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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 songs -- or, even better, ones the studio already owned -- was a fast and relatively cheap way of producing them didn't hurt any, either.
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 star -- one [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] -- differences between the two were limited to their distinctive theme songs, until 1964 (when both series wound up using the same theme music as a result of using a modernized, and slightly bizarre, opening/closing sequence).
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* '''[[Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird|Sylvester the Cat]]''' -- "Life With Feathers", 1945, Freleng. A cat with a speech impediment who usually tries to eat Tweety or Speedy Gonzales, with little success, making him a mild version of the [[Villain Protagonist]]. One of the most versatile of the ensemble, prone to neuroses and usually the star of the comic melodramas. In Robert McKimson's hands, slobby Sylvester has a hyper-articulate son named Sylvester, Jr., whom Dad tries to impress by chasing what turns out to be a baby kangaroo; when he retreats gibbering at the "giant mouse!" Junior is mortified.
* '''Yosemite Sam''' -- "Hare Trigger", 1945, Freleng. A brash little outlaw with handlebar mustachios and a severe temper problem, introduced as 'a more worthy adversary' for Bugs than the meek Elmer. Said to be a [[Expy|caricature]] of his short, brash, redheaded creator. Introduced as a Wild West bandit, he eventually became the stock blowhard villain character: Civil War general, Viking, pirate, Black Knight (no [[Monty Python and
* '''[[Foghorn Leghorn]]''' -- "Walky Talky Hawky", 1946, McKimson. A loud, obnoxious rooster with a Southern accent, based on Kenny Delmar's 'Senator Claghorn' radio character. Considers himself the life of the party; demonstrates by tricking little Henery Hawk out of capturing him, abusing the barnyard dog by whomping his ass with a wooden board and painting his tongue green, or babysitting a genius chick named Eggbert in order to cozy up to his widow hen mother.
* '''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!
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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 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.
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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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.
"Looney Tunes", the generic term by which all Warners animation is now known and sold, is a brand name more than anything nowadays, but is most heavily associated with the "classic" theatrical shorts and only [[Fanon Discontinuity|begrudgingly]] to what's been done to the characters since, e.g. [[Space Jam|this]], [[Looney Tunes: Back in Action|this]], [[Baby Looney Tunes|this]], and most emphatically [[Loonatics Unleashed|this]]. [[Duck Dodgers|This one's okay though.]] [[Taz-Mania|As is this.]] The Tunes have been the mascots of the Six Flags theme parks for years.
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!]]
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Not to be confused with the prolific Wiki [[User:Looney Toons|contributor]].
For tropes about Looney Tunes in comics, go [[Looney Tunes (comics)|here]].
See also [[Noteworthy Looney Tunes Staff]] for info on the many people who contributed to this franchise.
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** "Scrap Happy Daffy" was more of an "[[Or Was It a Dream?]]", considering Daffy wakes to find {{spoiler|the goat and a group of nazis stranded at the top of his scrap heap}}.
{{quote|"{{spoiler|The next time you dream, INCLUDE US OUT!}}"}}
** "A Cartoonist's Nightmare", as suggested by the title.
* [[All Psychology Is Freudian]]
* [[Amusing Injuries]]
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** ''Boulevardier From The Bronx'' (Freleng, 1937) is a baseball film, but the only athletes present are two roosters (Claude and Dizzy Dan) and a turtle as catcher who uses his shell as a chest protector.
*** The backs of Dan's outfield can be seen prior to the start of the game, a pig is Dan's first strikeout victim, and a dachshund scores an inside-the-park home run.
*** Claude from goes from zero to hero. The cocky and conceited Dizzy Dan, whose Giants team is leading 3-0, walks the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs just so he can get to Claude and strike him out. On an 0-2 pitch, Claude winds up going yard, winning the game for his team 4-3, and gets the last laugh at Dizzy Dan.
*** Somewhere a statistician should be fired: It was already 2-0 Giants when Claude gave up an inside-the-park homer to a dachshund on the Giants' team and a four-base error to Dizzy Dan. It should be 4-0 Giants, rendering the game tied with Claude's grand slam, but the score at the bottom of the ninth [[Writers Cannot Do Math|showed 3-0]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZR1ok02hd4&feature=related See it here.]
** Somebody on the Freleng staff must have sucked at addition. In "Baseball Bugs", the Gas House Gorillas scored 10 runs in the first, 28 in the second, 16 in the third and 42 in the fourth before Bugs stepped in for the Tea Totallers. That gave the Gorillas 96 runs. But in the top of the ninth, the score reads [[Writers Cannot Do Math|Bugs Bunny 96, the Gorillas 95.]]
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** [[Robert McKimson]]'s unit went through a significant art evolution; when he started directing in 1946, his characters had a lot of girth. Around 1950 or 1951, his unit began to slim the characters down; Bugs, for example, actually began to look like the model sheet McKimson himself had created.
* [[Artifact Title]]: The ''Merrie Melodies'' series used to be reserved for the cartoons that were just animated musicals with thin, simplistic plots (in an attempt at copying the "Silly Symphonies" series from Disney). By the late '30s, Merrie Melodies began to feature cartoons that weren't centered around advertising a song from the WB music library. The name difference became even more meaningless in 1944, when Looney Tunes (originally a black and white series) fully switched to color, and recurring characters also began to be used in Merrie Melodies as well. By then, the only difference in the two series was the title and theme music. In fact, Friz Freleng outright commented on the fact that he never initially knew whether the short they'd be creating was a Merrie Melody or a Looney Tune, and it didn't matter anyway.
* [[Artistic License History]]: Bugs's account of the American revolution to his nephew Clyde, in "Yankee Doodle Bugs".
** 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''.)
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* [[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> A pun on the name of the Soviet general Semyon Timoshenko, who was the "People's Commisar for The Defense of the Soviet Union" at the time of Hitler's invasion in 1941 (he was replaced early on by [[Joeseph Stalin]] himself taking over)</ref>, ordering saurkraut from a delicatessen, and the chattanooga choo-choo (a shout out to the classic big band tune from the 40's).
* [[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]]:
** 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.
** 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 3-4 minutes of "The Jet Cage" had he not died while scoring it.
* [[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.
* [[Bad Guys Play Pool]]: Dan Backslide in "[[The Dover Boys]]"
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: {{spoiler|"What's Opera Doc?", [[My God, What Have I Done?|though granted Elmer is too remorseful to savour it]], and Bugs isn't really dead.}}
** {{spoiler|"Fresh Airdale", big time.}}
** "Little Red Riding Rabbit" sort of has one too, in which {{spoiler|by the end of the short, even Bugs is getting tired of Red Riding Hood's constant interruptions. He then switches the Big Bad Wolf, who was about to fall onto red hot coals because of all the furniture Bugs threw on him, with Red. Bugs and the Wolf, arms around each other and sharing a carrot, watch proudly as Red soon gets what she deserves.}}
** {{spoiler|"Tortoise Beats Hare", "Tortoise Wins by a Hare", and "Rabbit Transit". Though Bugs could also be considered the bad guy, considering how much of a jerk he was to Cecil Turtle in the first place.}}
* [[Balloonacy]]:
** ''Bushy Hare''
** ''Hypo-Chondri-Cat''
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* [[Big Little Man]]: One short inverts this. Beaky Buzzard finds a small reptile peeking through some rocks. Noting that the creature seems shorter than him, Beaky tries to grab it and take it home for dinner. Turns out "Shorty" is just the small head of a '''huge''' dragon.
* [[Big No]]: A few shorts have this:
** The Chuck Jones Warner Brothers cartoon Duck Amuck:
{{quote|'''Daffy''': All right. Let's get this picture started.
(iris out and THE END appears)
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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 [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]] and nothing else. That is until {{spoiler|he ends up hooking up with the girl the heroes had been trying to save the entire cartoon.}}
* [[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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* [[Catapult to Glory]]: Coyote tried this a lot, most notably in the [[Overly Long Gag|overly long ending gag]] in "To Beep or Not to Beep. [[Epic Fail|Guess what happens]].
* [[The Cat Came Back]]
* [[Catch Phrase]]:
** "What's up, Doc?"
** "Ain't I a stinka'?"
** "Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. I'm huntin' wabbits."
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** "That's All Folks"
** "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!"
** "Sufferin' succotash!"
** "That's a joke - ah say - that's a joke, son!"
** "I'm only three-and-a-half years old."
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* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Daffy, especially in the earlier shorts. Even later he isn't the most stable of beings at times.
** The demented flying fish in the Porky Pig film "The Sour Puss" certainly qualifies.
** And literally, with the Dodo.
** Some non-Tweety cartoons had Sylvester showing signs of mischievous irrationality (''Back Alley Oproar, Doggone Cats, Kitty Kornered'').
* [[Clown Car Base]]: Sam's wood-burning stove holds a 1950s New Years' Eve party (and, in a later clip show, a late 1970s disco party), in "Rabbit Every Monday".
* [[Coattail-Riding Relative]]: In "Hare Trigger", Bugs Bunny briefly hides from some rabbits waiting alongside the railroad tracks.
{{quote|'''Bugs:''' '"A few of my poor relations. They're always ready for a touch."}}
* [[Cold Opening]]: While not a cold opening in the strictest sense, many Road Runner shorts from the late '50s and early '60s (particularly "Beep Prepared" and "Hopalong Casualty") featured a bit of action before the title of the cartoon was displayed.
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* [[Crossover]]: Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, Mama Bear, Henery Hawk and Porky Pig all appear in Daffy's ''The Scarlet Pumpernickel.'' Daffy appears in Foghorn Leghorn's ''The High And The Flighty.''
** 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]].
* [[Cut a Slice, Take the Rest]]: frequently, with various characters, and often with cake.
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* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: The construction worker from "Homeless Hare" and the bulldog from "Chow Hound", both voiced by John T. Smith.
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: "He can't outsmart me, 'cause I'm a moron!" (The giant from "Jack Wabbit And The Beanstalk")
* [[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.
* [[Exploding Closet]]: Daffy opens a closet door in "Daffy's Inn Trouble" and is buried in brooms.
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* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]: Yosemite Sam's shtick. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXCJC9e4dB0 He even rapped about it on] [[The Looney Tunes Show]].
* [[Hammerspace]]
* [[Handbag of Hurt]]: In "Boston Quackie", Quackie's girlfriend Mary clobbers the man in the green hat with her handbag. Of course, she is carrying an anvil in it...
* [[Handcar Pursuit]]
* [[Handsome Lech]]: Pepé LePew (Oh hell, any Charles Boyer-esque French stereotype applies here)
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** Just to clarify: Most cartoons in the '30s and '40s utilized full animation just like Disney and other contemporaries. However, Chuck Jones experimented with limited animation in "The Dover Boys", liberally using quick smears and held poses. But limited animation (that is, less actual character movement) was never widespread until the mid '50s, when budgets got slimmer. Nevertheless, the various units worked around the limitations quite well, even if the animation wasn't as full as the previous two decades.
* [[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]]: [[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.
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* [[Meat-O-Vision]]
* [[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]].
* [[Mickey Mousing]]: So much so that there are musical accents to something as simple as characters blinking. Arguably, though, this is part of the charm of the music.
* [[Mime-and-Music-Only Cartoon]]: Many of their cartoons are dialogue free, or fairly close to it. Some examples:
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** Not to mention long (and deservedly) forgotten Little Blabbermouse (cartoon of the same name and "Shop, Look, And Listen").
** Shorty from "Rabbit's Kin". His voice is actually Mel Blanc's normal speaking voice, sped up to a high pitch and really fast speed.
* [[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|Compilation Movies]] combining footage from vintage shorts with newly-animated bridging material. This one, directed by Chuck Jones and featuring only his cartoons, is "hosted" by Bugs Bunny from his mansion as he expounds on the history of "the chase" in animation.
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* [[My Card]]: Wile E. Coyote's "Super Genius" card
** Owl Jolson's, too, in "I Love to Singa".
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: This is pretty much Elmer Fudd's reaction whenever he ''thinks'' he's finally killed Bugs. No matter how hard he's been trying throughout the episode to shoot Bugs he always breaks down in tears when he thinks he's finally done it, calling himself a murderer. Which calls into question why he's a hunter in the first place.
** The dog in ''Hare Ribbin''' (1944) goes through similar contrition after taking a bite out of the rigged Rabbit Sandwich. When he wails "I wish I were dead!", Bugs hands him a gun and he blows his brains out, only to rise, stop the iris out and say "This shouldn't happen to a dog!" (Clampett's director's cut of the cartoon has Bugs shoving the gun in the dog's mouth and pulling the trigger.)
* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: From ''Hoppy Go Lucky'':
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** In ''Hare-Um Scare-Um'' (1939), hunter John Sourpuss tells proto-Bugs Bunny that "I can whip you and your whole family!" A bunch of bunnies arrive to take him up on the challenge—then the film cuts off. In the original ending, the looney rabbits beat Sourpuss up on-camera, eventually driving him looney himself. Though no hard evidence has been found, it's often speculated that the scene was deleted for being too similar to the ending of ''Daffy Duck And Egghead'' one year prior.
** "Ride Him, Bosko!" is probably the standout example; [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|the animators]] just [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|up and leave]] without showing if Bosko rescues Honey or not.
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: [[Duck Amuck]] is one of the most famous and insane examples ever made.
* [[No Guy Wants to Be Chased]]: Is used quite often whenever a female [[Abhorrent Admirer]] goes after one of the male characters. Was also used in three Pepé Le Pew cartoons (1949's "For Scent-imental Reasons," 1952's "Little Beau Pepé ," and 1959's "Really Scent"), proving to modern audiences that, yeah, Pepé may be seen as a "rapist," but he's not a [[Karma Houdini]] (in those instances at least).
* [[No More for Me]]: In "Who's Kitten Who?", Hippety Hopper hops by a man on the sidewalk. The man immediately drops a bottle of alcohol from his pocket and nervously walks away.
* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: Ralph is a wolf who's job is to eat sheep. Sam is a guard dog, whose job is to prevent Ralph from eating sheep. They both use the same punch clock, but the activities usually involve Ralph being injured at the end of the shift. [[Understatement|Not that this is the only example]].
* [[Non-Mammal Mammaries]]: Hatta Mari in "Plane Daffy"
* [[Non Sequitur Thud]]: Lots of them, some of which are the funniest and most memorable lines in the shorts. Daffy seems to be the most common victim.
{{quote|'''Daffy''': And the lights went out, all over the world! ("Stupor Duck")
'''Daffy''': Starkle starkle, little twink, up above the skating rink! ("Swing Ding Amigo")
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* [[Not Rare Over There]]: In "The Bee-deviled Bruin", Papa Bear nearly gets himself killed trying to get honey from a hive in a tree outside his home. Eventually, he gives up and asks for a bottle of ketchup. Mama Bear goes to get it... from a cupboard filled to the brim with jars of honey.
* [[Off-Model]]: Not uncommon, particularly in [[Bob Clampett]]'s shorts, where he gave the animators leeway in deviating from the model sheets in favor of a specific action or expression. However, there was plenty of unintentional off model, such as one scene from "Hare Lift", where Yosemite Sam briefly turns into a robot when he is wearing his parachute!
** 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.
* [[Oh Crap]]: Wile E. Coyote, Private Snafu, Ralph Wolf, and [[Those Wacky Nazis]] do this a lot. Even Bugs Bunny gets a few every now and then.
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* [[Saw a Woman In Half|Saw A Duck In Half]]: "It's a good thing I have Blue Cross," from "Showbiz Bugs."
* [[Say Your Prayers]]: Happens frequently when a character is about to be on the receiving end of a huge blow.
** Daffy says a silent prayer in "The Henpecked Duck"(1941, Clampett) as he tries to make his wife's egg reappear (the disappearance of which led to her filing for a divorce from Daffy).
* [[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.
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** [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome]]
** [[Porky Pig Pronunciation]]
*** Daffy's voice was based on that of producer Leon Schlesinger. Chuck Jones told that after the cartoon was completed Leon had to screen it, so everyone wrote their resignation in advance. Leon never caught on; he thought it was a funny voice.
* [[Spin-Off|Spin Offs]]: ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', ''[[The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries]]'', and ''[[Duck Dodgers]]''
** 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.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'', which featured many of the Looney Tunes in recurring roles, as well as its semi-[[Spin-Off|spin off]], ''[[Animaniacs]]'', and ''its'' spin off, ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''. We do not speak of the ''Tiny Toons''/''Pinky and the Brain'' [[Crossover]] series, ''Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain'', which moved far too into conventional [[Sitcom]] territory to be considered in the same spirit as the Looney Tunes anyway.
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** The first opening to The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (i.e. the one without the new Darrell Van Citters animation) reuses the Bugs and Daffy song and dance animation from The Bugs Bunny Show's opening.
* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: To the point where they [[Stock Footage|recycle the same explosion footage]] at almost every opportunity.
* [[Submarine Pirates]]: The plot of ''Porky the Gob'' involves a hunt for a pirate sub, staffed by some outlandish characters, one of which has an outlandish uniform and an even more outlandish mustachio. Porky, left alone to guard his ship, manages to fend off an attack by the sub, capture it, and claim the reward.
* [[Sudden Anatomy]]: During the "Rabbit of Seville" short, Bugs grows an extra finger on each hand when he plays Elmer Fudd's head like a piano, since the music couldn't be played using the four-fingers-per-hand he usually has.
** The stripping lizard from "Cross Country Detours" (even though her "anatomy" was blocked with a [[Censor Box]])
* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: In the cartoons where Wile E. Coyote goes after Bugs Bunny, Wile E. speaks in a pretentious, intellectual voice (though there is one exception: "Hare-Breadth Hurry," where Bugs is recast as the Roadrunner. In that cartoon, as in the usual Road Runner cartoon, Wile E. Coyote didn't speak at all).
** His first lines of dialogue, to Bugs in "Operation: Rabbit":
{{quote|'''Wile E.:''' Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Coyote. Wile E. Coyote. I am not selling anything nor am I working my way through college. (''Bugs tries to speak'') So, let's get down to cases. You are a rabbit, and I am going to eat you for supper. (''Bugs feigns fear'') Now, don't try to get away. I am more muscular, more cunning, faster and larger than you, and ''I'm'' a genius. (''Bugs now looking bored'') While you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten. (''Bugs yawns'') So I'll give you the customary two minutes to say your prayers. }}
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* [[Sweeping Ashes]]
* [[Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist]]: The Sheriff in the "Bunny and Claude" cartoons.
* [[
* [[Talking with Signs]]: Seen a lot in the Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoons.
** Sylvester does this in ''Peck Up Your Troubles" as he is trying to catch a woodpecker:
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** 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 goal -- to eliminate a Scottish terrier who was deemed the city's top dog -- would seem evil enough to qualify him as a villain. It goes awry as Shep nearly drowns and the terrier rescues him. But when the terrier collapses from exhaustion, everybody -- the press included -- fetes Shep as a hero that rescued the terrier.
* [[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.
{{quote|We just received another telegram, Station GOMG. Stop. Your program coming in great. Stop. Think it's fine. Stop. Glad to hear your amateurs. Stop. They're all very funny. ''[camera pans back to show her continually pushing away the deliveryman as he keeps trying to hold her]'' Stop! Keep up the good work. Stop! Good luck. STOP! The gang. ''STOP!'' ''[she pushes him offscreen and he crashes]''}}
** ''The Hardship of Miles Standish'' has a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsFMKMUvFxo#t=3m40s singing telegram] punctuated by STOPs.
* [[Ten Paces and Turn]]: "Mississippi Hare" and "Hare Trimmed."
** Zig-zagged in "Jack Wabbit And The Beanstalk." Bugs says for the giant to count 20 paces then turn and fire. Bugs thinks he's outsmarted the giant as the galoot disappears into the horizon, but then he reappears on the other side--[[Didn't Think This Through|The 20 paces were enough for him to circumnavigate all the way back.]]
* [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]]
* [[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, 1938--the elephant trying to remember something says it)
*** ''Porky's Duck Hunt'' (Avery, 1937--Everything already written out as Daffy jumps around on the letters)
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*** ''Lumber Jack Rabbit'' (Jones, 1954--all three title elements simply fade in as part of the 3-D effect in which the cartoon was made. At the opening, the W-B shield zooms so far in as if to leap into the audience.)
*** ''What's Opera, Doc?'' (Jones, 1958--already written out)
*** ''Two Crows From Tacos'' (Freleng, 1959--again a simple fade in)
*** ''Stop, Look, and Hasten'' (Jones, 1954--The Road Runner writes it out in desert dust before it dissolves into the concentric circles ending card)
*** ''Guided Muscle'' (Jones, 1955--"That's all, Folks!" is already written out as the humiliated coyote drags the ending card into shot)
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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]] -- 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].
** 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.
* [[Xylophone Gag]]: And they ''always'' fall for it.
** And the song is always "Those Endearing Young Charms."
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