Looney Tunes: Difference between revisions

* '''[[Porky Pig]]''' -- "I Haven't Got a Hat", 1935, Freleng. [[The Everyman]] and [[Straight Man]] to the rest of the cast, known for his [[Porky Pig Pronunciation|ridiculously thick stutter]]. Also a [[Deadpan Snarker]], usually when paired with Chuck Jones' pompous Daffy or a [[Butt Monkey]] when paired with the crazy, hyperactive screwball Daffy. Either way, he does not like being paired up with Daffy.

 

 

* '''[[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.

* '''Marvin The Martian''' -- "Haredevil Hare", 1948, Jones. An [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] who wants to see an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]], and is the [[Trope Namer]] thereof. Invariably foiled by Bugs. Like the Tasmanian Devil, he only appeared in a handful of shorts from the original shorts, but became popular enough to be featured in nearly every adaptation thereafter. His universe was expanded in the 2000s animated show ''[[Duck Dodgers]]''. Will get his own CG movie in a few years!

 

 

* '''[[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 shorts -- particularly the late 1960s ones with Daffy as his antagonist -- tend not to be received well by animation fans and historians. Ironically, despite being blacklisted for a while in the U.S. for stereotyping, he's the most popular Looney Tunes character ''in Mexico.''

 

 

* '''Witch Hazel''' -- "Bewitched Bunny", 1954. A parody of the [[Wicked Witch]] trope who was [[Affably Evil|always in a delightfully flighty mood]], and who [[Punch Clock Villain|was interested in cooking, fashion, and gossip]]. Usually acted as a [[Big Bad]] for Bugs and/or Daffy when trying to cook them into her soup cauldron.

* '''Michigan J. Frog''' -- "[[One Froggy Evening]]": 1955, Jones. A frog from [[The Gay Nineties]] is discovered by a man in modern times. Unfortunately, the frog acts as his [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend]]. Listed here as an honorable mention, as he only ever appeared in two cartoons (one a direct sequel to the other) which he didn't share with any other iconic characters, and was never really iconic himself until he became the mascot for the WB Network in the 90's.

 

 

 

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 slapstick -- an ancestry they cheerfully acknowledged: as in Robert McKimson's 1950 short "What's Up Doc?", an [[Animated Actors]] look at Bugs's rise to stardom by way of Elmer Fudd's vaudeville act.

 

 

Helping the anarchistic spirit along were a succession of humourless bosses that more or less invited open rebellion. Founder Schlesinger won unwitting immortality as the inspiration for Daffy Duck's trademark lisp: "You're dethpicable!". The Warner Bros. themselves really didn't know or care what was going on in their animation unit, leaving hands-on oversight to bean counter Eddie Selzer. Recounting the genesis of the classic "Bully For Bugs", Jones recalled the day Selzer showed up at his door as he and writer Mike Maltese were hashing out story ideas, and bellowed: "I don't want any pictures about bullfights! Bullfights aren't funny!" Then Selzer marched off, leaving his dumbfounded staff staring at each other. "Well," Maltese said, "Eddie's never been right yet..."

Warners ceased production of the classic series in 1963 and outsourced new cartoons to other entities in something of a [[Dork Age]] until 1969; a Revival of new production of the classic cartoons occurred during the 90s. Moving to television in 1960 with the original incarnation of the [[The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show|The Bugs Bunny Show]], the Warners' shorts took a level in ubiquity. Various repackagings became staples of the American [[Saturday Morning Cartoon|Saturday morning]] schedule for the next forty years, reintroducing themselves through the generations, until they had permanently entered the collective consciousness.

 

 

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!]]

{{quote| Not to be confused with the prolific Wiki [[Tropers/Looney Toons|contributor]].}}

----

----

== These series are the [[Trope Namer]] for: ==

* [[Anti-Sneeze Finger]]: In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Frigid Hare", [[Bugs Bunny]] stiffles an Eskimo's sneeze this way to keep the ice ledge they're on from breaking. [[Sneeze of Doom|And then Bugs sneezes.]]

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote.

* [[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.

** Character-specific example: Speedy Gonzales, in his 1953 debut, looked much different than the version by Friz Freleng's unit in 1955. The latter design (which downplayed the visual stereotypes like buck teeth and greasy black hair) stuck, and is the one most people remember today.

* [[Ash Face]]: A regular gag whenever firearms or explosions are involved. Sometimes the basis for a blackface gag.

* [[Aside Glance]]

* [[Assumed Win]]:

** The whole premise of the 1943 short "What's Cookin', Doc?". Bugs assumes he's going to win an Oscar, but it ends up going to James Cagney instead. Bugs tries to convince the Academy to give him the Oscar instead.

{{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.

* [[Bowdlerization]]: When aired on television (and sometimes, home video -- usually gray-market, public domain videos; the official release videos and DVDs try to make it as uncut as possible. If there are any missing scenes, it's because some of those scenes were lost long ago), a lot of the violent and politically-incorrect scenes and gags will be altered or cut. There's a website dedicated to tracking down what cartoons were edited and what channel edited them: [http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/\]

* [[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."

** Throughout the 1930s and 40s, it seemed WB were experimenting with numerous new recurring characters and scenarios to use as a mainstream cast, as time passed the cast was narrowed down to a select few that were developed or renovated (''e.g''., Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester) while many other previous established characters got the shaft (''e.g''., Hubie and Bert, Charlie Dog). Others such as Henery Hawk and Porky himself also got taken [[Out of Focus]] somewhat, but still had minor roles on occasion.

** In the 70s, Ralph Heimdahl and Al Stoffel revived Petunia for some occasional appearances in the Bugs Bunny newspaper comic strip. She was the sweet kid Robert Clampett reimagined her as, not the uppity diva Frank Tashlin created her as.

* [[The Cameo]]: Bugs Bunny at the end of "Porky Pig's Feat" (in his only black and white appearance, no less), "Crazy Cruise," "The Goofy Gophers" and "Duck Amuck." Foghorn Leghorn at the end of "False Hare." Daffy at the end of "Sahara Hare" and "Apes Of Wrath." Elmer at the end of "Rabbit Rampage." Tweety in "No Barking" and "Heir Conditioned." Pepe Le Pew in "Dog Pounded." Foghorn Leghorn in "False Hare."

* [[Canis Latinicus]]: The Road Runner/Coyote shorts.

* [[The Chew Toy]]: Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Daffy Duck (the greedy narcissist, not the hyperactive screwball), ''etc''.

** Porky may exist as the only consistent example that rarely brings it upon himself.

* [[Character Focus]]: Because he's a spotlight-stealer by nature (literally, [[Tiny Toon Adventures|in one case]]), most adaptations post-1960 are less about the whole Looney Tunes ensemble and more about [[Daffy Duck]] finding himself!

* [[Christmas Episode]]: "Gift Wrapped".

** Daffy and Taz are paired together in ''Ducking the Devil'', their only classic cartoon together.

* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Chester from the two Chester And Spike shorts. Also a [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]].

 

 

* [[Dastardly Whiplash]]: Dan Backslide -- a very deliberate parody of this type -- in "[[The Dover Boys]]"

* [[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.

* [[Delivery Stork]]: One of Freleng's recurring characters is a stork that's so drunk that he delivers babies to the wrong expectant couples. Seen in the shorts, "Apes of Wrath," "Stork Naked," "Goo-Goo Goliath," and "A Mouse Divided".

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: In "Bill of Hare":

* [[Edutainment Show]]: The three shorts, "By Word of Mouse," "Heir Conditioned," and "Yankee Dood It," commissioned by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation which educated the viewer on how the capitalist economy works and why it's a superior one. These shorts of course came about in the mid-fifties at the height of [[Red Scare]], and [[Anvilicious|it's easy to tell]]. In fairness, they did at least attempt to make these shorts interesting by throwing gags in between the edutainment, but in all, they pale in comparison to their regular output.

** 1939's "[[Old Glory]]" is educational as well, though unlike the aforementioned Sloan shorts, it doesn't contain comedy at all. Rather, it's a history lesson on the Revolutionary War and the formation of the U.S., with Porky learning about it from Uncle Sam in the wraparounds.

* [[Epic Fail]]: Wile E. Coyote's specialty.

* [[Era Specific Personality]]

* [[Everything Explodes Ending]]: "Captain Hareblower" has Bugs Bunny blowing up Yosemite Sam's ship by throwing a lit match into the gunpowder room. Sam tries to get even by doing the same to Bugs' ship, but Bugs doesn't even try to stop him and Sam makes a hasty retreat. Turns out it was the other kind of powder room (the ladies bathroom), yet it explodes anyway, to Bugs' surprise.

* [[Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels|Everything's Nuttier With Squirrels]]: "Much Ado About Nutting"

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: The construction worker from "Homeless Hare" and the bulldog from "Chow Hound", both voiced by John T. Smith.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: Happened on occasion, especially when Leon Schlesinger was involved. In fact, meddling on the ending to ''The Heckling Hare'' caused [[Tex Avery]] to quit.

* [[Expanded Universe]]: The old [[Gold Key Comics]], which spilled over into children's books and merchandise of the period, and the [[Bugs Bunny]] [[Newspaper Comics|newspaper strip.]] Largely forgotten today.

* [[Face Doodling]]: "Daffy Doodles"

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: Just ask Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Daffy Duck (post-[[Flanderization]]), ''etc''.

* [[Feuding Families]]: "A Feud There Was", "Naughty Neighbors", "Hillbilly Hare", "Feud With a Dude"

* [[Finger-Snap Lighter]]: Seen in "Knight-Mare Hare"

* [[Here We Go Again]]: In "Greedy For Tweety", immediately after Sylvester, Tweety, and the bulldog are released from the hospital, they start chasing each other again. Nurse Granny notices this while looking out the window and places the patient cards back in the "in" slots in anticipation of the three being injured again.

{{quote| '''Granny''': Que sera sera.}}

* [[Hollywood Healing]]

* [[Honest John's Dealership]]: Acme

* [[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 sleep -- including nearly destroying his room -- what should appear outside his window but the sun?

* [[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}}.

* [[Hyde and Seek]]: "Hyde and Go Tweet", "Hyde and Hare", "Dr. Jerkyl's Hyde", "The Impatient Patient" and "The Case of the Stuttering Pig"

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]

=== J-K-L ===

* [[Jaw Drop]]

* [[Juggling Loaded Guns]]: Elmer Fudd, for an avid hunter, ignores pretty much every rule of gun safety while out hunting wabbits. Also, there's the scene from ''[[Rabbit Fire]]'', where Daffy looks down the barrel of Elmer's gun and finds out the hard way that there was [[One Buwwet Weft]].

* [[Jumping Out of a Cake]]: Bugs in "The Unmentionables". He was even [[Wholesome Crossdresser|dressed as a 20's flapper girl]].

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: [[Looney Tunes]] has many characters, apart from Bugs and the gang. Only a majority of them are [[One-Shot Character|one-shots]].

* [[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.

* [[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 someone -- usually Porky Pig -- to be his master). Daffy sometimes played this role as well (especially under Robert McKimson's direction).

** Bugs Bunny in "Roman Legion Hare" (which for some unknown reason has been left out of Cartoon Network's screenings of the cartoon):

{{quote| '''Bugs:''' Like the Romans say, "E Pluribus Uranium!"}}

* [[Mechanical Horse]]: Or something along those lines is used briefly in "One More Time".

* [[Metronomic Man-Mashing]]: The adorable little Chicken Hawk does this to Foghorn Leghorn [[Once an Episode]].

** Rabbit Stew And Rabbits, Too (1969)

** No Barking (1954) - save for Tweety's lines at the very end.

** Also, K-9 could count as this to Marvin.

* [[Mind Your Step]]

* [[Mister Muffykins]]: Petunia's dog in "Porky's Romance". The mean-spirited little beasty annoys Porky so much that {{spoiler|he ends the short by kicking it through the closing iris}}.

* [[Mix and Match Critter]]: The chicken/turtle hybrid from "The Good Egg".

{{quote| Bugs Bunny: Well, what did you expect from an opera? A ''happy'' ending?}}

* [[Moody Mount]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBhlQgvHmQ0 Yosemite Sam's camel in "Sahara Hare"] and his dragon in "Knighty Knight Bugs".

** ''Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island'' (1983): The [[Sarcasm Mode|fan-favorite]] character combination of Daffy and Speedy also got a movie, built around a parody of ''[[Fantasy Island]]''.

** ''Daffy Duck's Quackbusters'' (1988), directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, the last of the compilation movies and generally regarded as the best. It had the strongest plot (which was about Daffy opening a ghost-catching/exorcism company with Bugs and Porky) and the animators took care to imitate the old animators so the transition from bridging sequences to the classic cartoons was smoother. It's also the only Looney Tunes film to exclusively use Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn music for the bridging sequences. The rest used new music from a variety of composers.

* [[Mr. Imagination]]: Ralph Phillips, in "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z" and "Boyhood Daze"

* [[Multiple Demographic Appeal]]: Despite syndication packages in America and the rest of the world labeling the Looney Tunes as "kiddie fare," even going so far as to edit gags deemed too "adult." However, there are videos and DVDs, both official and unofficial, that preserve these "adult" gags uncut for all to see.

** Explanation: As Sam got smaller and smaller plummeting to the ground as the parachute opened, the animation of the automatic pilot, who abandoned the plane just moments before, was used.

* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: The minah bird is a master of this.

* [[One-Shot Character]]: Many, many examples. In fact, Merrie Melodies basically started as a revolving door of one-shot cartoons and characters. Here are just some examples:

** Fresh Airedale

** Dave Barry took over the role of Elmer Fudd for one cartoon (1958's "Pre-Hysterical Hare") after regular actor Arthur Q. Bryan joined in that year's musicians' strike and refused to work.

** Hal Smith briefly replaced Arthur Q. Bryan (who passed away) as Elmer Fudd from 1960 to 1961, and in the '70s and '80s television specials and movies, Mel Blanc replaced Hal Smith in the role.

** After Mel Blanc died, numerous other voice artists filled in for his various characters.

* [[Out-Gambitted]]: Daffy, Elmer, and Yosemite Sam always get caught in this trope.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: As with many classic cartoons, a lot of work was put into everything, including the background art.

* [[Scooby-Dooby Doors]]: Even before "Scooby Doo" was a show, Friz Freleng did this a lot.

** It's an entirely new series, patterned like a sitcom.

** As of March 2011, the classic shorts are back. Unfortunately, they mostly air cartoons starring Bugs and Tweety.

* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]: Taz.

* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Porky and Daffy.

* [[Shout-Out]]: As early as 1938's "Daffy Duck In Hollywood," in which he skywrites "Warner Bros." with the movie director's cigarette.

{{quote| '''Daffy:''' "Just giving my bosses a plug...I've got an option coming up!"}}

** And let's not forget the [[Spinoff Babies]] series: ''[[Baby Looney Tunes]]''.

** [[Private Snafu]] certainly counts, as it is clearly set in the same universe as Looney Tunes.

** [[Chuck Jones]]'s early short "Tom Thumb In Trouble" is played completely straight, and is actually a very good little fairy tale cartoon, just not a ''funny'' one. Years later, after he'd matured in his craft, Jones did "I Was A Teenaged Thumb," which uses wonderfully surreal humor and highly stylized, graphic design-style character designs.

* [[Spit Take]]: In "My Generation G-G-Gap", Porky does a really long one when he sees his daughter on TV at the rock concert.

* [[The Sponsor]]: In the "Birds Anonymous" short, Sylvester joins the titular group to kick the bird-eating habit, and his sponsor is there to make sure he doesn't try to eat Tweety in a moment of weakness. {{spoiler|However, the sponsor himself falls [[Off the Wagon]] and goes after Tweety, while Sylvester tries to stop him.}}

{{quote| '''Tweety:''' Once a bad ol' putty tat, ''always'' a bad ol' putty tat!}}

* [[Stock Audio Clip]]: The Roadrunner's "Meep Meep".

* [[Stock Footage]]: Abuses this enough to [http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/reused/ get a whole page] tracking virtually every usage of this trope in the original shorts!

* [[Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist]]: The Sheriff in the "Bunny and Claude" cartoons.

* [[Synchro Vox]]: Used in a brief scene in "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers".

** Sylvester does this in ''Peck Up Your Troubles" as he is trying to catch a woodpecker:

{{quote| '''Sylvester's sign:''' Why didn't I think of this before? (''starts walking up in mid-air'') <br />

*** ''Nelly's Folly'' (Jones, 1962--everything except "That's all Folks" on the lower end of a black background)

*** ''Coyote Falls'' (O'Callaghan, 2010--The phrase is written on the back of a truck)

*** ''Rabid Rider'' (O'Callaghan, 2010--Written on the side of a mountain the Road Runner rides past)

*** 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 first Looney Tune to use Porky in the drum was "Rover's Rival". Looney Tunes would go back to the self-writing That's all Folks! in 1946.

*** 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."

*** ''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 tag--Bugs kicks it out and places the ''real'' Porky in the drum for the tag line.

*** ''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.

* [[They Fight Crime]]: ''The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries'', also several original shorts pairing Daffy and Porky as crimefighters ("Rocket Squad," "Deduce, You Say", "Boston Quackie," Daffy solo in "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", "The Super Snooper" and "Stupor Duck"). Let's not forget good ol' Bugs in "Super Rabbit."

* [[The Thing That Would Not Leave]]: Charlie Dog's main schtick.

* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: In such World War II cartoons as "Herr Meets Hare," "Russian Rhapsody," and "Daffy the Commando"

* [[Three Dimensional Episode]]: "Lumber Jack Rabbit", which was the only short produced in 3D.

* [[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]]

* [[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.

* [[Unexplained Recovery]]:

{{quote| '''Hugo''': (''with Bugs in his grip'') Oh boy, oh boy, at last my own little bunny rabbit.<br />

'''[[Bugs Bunny]]''': (''straining'') [[Call Back|...Oh no--Not again...]] }}

=== V-W-X ===

* [[Verbal Tic]]: Fog- ah say, Foghorn Leghorn. Leghorn, that is.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Bugs in the early shorts. He was a completely unsympathetic character that would pick on people for the heck of it. He became more good natured later on, though due to the [[Harmless Villain|harmlessness of most of his foils]], he was still a master of [[Disproportionate Retribution]].

** [[Daffy Duck]] is the resident villain protagonist of the Looney Tunes, as he is usually [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|the focus of the shorts he's in]], and post [[Flanderization]], he is a frequent antagonist.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Inverted. It's usually Sylvester trying to gain the approval of his son, Sylvester Jr.

* [[We Sell Everything]]: Considering the company ACME stands for A Company that Makes Everything, and their label is on many of the things used by the characters, it's a case of this trope.

* [[Whammy]]: Every time the cat in Robert McKimson's ''Early To Bet'' loses to the bulldog at gin rummy, he has to spin a "penalty wheel" and suffer whatever physical punishment it lands on (from a cabinet file corresponding to the wheel number).

* [[Whole-Episode Flashback]]: "Wild Wife", which concerns a frazzled housewife describing her hectic day to her skeptical husband.

* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: Bugs

* [[Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?]]: Porky frequently switches jobs, as does Daffy.

* [[Wicked Witch]]: Witch Hazel

** 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]] -- the ones Selzer really had issues with were the Pepé Le Pew cartoons and the idea of having Bugs square off against a bull during a bullfight ("Bully for Bugs"). "Bully for Bugs" has become one of many classic cartoon shorts Looney Tunes fans remember from beginning to end, and the 1949 Pepé Le Pew cartoon "For Scent-imental Reasons" won an Oscar [which -- ironically, and rather hypocritically -- Selzer accepted].