History WesternAnimation / BugsBunny

* TheHero: Usually, depending on the prominance of the villains however he is sometimes a HeroAntagonist.

->"''An' that's the end!''"

* HisAndHers: In ''Hare-Way to the Stars'', Bugs has a pair of towels labeled "His" and "[[IncrediblyLamePun Hares]]".

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Catchphrase}} Eh... What's up, Doc?]]]]

** Of all the characters Bugs goes up against, Elmer Fudd is probably the most frequent. As a hunter, Elder hunts Bugs for the sport of it, as if Bugs is a WorthyOpponent. Bugs, however, frequently sees Elmer as an annoyance.

His influence on modern American culture, like that of all the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes characters, has been far-reaching to the point of ubiquity. For obvious reasons, though, Bugs is the especial favourite, especially in the theatrical years, getting more shorts than any of his co-stars, with a impressive 168 titles under his belt[[note]] Not counting cameos and the four "proto-Bugs" cartoons[[/note]]. Naturally, he has spawned several imitators over the years, notably direct descendant Buster Bunny of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' and Yakko, Wakko and Dot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' -- although these last three skew more heavily toward ThePrankster.

After a few further early appearances where his design was modified (notably gaining grey fur in Hardaway's Hare-Um Scare-Um (1939)), it's generally accepted by all parties that the smart, suave, on-the-ball wabbit we know and love today took his full official form in Creator/TexAvery's "WesternAnimation/AWildHare" (1940). Creator/ChuckJones later made him more sympathetic by giving Bugs that iconic attitude of live-and-let-live, right up until he's just that ''one step'' too far, and then it's war -- "at which point [he] retaliates in every way he can imagine, and he is a very imaginative rabbit."

-->'''Bugs:''' "You! You blankety blank blank turtle!"

-->'''Bugs:''' Y'know, my conscience kinda bothers me sometimes... [[SubvertedTrope but not dis time!]] (*yanks the mattress away*)

-->'''Daffy:''' You and your shortcuts. I told you to turn west at East St. Louis.
-->'''Bugs:''' Yeah, I know. [Looks at map] The way I figure it, we're somewhere in the Hi-may-lay-us mountains.
-->'''Daffy:''' That's pronounced "Himalayas"... ''Himalayas?'' Why, you four-legged Marco Polo! That's in Asia!

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Like all the Warners' animated output -- indeed, that of all the major American studios during and just post-WWII -- some of Bugs' shorts are not very politically correct. At the height of the Pacific campaign during the war, he starred in a blatant bit of propaganda called "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips." He also appeared in BlackFace on more than one occasion, including a short parody of Al Jolson's ''The Jazz Singer''.
* TheBoxingEpisode: "Rabbit Punch"

--> '''Friz''': We used to go into meetings every once in a while and say, ‘Look, we’re losing Bugs. He’s not bright and mischievous as he was.’ And we’d look at some of the new pictures, then look at some of the old pictures and say, ‘He’s slowed down. He’s getting to be an old man. Let’s bring the kid back’. As we were getting older, Bugs was getting older without our realizing it. We had to remind ourselves to snap him up and get him a little peppier and brighter. We were continuously reminding ourselves we could lose the character very easily.

* DeusExMachina: In "Rabbit Punch". [[OpposingSportsTeam The]] [[StoutStrength Crusher]] has [[ChainedToARailway tied Bugs to a train track]]--''[[RuleOfFunny in a boxing ring]]'', mind you--then boards a locomotive and proceeds to speed towards Bugs. The scene makes it clear it's passed the DespairEventHorizon, with The Crusher's SlasherSmile and Bugs' genuinely worried expressions. What could possibly save him? Cue the [[NoFourthWall film strip of the cartoon eventually breaking]], showing Bugs in a WhiteVoidRoom, revealing that he ''[[MediumAwareness cut the film with scissors]]'', thereby ending (or, rather, [[NoEnding non-ending]]) the cartoon. "Hare Trigger" ends in this manner as well.

%%* FastTunnelling: One of Bugs Bunny’s skills.

* GoneHorriblyRight: In "Rebel Rabbit," Bugs is offended that rabbits have a bounty of only 2 cents while foxes and bears are worth $50 and $75, respectively, on the grounds that rabbits are "perfectly harmless" compared to them, and vows to prove that rabbits can be just as bad. In doing so, he becomes a PersonOfMassDestruction by, in this order, attacking a guard with his own billy club, renaming Barney Baruch's private bench as "Bugs Bunny," painting barbershop-pole stripes on the Washington Monument, rewiring the lights in Times Square to read "Bugs Bunny Wuz Here," shutting down the Niagara Falls, selling Manhattan Island back to the Indians, sawing Florida off from the rest of the country, swiping the locks off of the Panama Canal, filling up the Grand Canyon, and literally tying up the railroad tracks. Bugs does indeed prove that rabbits are just as bad as bears and foxes and earns a $1 million bounty... and for his efforts, he's hunted down by the entire US Army and imprisoned in [[TheAlcatraz Alcatraz]].
-->'''Bugs''': [''as he surrounded by artillery shells in a foxhole''] Could it be that I carried this thing too far? [''the shells explode; cut to Bugs in a cell in Alcatraz''] Ehhh, ''could'' be.

--->'''Gremlin:''' [[BreakingTheFourthWall Sorry, folks!]] We ran out of gas!
--->'''Bugs:''' [[LampshadeHanging Yeah...You know how it is]] with these [[HistoricalInJoke 'A'-cards!]][[note]]AKA a fuel ration card, used during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; 'A' was the lowest rank.[[/note]]

* MyInstinctsAreShowing: One of the things that can outsmart Bugs (at least in the short term) is luring him with carrots. See: "Mad as a Mars Hare".

* NiceGuy: He was originally an abrasive troll and DesignatedHero, but over the years gradually becomes more laid back and one of the nicest characters in the series, being usually a friendly guy to anyone who doesn't cause him trouble (even having a FriendlyEnemy attitude towards Daffy, despite the latter's antagonism).

* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: The writers had a field day with these. While usually making it through each short with hardly a hair out of place, every now and then Bugs' luck would run out and he would be made the ButtMonkey to another, usually underestimated foe. In the earliest shorts this role usually fell to the character of Cecil Turtle, but even Bugs' most hapless nemeses could occasionally score a victory on him (one of the classic examples being ''WesternAnimation/RabbitRampage''--itself a successor to ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'' in which Bugs replaces Daffy as the victim of a tormenting animator, who turns out to be Elmer Fudd!).

* OutOfFocus: Despite being Warner Bros.' biggest star, Bugs vanished after 1964's "False Hare". That is, until he returned in 1979's "Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol". Since then, he's appeared in several of the sporadically released post-1969 shorts.

-->'''Bugs:''' I just wonder if he's as dumb as he looks.

%%* ReachingBetweenTheLines: One of Bugs Bunny’s abilities.

** Bugs is awarded a Nobel Prize in ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' episode "The Shelf." Subverted when this genius bunny succeeds in demolishing his entire house while building a shelf to display his award.
** Bugs argues with the humorless Kate Houghton during ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' about rehiring WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck, and bolsters his argument with four Oscar statuettes and a chunk of granite with his Walk of Fame star on it. For the record, four Warner Bros. cartoons have won an Oscar, but only one went to a Bugs Bunny cartoon: "Knighty Knight Bugs." Bugs Bunny also has an actual star on the Walk of Fame.
** In the short "Super-Rabbit," Bugs becomes a Marine at the end. In real life, the U.S. Marine Corps were so thrilled by that ending that they actually inducted Bugs into the force as a private, complete with dogtags; he was regularly promoted until the end of World War II, where he was officially "discharged" with the rank of Master Sergeant.

-->'''Wile E.:''' (''panickly pressing buttons'') Rock...falling...what'll...I...do??
-->'''Computer read-out:''' Go back and take your medicine. (''Wile E. goes back and lets the boulder fall on him'')

-> "''An' that's the end!''"

* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: In "Southern Fried Rabbit", WesternAnimation/BugsBunny encounters Yosemite Sam as a Confederate soldier guarding the Mason-Dixon line eighty odd years after the end of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. When informed of this fact, Sam replies "I ain't no clockwatcher!"

* CrashingThroughTheHarem: Happens in the ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny'' episode "A-Lad-In His Lamp".
-->'''Bugs:''' (Rushes into a room, screams are heard, he rushes out and closes the door) Err, um... a Hare-em, I think.
-->'''Genie:''' (opens the door and looks in, to more screams) Oh, that was a harem all right. I know a harem when I see one.

* DavidVersusGoliath: Especially true of Chuck Jones' Bugs, who has taken on bulls ("Bully for Bugs") and professional wrestlers ("Bunny Hugged")

** WesternAnimation/BugsBunny is fond of odd pronunciations. "Maroon" for "moron" is perhaps the best known. Part of it is his accent, but much of it seems to be affectation. Bugs does use "moron" in ''Tortoise Beats Hare.'' He was also known to mangle the word "imbecile" (which he pronounces as "im-BES-sel").

* YouWouldntHitAGuyWithGlasses: In "Hare Splitter".
** And "Transylvania 6-5000"
--> '''[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Count Bloodcount (as a bat)]]''': "[[YouWouldntHitAGuyWithGlasses You wouldn't hit a bat with glasses on, would you?]]"
--> '''Bugs ([[BatterUp as a bat]])''': [[SubvertedTrope WHACK!]]

--"Wotta gully-''bull.'' Wotta nin-''cow''-poop."

After a few further early appearances where his design was modified (notably gaining grey fur in Hardaway's Hare-Um Scare-Um (1939)), it's generally accepted by all parties that the smart, suave, on-the-ball wabbit we know and love today took his full official form in Creator/TexAvery's "WesternAnimation/AWildHare" (1940). Creator/ChuckJones later made him more sympathetic by giving Bugs that iconic attitude of live-and-let-live, right up until he's just that]] ''one step'' too far, and then it's war -- "at which point [he] retaliates in every way he can imagine, and he is a very imaginative rabbit."

* Wackiki Wabbit (MM, Jones) [[PublicDomainAnimation Public Domain.]]

!Movies
* ''Film/TwoGuysFromTexas'' (1948) - Bugs makes a cameo in what is probably the most memorable sequence of the film.

[[index]]

[[/index]]

[[index]]

[[/index]]

[[index]]

* CasualDangerDialog:

In 2011, Bugs starred in ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'', having given up his nomadic roots and rabbit holes in favor of an average suburb, shared with co-star WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck. In 2015, a new series starring Bugs--''WesternAnimation/WabbitALooneyTunesProduction'', later renamed ''New Looney Tunes''--debuted on Creator/CartoonNetwork. In 2020, a back-to-their-roots series, ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunesCartoons'', debuted on Creator/HBOMax. Bugs' next project will be the forthcoming EdutainmentShow ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunnyBuilders''.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Bugs' catchphrases and speech tics are actually based around the hip slang of TheForties -- but modern audiences assume they're unique to him.

* WesternAnimation/ElmersCandidCamera (MM, Jones): Debut of Elmer Fudd. Bugs is almost fully realized as a character by this point, with his original ThePrankster traits played down in favor of being more reserved and in control than before, but his character is still very underplayed. With that said, he still has some of his unmotivated heckler self left in him, pestering poor Elmer (who was just taking pictures) to the point where he has a nervous breakdown. Creator/ChuckJones himself was not happy with this short, saying the rabbit was "Bugs with his umbilical cord in his hand looking for a place to plug it in" and that it should only be watched "if you are dying to die of ennui."

* WesternAnimation/TortoiseBeatsHare (MM, Avery): The first of the three "Bugs Vs. Cecil" shorts. Chuck Jones, in his opinion, considered it a failure, feeling that Tex had swapped Bugs' in-control, defensive personality in favor of making him the loser ala Elmer Fudd while giving Cecil Turtle Bugs' personality (but with all fairness, it did show us a whole different side of Bugs than before).

* WesternAnimation/WhatsCookinDoc (MM, Clampett). Bugsy is presented as a very showboaty ham in this short. Clampett alledgedly make this short to make fun of Creator/FrizFreleng, possibly for his previous effort "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt", being snubbed for an Oscar. Features large usage of StockFootage from "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt", although it's in the context of the story and not a mere corner cutting move.

* WesternAnimation/HareWeGo (MM, [=McKimson=]) - with an unreasonable facsimile of UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus.

* RunningGagged: Bugs doesn't do his trademark crossdressing shtick much, if at all, anymore, since it's now considered rather politically incorrect to play something that can be interpreted as making light of UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} people for a laugh, even if that wasn't remotely the intention of the original filmmakers. The last major instance of Bugs doing it was in ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'', which was specifically done to call to attention how dated and questionable the gag is now.

* ShutUpScaryThing: Director, Bob [=McKimson=], once described Bugs as the type of individual where if a lion roared at him, he would simply walk over and slap it across the face. He displays this in ''WesternAnimation/BullyForBugs'' when a bull keeps snorting on his tail, and Bugs slaps him exclaiming, "Stop steamin' up my tail! Whaddaya tryin' to do? Wrinkle it?!"

* WartimeCartoon: Several, some good, some forgettable propaganda.

* Super-Rabbit (MM, Jones): A parody of [[Creator/FleischerStudios Max Fleischer's]] WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons. After the release of Tortoise Wins by a Hare, it's startling to see Bugs revert back to being a defensive character again.

** According to Robert [=McKimson=], Jones' Flanderization eventually became a problem with the staff, making him so reserved and impenetrable they noticed [[FlatCharacter he was starting to lack much of a sympathetic personality]]. As such some of his last cartoons actually try to dial him back a small degree, making him a bit more hyperactive and abrasive again.

* TheFool: Even when he isn't using pure wit to defeat an adversary, he seems to have lady luck (and the villains' bumbling) on his side. Lampshaded in "Hare and Loathing Las Vegas"; he has his own pair of lucky rabbit's feet.

* GuileHero: He uses tricks instead of [[ActionHero force]] or [[ScienceHero Science]] to triumph

** Also, at the end of "Operation Rabbit," a defeated Wile E. Coyote surrenders by telling Bugs that his "name is mud." Bugs' retort? "Mud spelled backwards is dumb!"

* IncessantMusicMadness: "Long-Haired Hare" begins with Bugs playing various instruments (a banjo, a harp and a tuba) and singing while an opera singer is trying to rehearse, leading the opera singer to smash Bugs' instruments and beat him up.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Bugs also took the role of the sadistic animator in ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'', one of the only roles that he tormented Daffy just for fun. While Daffy is powerless to stop him in the cartoon, in ''Rabbit Rampage'', he ends up paid back in his own coin by Elmer Fudd. Fittingly Bugs had a history of heckling Elmer unprovoked and getting off scot free in earlier cartoons as well (eg. "WesternAnimation/WabbitTwouble").

* LostInImitation: Bugs' carrot-eating was intended as a ShoutOut to Creator/ClarkGable in ''Film/ItHappenedOneNight''. Unfortunately, carrots became the [[StockAnimalDiet default food]] of all rabbits, fictional and real, with disastrous real-life consequences (carrots are lethal to real-life rabbits in large amounts).

* WesternAnimation/PorkysHareHunt (LT, Hardaway): First appearance of the Bugs Bunny prototype. Here, he is a tiny, pudgy white rabbit with a WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}-esque rural accent, who, in Ben Hardaway's words, was "WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck in a rabbit suit." Naturally, this prototype is [[CharacterizationMarchesOn far differeny]] from the Bugs we all know and love, being a heckler, but with a touch of [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] thrown into the mixing pot. This character at the least provided a foundation for the character of the Bugs we know. This prototype is also very similar to the earliest incarnations of WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker, who Ben Hardaway also helped write for.