Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

A common way for the trick to go wrong is for the magician to make a mistake and [[Rummage Fail|pull out something else instead]]. (It should be noted that magicians do sometimes intentionally set out to pull other things than rabbits out of their hats; but a [[White Bunny]] is still the iconic thing.)

Rabbits are popular for this trick over other small animals (like, say, a cat) because they're better at sitting still for long periods of time. However, it should be noted that despite how it's commonly depicted, lifting a rabbit by its ears is very painful and could permanently injure them. It's also likely to ruin the act if they freak out. Normally they put the hand under the rabbit's belly.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==

* A commercial for Magic Gushers had a pretty [[Nightmare Fuel|nightmare fuelish]] version of it by having a kid's head transform into a top hat. One pull inside the hat and out pops the head of a rabbit!

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In a 1990s [[Dork Age]] version of ''Challengers of the Unknown'', this was the first thing Ace attempted when he was reinvented as a mystic. Since one of his teammates was actually named Rocky, he even used the Bullwinkle quote.

* One ''[[Monica's Gang]]'' story involving Monica getting a giant bunny (actually Jimmy Five and Smudge in disguise) for her birthday had her father attempt this with her plush bunny Samson.

 

 

* In the first ''[[Harry Potter]]'' book, when Harry sees the Sorting Hat for the first time, he wonders if they're supposed to get a rabbit out of it.

** In the third book, Harry visits a magical pet store, where "a fat white rabbit kept changing into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping noise."

* Inverted as a gag in the [[Nightside]] series, where one of the bar patrons at Strangefellows had evidently pissed off the rabbit he'd used in this act. His top hat now sits atop the bar, from which a human hand occasionally extends to receive a consoling drink.

 

** In a more recent episode, Professor D. Rabbit agrees to be pulled out of Mumford's hat if Mumford allows the roles to be reversed afterward.

* An unfortunate rabbit who had faithfully served for years being pulled out of a hat didn't survive in the "Oh Oh It's Magic" episode of ''[[Pushing Daisies]].''

* Dr. Cox in ''[[Scrubs]]'' actually reveals this trick to Turk and a bunch of children to "rob their innocence."

* Hilda teaches Sabrina a version of this with real magic in ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''. Zelda is not impressed:

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* In one ''[[Mandrake the Magician]]'' story, Mandrake did a magic show for a group of school children in which he appeared to pull an ''elephant'' out of his hat (it started out tiny, grew to normal size, and then shrank again as he put it back). When the school bully suggested that he'd merely used an elephant-shaped balloon, Mandrake stuck ''him'' into the hat, and invited the rest of the children to look into the hat and watch him being chased around by the tiny elephant.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The picture on this page is from the ''[[Avernum]]'' series. While pulling rabbits out of hats was never done in-game, assuming that magic in game is only stated for combat/support uses, it could be done in universe.

* This seems to be the default backstory for [[Petting Zoo People|bunnygirls and boys]] in ''[[City of Heroes]]''.

* In ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' the protagonist must at one point beat an evil sorcerer in some contest. When she considers a conjurer's contest and says that she can pull a rabbit out of a hat, the sorcerer responds that he can pull a hat out of a rabbit. She promptly switches to other options.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Kavonn from ''[[Charby the Vampirate]]'' frequently has [[wikipedia:Jackalope|jackalopes]] appear into his hat.

* Subverted in ''[[Daisy Owl]]''. A wizard is asked to do some magic, and then he pulls a rabbit out of his hat... then it turns out that the rabbit was in there because he was using the hat for carrot storage, and he hadn't intended for it to be there at all.

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' uses the phrase to mean magic-like things not understood by mundanes [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/neithergodnordemon/ here].

* An over-elaborate ''[[Bob the Angry Flower]]'' comic depicted Bob pulling a hat out of a rabbit.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* A famous [[Running Gag]] on ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' had Bullwinkle try to do this trick for Rocky, but instead pulling out a lion, a rhinoceros, a tiger and finally (after the camera went into a dramatic close-up on the hat) Rocky himself.

'''Rocky:''' But that trick never works! }}

** One of his earliest appearances (before he became Bugs Bunny proper) was as a magician's rabbit in the Chuck Jones 1938 short ''Prest-O Change-O''.

** In the cartoon ''Hot Cross Bunny'', Bugs pulls ''himself'' out of a hat to amuse a group of doctors.

* One [[Classic Disney Short]] had Goofy as a train baggage handler who is trying to load a magician's trunk. Inside is a hat, and inside the hat were several rabbits, as well as some doves. There was also a magical cape that produced a bull, a boxing kangaroo, a fishbowl, and several other animals which Goofy then had to wrangle into the trunk when the train arrived.

* Another [[Walt Disney]] cartoon, ''Mickey's Grand Opera'', featured a sentient magic hat which Pluto chased onstage. The hat fell in a tuba, and from there came an unending stream of rabbits and doves to mess up the performance.

* This was the basis for one of many "counting to 20" cartoon inserts on ''[[Sesame Street]]''.

* The [[Tex Avery]] cartoon "Magical Maestro" has a magician and his rabbits taking revenge on an opera singer.

* ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' encountered a mischievous rabbit in "The Hand Is Pinker than the Eye".

* An episode of the ''[[Garfield]]'' cartoon had Jon attempting to perform this trick, with Garfield (in a rabbit suit) as the rabbit. The real rabbit had ditched Jon because he couldn't stand being pulled by the ears.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

[[Category:Hocus Tropus]]

[[Category:Magic Hat]]