[Through a Face Full of Fur]]: Warners was addicted to this trope; an outstanding example is Claude in "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat," who turns green, purple, and ''plaid''.
* [[Throw the Pin]]
* [[Time Travel]]: From 1946's "Mouse Menace"
{{quote|'''Porky:''' (''to us'') A flat tire held me up, folks.}}
** Also seen in "The Pest That Came To Dinner", after Porky calls the exterminator on the phone to come over to rid his house of the termite, after which the exterminator shows up not a few seconds later.
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** Oh, and did we mention Wile E. Coyote?
* [[Too Kinky to Torture]]: Daffy Duck at the end of Bob Clampett's "The Wise Quacking Duck". {{spoiler|after getting his feathers shot off and being put in a gas oven, Daffy is somehow alive and quips, "Say, now you're cooking with gas!" while drizzling ''jus'' all over himself}}
** Pepé Le Pew on most
* [[Toothy Bird]]: Most of the birds are at least on occasion.
* [[Traveling Pipe Bulge]]: In "Billboard Frolics", a cat traps a dog in a piece of pipe, which bulges where the dog thrashes around inside.
* [[Train Job]]: How Yosemite Sam gets his introduction.
* [[Tree Cover]]: Used frequently.
* [[Turtle Island]]: In "The Ducktators," an Emperor Hirohito duck places a sign on a turtle, who gets mad and beats him up with said sign (despite that the duck briefly stops him to show a button that reads, "I am Chinese"
* [[Uncancelled]]: A few times. The first was in 1953 when WB temporarily closed the cartoon unit for a few months, due to a variety of factors like the 3-D fad; the unit opened a few months later. The next was in 1963 when WB, facing increasingly stiff competition from TV and less theaters running theatrical shorts before movies, shut the cartoon unit down again. From 1964 to 1967, cartoons were produced at [[De Patie]]-Freleng instead. In 1967, production resumed at Warner Bros. but only two years later, the cartoon division was shut down for good.
* [[Uncle Tomfoolery]]: The reason why there's a collection of cartoons called [http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/censored11/ The Censored Eleven], though there are some WB cartoons with extensive black stereotypes in them that ''aren't'' part of this collection, but have been banned from syndication all the same.
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* [[Verbal Tic]]: Fog- ah say, Foghorn Leghorn. Leghorn, that is.
* [[Victory by Endurance]]: In "Gorilla My Dreams", Bugs Bunny is being chased by a gorilla. Just when things seem hopeless for Bugs, he finds that by the time the gorilla has caught him he was too tired to beat him up and falls over exhausted.
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* [[The Worst Seat in the House]]: "Porky's Baseball Broadcast"
** Tex Avery's "Screwball Football" has a doozy. The gunshot everyone thinks means the end of the game turns out to be from a toddler who guns down the man next to him who has been sneaking licks of his ice cream cone.
* [[Writer Revolt]]: Leon Scheslinger's replacement, Eddie Selzer, had a lot of issues with some of the cartoons being turned out in the late 1940s-early 1950s, citing some of the ideas as [[It Will Never Catch On|not being funny enough for a general audience]]
** I remember seeing an interview with one of the main writers who said that it got to the point where if Selzer rejected an idea, they knew it was a good one.
*** Specifically the origin for ''[[Bully for Bugs]]''. As the story goes: One day Selzer, for reasons the crew never figured out, burst into the office and announced: "Bullfights aren't funny!" The writers looked at each other, decided "Well, he's never been right before!", and went to it.
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* [[YouTube Poop]]: The short ''Daffy Duck in Hollywood'' is the [[Trope Maker]]
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[[Category:Nickelodeon]]
[[Category:Zany Cartoon]]
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