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.
"Wideo Wabbit" has Elmer chasing Bugs through a TV studio and crashing such programs as "You Beat Your Wife" (You Bet Your Life), "You're Asking for It" (You Asked for It), "You Were There" (You Are There), and "Fancy Dress Party" (The Arthur Murray Party).
Paying in Coins: One of the gags in "Wild Wife": Marsha makes a trip to the bank but gets stuck behind really slow customers, including a woman depositing a bunch of coins... one at a time.
Old woman: I'd like to deposit these pennies, please. One... two... three... four...
Pedestrian Crushes Car: In "Dough Ray Me-ow", a parrot tries to kill a cat by having him play in the railroad track as the train is coming. The train is totaled in the collision, but the cat steps out with nary a scratch.
Performance Anxiety: Seen in "Person to Bunny"; at first, Daffy is excited to be performing in front of the camera, until Bugs tells Daffy that millions of viewers will be watching. Upon hearing that, Daffy gets a sickly, deathly-scared look on his face.
Pick on Someone Your Own Size: This very phrase sets the plot of "Rabbit Punch" into motion as Bugs heckles "The Champ" during the boxing game with this very phrase. The Champ suddenly appears behind the rabbit, who smiles nervously.
Pest Episode: If Speedy Gonzales was starring, the episode would be this, with Daffy or Sylvester chasing him.
Pie in the Face: A gag in "Slick Hare" involved Bugs masquerading as a waiter, ordering Elmer Fudd to make pies. When Fudd would make the pie, Bugs would take it, leave, and immediately come back in, smacking Fudd in the face with the pie.
Bugs: Your pie, sir.
Bugs and Elmer's vaudeville shtick in "What's Up, Doc?" (with Bugs being the receiver), before Bugs decides to change the act.
A drunk is terrorized by a trio of pink elephants in "Calling Dr. Porky".
Also played with in "Punch Trunk"; a drunk stumbles out of a bar, notices the miniature elephant on the sidewalk, looks at his watch, and tells the elephant, "You're late!" He then lampshades this by saying, as he walks off, "They used to be pink..."
Pintsized Powerhouse: Tweety when he was under Bob Clampett's direction. Not so much when he was under Friz Freleng's direction, but he still had his moments. Chester the dog in "Tree for Two" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hyde." Also Henery Hawk in his various "Foghorn Leghorn" appearances.
Pirate Parrot: In "Buccaneer Bunny", Yosemite Sam, as the pirate Seagoin' Sam, has a parrot that follows Bugs Bunny around pointing out his hiding places. Bugs asks the parrot "Polly want a cracker?", and when the parrot agrees, gives him a lit firecracker.
Plummet Perspective: One famous running gag in the Road Runner cartoons is a bird's-eye view of Wile E. Coyote falling off a cliff and shrinking in the distance, followed by a cloud of dust rising from the canyon floor to mark his landing.
Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: Done in "The Fair-Haired Hare" when Sam tries to drug Bugs: Bugs spins the table so fast that Sam can't keep track of which glass contains the poison.
Police Brutality: "Big House Bunny" sees Bugs, who had accidentally tunneled into a maximum security prison where Yosemite Sam works, trick Sam into swapping clothes. Once Sam realizes he's put on a prisoner's smock, it's too late for the "Oh, Crap!" as four of his fellow guards pounce on him and mercilessly beat him into submission, before throwing him into a holding cell.
Poor Communication Kills: In "Long-Haired Hair", Giovanni Jones should have just explained to Bugs that he needed to practice singing and that Bugs' singing and music playing was disturbing his practice, as opposed to angrily causing harm to Bugs and his instruments without saying anything.
Portable Hole: The premise of "The Hole Idea" concerns an inventor making a portable hole and it falling into criminal hands.
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", made by Bob Clampett for Warner's 1939 in-house gag reel, in which he hits his thumb with a hammer and stammers "Oh, son of a bi-bi-bit...son of a bi-bi-bit...son of a bi-bi-bi- Gun!" He then turns to the camera and says "You thought I was gonna say 's-suh-son of a bitch,' didn'tcha?" Oh yes, it's real, all right — it was included on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4" as an extra. See it here.
Just averted in "Blooper Bunny", after Daffy's beak gets impaled by the loose plank Bugs noted earlier.
Bugs:Now can we cut? Daffy: You smug son of a— (Bugs just does make a "cut" motion to camera, and the scene is abruptly cut)
1960's "Rebel Without Claws": The Confederate general, consigned to using Tweety as a messenger, walks off and mutters "Damn yankees!" As the North turns Sylvester loose as an interceptor, Tweety turns to us and says "I tawt I taw a damn Yankee tat!"
Averted in "Tortoise Beats Hare" (1941), after Bugs discovers that Cecil Turtle won the race:
Bugs: (about to throttle Cecil's neck) Ooh, you blankety blank blank toitle!
The Road Runner's bogus scientific name in 1959's "Wild About Hurry": Batoutahelius.
1936's "Boulevardier from the Bronx": Claude tries to catch a fly ball but has dozens fall among him. He says "Aw..." followed by a razzing sound effect.
Press-Ganged: In "Mutiny on the Bunny", Bugs Bunny is forced into service by sea captain Yosemite Sam (who in this cartoon goes by the appropriate moniker of Shanghai Sam).
Private Detective: Daffy plays this role in several cartoons, including the following:
In "Bunny Hugged", Bugs was the mascot of wrestler Ravishing Ronald, but when he gets pummeled by the Crusher, Bugs steps into the ring as the Masked Terror.
"Porky The Wrestler" (1936, Avery). Porky is mistaken to be wrestling champ Hugo Bernowskiwoskinowskiskowski and faces Man Mountain in the ring.
Produce Pelting: Numerous instances, such as in "One Froggy Evening" when the frog doesn't sing on cue for the audience, and "Show Biz Bugs" when Daffy is hit with a single tomato after his "trained" doves fly away. See also the "Daffy's Inn Trouble" example above in Broken Record.
Propeller Hat of Whimsy: The mischievous crow in the short "Corn Plastered" wears a beanie with two propellers, which he sometimes uses to fly around.
Public Domain Soundtrack: A common trait of the cartoons worked on by composer Carl W. Stalling. The most notable cases include the "Skocna" from "The Bartered Bride" by Bedrich Smetana in the "Wile E. Coyote" cartoons and "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Vagner in What's Opera, Doc?.
In Porky's Romance, Porky Pig is attempting to propose to his girlfriend Petunia when her spoiled dog Fluffnums pulls a mean-spirited trick on Porky by pulling the rug out from under him and the fickle and selfish Petunia laughs at him, causing Porky to leave the house and walk off in shame.
Porky Pig's Feat, has Daffy Duck pulling the rug out from under the hotel manager, causing him to fall down several flights of stairs.
Yosemite Sam may as well be one of the ur-examples of this kind of character (even if he's Played for Laughs): his standard response to Bugs trying to swindle him was to draw his six-shooters and tell Bugs to not try any funny business (of course, Bugs did so anyway, leading to a very karmic and painful resolution for Sam).
Elmer Fudd is another ur-example, also Played for Laughs. In his hunter's outfit, he's pushy to both Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and usually will fire his shotgun in their direction. He'll always get Daffy in the face if he shoots directly at him, but always in a comedic manner. (e.g. Daffy's beak will be blown off, but his face will be nothing but black, or his beak will spin around his face from the blast.)
Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": The spider in Friz Freleng's 1944 cartoon "Meatless Flyday." He laughs continuously as he attempts to catch and eat a fly. When he sees the fly disguised as the bride on top of a wedding cake:
Spider: Tricky little cuss...(laughs) He kills me! (laughs; does take) I'll kill him! (laughs harder)
"Hocus Pocus" features one of the earliest appearances of Happy Hare, the character that would eventually become Bugs Bunny. Here, he's a magician's rabbit who demonstrates Reality Warper powers as he bedevils two dogs who wander into the magician's home.
Bugs himself often does magic tricks, sometimes mentioning that he used to work for a magician. On at least two occasions ("Hot Crossed Bunny" and "The Case of the Missing Rabbit") he pulls himself out of a hat.
Rapid-Fire Nail Biting: In the short "Porky's Movie Mystery" when a series of burglaries occur in Hollywood various star of the time are interrogated including Frankenstein's Monster who rapidly bites his fingernails like a typewriter while being interrogated by a tiny police officer.
In the 1944 short "What's Cookin' Doc?", Bugs Bunny believes he's a shoo-in for Best Actor at the Oscars, but James Cagney wins it instead, causing Bugs to have a meltdown. He ends up getting a Booby Prize Oscar, shaped like him.
Bugs Bunny is awarded a Nobel Prize in The Looney Tunes Show episode "The Shelf." Subverted when this genius bunny succeeds in demolishing his entire house while building a shelf to display his award.
Bugs Bunny argues with the humorless Kate Houghton during Looney Tunes: Back in Action about rehiring Daffy Duck, 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 Brothers 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.
The first Looney Tunes theme was an instrumental of "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight".
The second Looney Tunes theme was an instrumental of "Whistle and Blow Your Blues Away".
The fifth Looney Tunes theme, and the most famous one, was an instrumental of "The Merry Go Round Broke Down". (The third and fourth themes were studio originated, "Beauty And The Beast" and "Porky Signature" respectively.)
The first Merrie Melodies theme was an instrumental of "Get Happy".
The second Merrie Melodies theme was an instrumental of "I Think You're Ducky".
The third Merrie Melodies theme, and the most famous one, was an instrumental of "Merrily We Roll Along".
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- the latter had a very strange-sounding version in the 1960s! (for the record, here is a list of the many arrangements)
Both themes were composed prior to being used for their respective series. "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" was a 1934 standard and was first used as the LT theme in the cartoon "Rover's Rival" (1937, Clampett). "Merrily We Roll Along" was composed in the footsteps of a short-lived play of the same title in 1935. It became the MM theme in "Boulevarider From The Bronx" (1936, Freleng) and was used with different lyrics beforehand ("Billboard Frolics" and "Toytown Hall").
The most major revisions for both theme tunes came in 1941 (when the two, but especially The Merry Go Round Broke Down became noticeably faster and more bombastic in terms of performance) and in 1945 (when a section of each - the steam whistle solo for Merry Go Round and the xylophone solo for Merrily - got taken out to allow for longer credits that would credit much more of the staff working instead of just the director, a single animator, the screenwriter and Carl Stalling, the composer).
The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show uses the same opening theme song as the 1960 series, except it has a brief, brand new instrumental intro/ending.
Recycled Soundtrack: Ten of the eleven Road Runner cartoons directed by Rudy Larriva use the same music cues over and over.
Recycled with a Gimmick: During the 1964-1969 Audience-Alienating Era, the WB animation studio tried recycling the Road Runner formula with woodland animals, resulting in Rapid Rabbit — who uses a blowhorn as his trademark — and Quick Brown Fox. Only one cartoon with this premise was produced.
1937's "Porky's Badtime Story" was remade in color in 1944 as "Tick Tock Tuckered". Most of the differences were merely cosmetic.
1938's "Injun Trouble" was remade in color in 1945 as "Wagon Heels".
1938's "Porky in Wackyland" was remade in 1949 as "Dough for the Do-Do". Besides being in color, "Do-Do" had a completely new soundtrack, some vocal differences, and a brand new ending. Many of the gags are the same between both cartoons, though. Animation of some of the Wackyland inhabitants was repurposed and crafted in color for 1943's "Tin Pan Alley Cats," with the Fats Waller cat (himself a remake of a figure in "September In The Rain") substituting for Porky.
1939's "Scalp Trouble" was remade in 1944 as "Slightly Daffy", with only a few differences in gags.
1941's "Notes to You" was remade in 1948 as "Back Alley Oproar". Notably, the first short had Porky as the protagonist, while the remake replaced him with Elmer.
1941's "Porky's Pooch" was remade in 1947 as "Little Orphan Airedale", the first Charlie Dog short.
1948's "Gorilla My Dreams" was remade in 1959 as "Apes of Wrath". Unlike "Slightly Daffy" and "Dough for the Do-Do", though, this one was its own entity, and the only similarities were in their premises.
1946's "Baseball Bugs" was more or less remade in 1954 as "Gone Batty", with an elephant in Bugs's place.
1948's "Mouse Wreckers," starring Hubie and Bertie as two mice who drive Claude Cat to a psychological breakdown, was loosely remade in 1958 as "Gopher Broke," where the Goofy Gophers physically and mentally torture D'Brer Dog to the point of insanity. Chuck Jones directed "Mouse Wreckers", while Robert McKimson directed "Gopher Broke".
An episode of "The Bugs Bunny Show" was remade as 1963's "Devil's Feud Cake". In fact, nearly all the animation was recycled into the new short. The major change was that the Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn soundtrack was replaced by a new score by Bill Lava.
Reminder Failure: In "The Film Fan", Porky is being sent out to the store by his mother and repeats her instructions to himself, but he gets sidetracked when he passes by a movie theater and notices a sign saying that kids are admitted free.
Reminder of Impossibility:In the short Birdy and the Beast, Tweety jumps off a tree to fly away from a hungry cat, and the cat jumps off the tree to fly after him. Of course, he plummets once he's aware of what he's doing.
Tweety: Gee whiz, puddy tat, I didn't know you could fwy.
Cat:[laughs] You didn't know I could fly. Heh-heh... FLY?!?!?!
The Remnant: Yosemite Sam as a Confederate General who won't let Bugs across the Mason-Dixon line in "Southern Fried Rabbit". When Bugs tells him the Civil War is long over, Sam dismissively calls him a "Clockwatcher" and refuses to stand down until he gets official word from General Lee.
"To Beep or Not to Beep" was made of footage originally used in the Adventures of the Road Runner pilot. Rather than re-use the soundtrack by Milt Franklyn, though, Bill Lava created an entirely new score for the cartoon. A fan video comparing the two soundtracks can be found on YouTube.
Similarly, the footage in "Devil's Feud Cake" was almost entirely culled from earlier shorts. But the music by Bill Lava was brand new.
"Freudy Cat" is a Clip Show cartoon. For the older film clips that it uses, some (though, oddly, not all) of the music by Carl Stalling was replaced with new music by Bill Lava.
The 1951 short "Rabbit Every Monday" contained a scene where Bugs pretended a party was happening in the oven, and jazzy music is heard every time the oven door is open. The short was included as part of the TV special "Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet"; the oven music was replaced with something more contemporary (specifically, disco music).
"Trip for Tat" re-uses numerous scenes from earlier Sylvester & Tweety cartoons but Milt Franklyn wrote new music for them.
Inevitable to a lot of the earlier shorts that were re-released as "Blue Ribbon" Merrie Melodies - the 1941 version of Merrily We Roll Along would replace the intro theme (be it an earlier version of Merrily or I Think You' re Ducky on 1934-1936 color Merrie Melodies) and the original title card music. Sadly this causes much grief among the fandom, especially regarding cartoons from which the title cards got cut away. Later shorts released as part of the program would only get a new set of rings and keep the title cards as released originally.
Retcon: The compilation films The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters change certain things about the original shorts so that they work into the movies' plots.
Ridiculously Fast Construction: In "Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas", a casino complex is built near his rabbit hole in a matter of seconds.
In "Bugs Bunny Rides Again," Yosemite Sam challenges Bugs with "This town ain't big enough for the two of us!" Bugs proceeds to built a metropolis in a matter of seconds.
Bugs:Now is it big enough?
Right Behind Me: Happens to Bugs in "Devil May Hare" when he insults Taz, who happens to be standing right behind him.
Romantic Comedy: The Pepé LePew shorts parody romance movies with an Abhorrent Admirer who doesn't understand how repellent he is. Today, the shorts are contentious and less often seen as humorous or romantic.
"Hare Splitter", which has Bugs and another rabbit fighting over the same girl.
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Real Song Theme Tune: Many:
Audience-Alienating Era, the WB animation studio tried recycling the Road Runner formula with woodland animals, resulting in Rapid Rabbit — who uses a blowhorn as his trademark — and Quick Brown Fox. Only one cartoon with this premise was produced.