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  • Satan: Appears in "Sunday Go To Meetin' Time," "Clean Pastures," "The Hole Idea," the Bugs Bunny short "Devil's Feud Cake", (a semi-remake of the Sylvester Cat short "Satan's Waitin'" only with Yosemite Sam) and "Now Hear This."
  • 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.
    • This is essentially a catchphrase for Yosemite Sam, when "varmint!" is added on at the end.
    • 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).
  • Scaling the Summit: "Piker's Peak", Bugs Bunny competes with Yosemite Sam to be the first to scale the Smatterhorn.
  • Scared of What's Behind You: This trope has been used a few times, perhaps most notably in the short featuring Sylvester, Bully Bulldog Spike, Chester, and an escaped puma.
  • 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.
    • In "Boston Quackie", Daffy and The Man in the Green Hat enter and exit various train compartments at fast speed.
  • Screwball Squirrel: Despite being a duck, early Daffy was practically the Ur-Example. Also the pre-Wild Hare proto-Bugs, to the extent many animation historians consider him a different character.
  • Second-Person Attack: Several examples; see the trope page for details.
    • Zigzagged in Tex Avery's "Cross-Country Detours," which shows a realistically drawn and animated frog. The narrator entreats us to an actual scene of a frog croaking, after which the frog pulls out a gun and blows its brains out, followed by a disclaimer card that states that the management of the theater is in no way responsible for the lame puns in this cartoon short.
  • Something Else Also Rises: Usually, it's eyes bugging out, though that's more popular in the cartoons Tex Avery did when he left Warner Brothers and went to MGM; other times, it's ears or tails becoming erect. On one obscure Frank Tashlin cartoon called "I Got Plenty of Mutton," it was a ram's horns, and they even glowed red. How that got past the Hays Office is anyone's guess.
    • "Swooner Crooner" has chickens laying mountains of eggs after the roosters sing to them. The short ends with Porky asking the roosters how they did it - to which the roosters demonstrate, resulting in PORKY laying eggs!
    • "Cock-a-Doodle-Duel" reuses this gag, except the chickens only lay one or two eggs after Foghorn and the rival rooster turn them on. At one point, Foghorn sees the other rooster dancing and promptly lays an egg himself, much to his embarrassment.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: In the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon Weasel While You Work, after the rooster pulls a prank on the resident farm dog, the dog reacts this way:
    "There's but one cause for me to follow... I'LL MOIDER DA BUM!"
  • Sound Defect: Fairly common during the Warner Bros.- Seven Arts era near the end of The '60s, due to the Limited Sound Effects library the studio had at the time...
    • The second "Bunny and Claude" short, The Great Carrot Train Robbery, has Claude quickly hammer a barrel shut with a sped-up version of the Hanna-Barbera "temple block riot" sound effect, which is generally used for characters preparing to run off and sounds nothing like hammering.
    • The short released after that, ''Fistic Mystic" with Merlin the Magic Mouse, has Merlin conjure up a pair of magic boxing gloves that rapidly punch with the same "temple block riot" sound effect.
    • Injun Trouble (1969) has one of the Indians try painting a ring around his teepee, and his paintbrush makes a "Poof!" sound effect (like when a puff of dust arises or a magic trick is performed) when it initially touches the teepee.
    • During this era, it was not uncommon for anything that was breaking or crashing to make the exact same Hanna-Barbera "smash against wall" sound effect (sounding like china being broken), and half the time it wouldn't fit well with what was being smashed (such as Daffy Duck crashing through a wooden floor in Rodent to Stardom, a race car crashing in Hippydrome Tiger, Nero's throne and violin being smashed in See Ya Later Gladiator, the sheriff falling into a trash can in Bunny and Claude, or the Big Ben Clock Tower being destroyed in Shamrock and Roll.
  • Sound-Only Death: Subverted at the end of Ballot Box Bunny. When Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam learn that they lost the election to a literal dark horse, they decide to settle for a Russian Roulette. Sam is the first to hold the gun to his head and pull the trigger, but doesn't get the bullet. When Bugs is the next to do so, the scene irises out to black and we clearly hear a gunshot. However, the scene irises back in on Bugs' side, showing he just missed his head. A second iris-in on Sam's side shows he took the blast instead.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Carl Stalling's successor as musical director Milt Franklyn died halfway through scoring the Sylvester and Tweety cartoon The Jet Cage, from 1962. William "Bill" Lava took over and the difference in music is quite jarring.
    • The same could be said for "Freudy Cat", where Lava's music in the wraparounds clashes with the original Carl Stalling music heard in most of the old clips. Given that "Freudy Cat" centered on Sylvester going to a psychiatrist about his "giant mouse" problem, the schizophrenic (pardon the pun) music to fit the mood could have been done intentionally.
    • "Devil's Feud Cake" and "To Beep or Not to Beep" are this for any viewer familiar with the original cartoons that make them up: Bill Lava re-scored the old footage so one can compare and contrast what he came up with versus Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn.
    • Six cartoons from 1958 had pre-scored background music tracks (called "needle-drop" in the industry) selected by John Seely, employed during a musician's strike. Most of the tracks heard were also used in Gumby and, soon after, Hanna-Barbera's early TV shows and on The Ren & Stimpy Show. Those cartoons were Prehysterical Hare (Bugs Bunny), Bird In A Bonnett (Sylvester and Tweety), Weasel While You Work (Foghorn Leghorn), Hook, Line And Stinker (Road Runner), Hip Hip Hurry! (also Road Runner) and Gopher Broke (Goofy Gophers).
    • Played for laughs in "Porky's Preview." Carl Stalling parodies the Looney Tunes theme and creates some hilarious off-key scores, especially with "La Cucaracha."
    • Also played for laughs in "Porky's Super Service". The song that plays over the title card is "I'm Hatin' This Waitin' Around". Super service, indeed.
  • Speech Impediment: Daffy, Sylvester, and Elmer Fudd all suffered from various versions.
    • Elmer's rhotacism became a trope in its own right.
    • Daffy's voice in Porky's Duck Hunt was originally 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 Offs: Taz-Mania, The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, and Duck Dodgers
  • Spiritual Successor: Tiny Toon Adventures, which featured many of the Looney Tunes in recurring roles, as well as its semi-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.
    • 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.
  • Split Personality: Daffy pretends to have one in "The Prize Pest", in order to repeatedly scare Porky in his "alter ego" state.
  • 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. However, the sponsor himself falls Off the Wagon and goes after Tweety, while Sylvester tries to stop him.
    Tweety: Once a bad ol' putty tat, always a bad ol' putty tat!
  • Spontaneous Skeet Shooting: In "Wild and Wooly Hare", Yosemite Sam tosses a can up, fires several holes in it, and challenges Bugs Bunny to fire his bullets through all the same holes. In the original 1959 version, Bugs misses and shoots Sam in the face, while in the syndicated 1978 version, Bugs fires corks from his gun to plug up all the holes.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Though a lot of major and minor Looney Tunes characters have been this on occasion, Pepé Le Pew is possibly (nay, undisputedly) the only character whose schtick is this (along with Handsome Lech, Mad Love, Chivalrous Pervert, Abhorrent Admirer [for both sexes], The Masochism Tango [1953's "Wild Over You"], Black Comedy Rape [if you believe Dave Chappelle and those uptight Moral Guardians], a pinch of No Guy Wants to Be Chased, some The Hunter Becomes the Hunted for taste, and a nice helping of Double Entendre)
  • Stalling the Sip: In one short, Yosemite Sam poisons Bugs Bunny's drink. Bugs spins the table so that they switch drinks, Sam switches them back and so on. Bugs refuses to drink until Sam drinks his first, so he does. With his trembling hand, Bugs reaches for his glass and downs the drink, then thanks Sam for the delicious drink. It is then that Sam realizes that his was the poisoned drink.
  • Stamp of Rejection: "The Draft Horse" ends with the horse, who decided to join the army, getting a form with "REJECTED" stamped across it. He's initially put out but soon after wanders onto an actual battlefield and quickly finds that War Is Hell. He decides he's better off not in the army after all.
  • Stealing from the Hotel: One travelogue short showed a man who collected hotel silverware and towels. He is shown having several of them in his hands and when the camera pulled back, it's revealed he's in a jail cell.
  • Stock Audio Clip: The Roadrunner's "Meep Meep".
  • Stock Clock Hand Hang: 1968's "Skyscraper Caper" had Daffy Duck do this when he falls from a very tall construction site. He catches onto one of the hands of a clock tower and looks down at how far up he still is. But then the clock breaks down, causing Daffy to resume falling.
  • Stock Footage: Abuses this enough to get a whole page tracking virtually every usage of this trope in the original shorts!
    • 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.
  • Stopped Reading Too Soon: A gag in "Hare-Less Wolf" involves Charles Wolf reading instructions on how to operate a hand grenade. He pulls the pin before reading that you only have a few seconds to throw the grenade before it explodes.
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy: When paired together, Bugs typically fills the former role and Daffy the latter.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: To the point where they recycle the same explosion footage at almost every opportunity.
  • Stylistic Suck:
    • "Porky's Funny Pictures", a self-parodying cartoon-within-a-cartoon written and drawn by Porky Pig himself in the short 'Porky's Preview'.
    • Used as a narrative point in 'Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers': several characters are kidnapped by alien carrots and replaced with inferior clones, all the clones being drawn horribly lazily and animated in ways parodying the most infamously cheap animation methods used in later Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
  • 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 Speaking: 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":
      Wile E.: Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Coyote. Wile E. Coyote, genius. 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.
      Bugs: I'm sorry, mack, the lady of the house ain't home. And besides, we mailed you people a check last week.
    • Wile E. does speak in The Adventures Of The Road Runner, a 25-minute feature intended as the pilot for TV series (which would come about in 1966), in which he answers a child's question on why he wants to catch the Road Runner, and then using film to examine his shortcomings. This feature had parts edited for TV into two separate shorts, "Zip Zip Hooray" and "Road Runner-A-Go-Go," other segments were repurposed for the 1963 short "To Beep Or Not To Beep."
    • The cat from "A Fractured Leghorn" is a mute until the very end of the short, when he tells Foghorn to "shaddap".
    • In "Hobo Bobo", the one shot character Bobo the elephant says his first and only line ending the cartoon:
      Bobo: Batboy, smatboy! I'm still carrying logs!
    • In "Joe Glow the Firefly", the firefly shouts "GOOD NIGHT!" after being silent beforehand.
  • Suicide as Comedy: Many times in this series, characters killing themselves is Played for Laughs. Most of these were censored on television but left uncut on home video.
  • Sudden Soundtrack Stop: In Ducking the Devil, the radio that Daffy's using to lure Taz with music is unplugged.
  • Sultry Belly Dancer: In the 1935 short "Buddy of the Legion", a young boy named Buddy imagines himself leading a regiment of the French Legion. As they march through the Sahara Desert, a nearby village of Amazon women get a hold of the soldiers' presence, sending out a dancer to lure all the men into the village and make them into their personal working slaves.
  • Super-Speed: Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales
  • Superstitious Sailors: In the short "Hare We Go", Bugs Bunny accompanies Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, which angers his crew because they consider rabbits on board to be bad luck.
  • Surprise Jump: There's a series of shorts in which a puppy runs behind a cat and barks loudly, causing the cat to jump up in shock and hold on to the ceiling. When there isn't a ceiling, the cat ends up on a tree, a telephone pole, or even the wing of a passing airplane.
  • Suspender Snag: In "The Country Boy", two rabbits getting ready for school put on pants with suspenders, but they both button the back ends of the suspenders to the back of the opposite rabbit's pants. When they rush off in opposite directions, they both get pulled back and their backs smack into each other.
  • Swallowed Whole: At one point near the beginning of "Museum Scream", Sylvester is attacked and eaten by a snake. He manages to climb back out in the next scene, though.
  • Swapped Roles: The two Spike and Chester shorts ("Tree for Two", "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide") feature this: Chester is initially the energetic suck-up to Spike, the tough one. By the end of the short, their roles have switched.
  • Sweeping Ashes
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: The Sheriff in the "Bunny and Claude" cartoons.
    • Porky in some of his bouts against Daffy (he is a policeman in "Daffy Doodles" and "Riff Raffy Daffy" for example).
  • Sympathetic Wince: "Ballot Box Bunny". Yosemite Sam sets up a cannon to blow Bugs Bunny to bits at his back door. Bugs tricks Sam into opening it, and winces as the cannon goes off offscreen.
  • Synchro-Vox: Used in a brief scene in "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers".
  • Talking Animal: Subverted in "Unnatural History": A man shows a skeptical producer his talking dog, who answers all his questions with bark variants ("Ruth", "Roof", "Ralph"). The unimpressed producer throws them out, and the dog asks his master, "Maybe I should've said "DiMaggio?"
  • Talking with Signs:
    • Sylvester does this in ''Peck Up Your Troubles" as he is trying to catch a woodpecker:
      Sylvester's sign: Why didn't I think of this before? (starts walking up in mid-air)
      Sign #2: Anything can happen in a cartoon!
    • Both Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner use this gag in their cartoons.
  • Tar and Feathers: In one Road Runner cartoon, Wile E. Coyote tries to capture the Road Runner with a tar-and-feather machine. Not surprisingly, Wile E. is the one who winds up tarred and feathered, after which the Road Runner runs up holding a sign that reads, "Road runners already have feathers."
  • Taxman Takes the Winnings: In the short "The Wabbit Who Came to Supper", Elmer Fudd expects to inherit $3 Million from his Uncle Louie. But when Louie dies, Elmer has to pay an Inheritance Tax, State Tax, County Tax, Defense Tax, Special Tax and Property Tax...leaving him owing the government $1.98.
  • Team Rocket Wins: Yes, there is a moment in which Wile E. Coyote is successful in capturing the Road Runner. Thanks to Rule of Funny, the Coyote is much...much smaller than the Road Runner when the former captures the latter causing Wile E. to be absolutely baffled as to what to do with the Roadrunner upon capturing him.
    • There are numerous viewer-created "Coyote Catches Road Runner" clips on You Tube, but this video, culled and composited from Fast And Furry-ous, is by far the funniest.
    • Elmer Fudd gained the odd victory against Bugs (eg."Rabbit Rampage", "Hare Brush" and "What's Opera, Doc?" (although in that last one, he felt remorse for supposedly killing Bugs, who is only faking it)). After taking a beating against Daffy (and the boxing match referee) in "To Duck...Or Not To Duck," Elmer chalks up a victory at the end.
    • Daffy Duck, even post-Flanderization had a few spectacular victories to balance his Butt-Monkey role (eg. "Ducking The Devil", "Mucho Locos").
    • With some assistance from Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester chalks up a win at the end of 1964's A Message To Gracias.
    • 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 in I Love To Singa. A receptionist receives a telegram from a sleazy deliveryman. She reads it and the camera pans away.
      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 singing telegram punctuated by STOPs.
  • The Television Talks Back: In "Dog Collared", Porky sees a newscast on TV about a missing dog (the same dog that had been pestering Porky the whole cartoon), and anyone who returns it will get a reward of $5,000.
    Porky: (amazed) A thousand b-b-b-b-bucks?
    Announcer: No, five thousand b-b-b-b-bucks!
  • Ten Paces and Turn:
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
  • Thanksgiving Episode: "Tom Turk and Daffy", "Holiday for Drumsticks"
    • Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet is a TV special that incorporates several vintage shorts, though strangely enough neither of the above.
  • 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)
      • Old Glory (Jones, 1939—"The End" and the Merrie Melodies/Produced by Leon Schlesinger tags simply Fade In over the waving American flag on the original print)
      • The Old Grey Hare (1944, Clampett—titles already in place; card shakes violently after the dynamite Elmer was holding at the iris out explodes)
      • Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943, Clampett—all titles already displayed over animation of the grandmother and child from the beginning in a rocking chair)
      • A Ham in a Role (1949, McKimson) starts off with a dog taking a pie in the face and strumming his lips idiotically, followed by a static "That's all, Folks!" title card.
      • The Three Little Bops (Freleng, 1957—an iris out and a simple "The End" on the screen)
      • 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)
      • Whoa, Be-Gone! (Jones, 1958—Same as Guided Muscle, but the Road Runner is the one pulling the ending card downwards via window shade as Wile E. encounters the mine field while endured in the tornado)
      • Nelly's Folly (Jones, 1961—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)
      • Fur of Flying (O'Callaghan, 2010—Wile E. Coyote says it in his own special way)
      • Rabid Rider (O'Callaghan, 2010—Written on the side of a mountain the Road Runner rides past)
      • I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat (O'Callaghan, 2011—Written on a shirt on a clothesline Tweety flies past)
      • Daffy's Rhapsody (O'Callaghan, 2012—A card with the phrase written on it appears, then giant bullet holes appear in it. Daffy and Elmer run through them, with Elmer stopping and aiming his gun right at the camera, saying, "Now I'm weally, weally mad." He then brings down his gun to do his Signature Laugh, before bringing it up again and firing)
      • 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 1967 redrawn edition of The Village Smithy (1937, Avery) has the outline of "That's all folks!" against a red background; a white card is slowly pulled from left to right behind it to cheaply simulate writing itself out (the original print from 1937 has the title writing itself out against a black background). Virtually all other redrawn Looney Tunes either had the Warner-Bros.-Seven Arts closing titles or the spliced-in late 50s That's all Folks! Looney Tunes closing titles.
      • 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 (Vitagraph) release."
      • At the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit Porky is one of two policemen with back to the camera dispersing the crowd saying "There's nothing to see here, that's all folks!" He turns to face the camera saying "Hey, I like that!" then assumes the classic pose as he repeats the line, sharing the iris-out with Walt Disney's Tinkerbell.
      • 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.
      • Space Jam (1996) ends with Bugs starting out the phrase but interrupted by Porky, Daffy, the Nerdlucks, and Michael Jordan.
      • Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) ends with Porky's stuttering going on long enough to miss the cue, and then he just angrily mutters, "Go home, folks," after the studio lights shut off.
  • The Character Died with Him: Heavily zigzagged with Elmer Fudd in the late 1950-s - Arthur Q. Bryan, his voice actor, passed away in 1959 quite suddenly. A replacement voice (which did not sound like Elmer at all) was used for just 2 cartoons (both heavily reviled even back then for terrible voice acting and hideous canned music which was used due to a musician strike), after which the character got Exiled from Continuity for the rest of the duration of the theatrical shorts. More modern productions use him again, in the same capacity as during the Golden Age.
  • The Thing That Would Not Leave: Charlie Dog's main schtick.
  • The Twelve Principles of Animation: Initially averted by the primitive, low budget animation of the early to mid 30's shorts, but gradually adopted by the animators in the late 30's and early 40's.
  • This Banana is Armed: Used repeatedly.
    • "The Unmentionables": Bugs Bunny threatens mobster Rocky with a carrot. Rocky laughs it off, until the carrot fires on his face.
    • "Drip-Along Daffy": Nasty Canasta is felled by a tiny wind-up soldier... whose rifle packs a mighty wallop.
  • This Means War!: Originally used by Groucho Marx, but has come to be associated with Bugs Bunny.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Targets in such such World War II cartoons as The Ducktators, Tokio Jokio, Herr Meets Hare, Russian Rhapsody, Plane Daffy and Daffy the Commando.
  • Three-Dimensional Episode: "Lumber Jack Rabbit", which was the only short produced in 3D.
  • Three Stooges Shout-Out: In what is probably the earliest shout-out of this trope the cartoon "Wholly Smoke" (1938) has three cigars resembling the Three Stooges rise out of a cigar box and each one gives him an eyepoke.
    • "Hollywood Steps Out" shows caricatures of famous Hollywood actors of the time, including the Three Stooges poking each others eyes in tune to the music.
    • The Stooges also appear in "Porky's Hero Agency" (1938) indulging in face slaps and eye pokes before Medusa turns them into statues. "Porky In Wackyland" has very loose caricatures of them as a three-headed being occupying a single body. His mother was scared by a pawnbroker's sign.
  • Thriller on the Express: "Boston Quackie"
  • 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
  • Time Travel: From 1946's "Mouse Menace"—in less than a second, Porky zips into town and returns with a pet carrier (with a cat inside).
    Porky: (to us) A flat tire held me up, folks.
    • Also seen in "The Pest That Came To Dinner", after Porky calls the exterminator on the phone to come over to rid his house of the termite, after which the exterminator shows up not a few seconds later.
      Exterminator: Got held up in traffic, sonny.
  • Tiny-Headed Behemoth:
    • In "The Bashful Buzzard", Beaky tries to wrestle what he thinks is a small lizard out from between some rocks, behind which lie the enormous body of a dragon.
    • A similar reveal is used in the earlier "Prehistoric Porky" with Porky's pet dinosaur, its terrier-sized head peeking out of a small doghouse while the rest of the body lies behind it.
    • In "Thumb Fun", Daffy Duck confronts the driver of a tiny car. When the driver steps out, however, he's a seven-foot, 300-pound thug with a tiny head hardly visible atop his broad shoulders.
  • Tired After the Song: In "Ducking the Devil", Daffy Duck lures the Tasmanian Devil back to the zoo by singing. However, the walk is too long for him and he gradually becomes tired, eventually being too puffed out to sing anymore. Luckily, he pulls out a mister to soothe his throat, which perks him up, and he sings the last note of the song to get Taz back in his cage.
  • Title Drop: In "What's Up, Doc?", Bugs sings, what else, his catchphrase.
    • Also in "Scaredy Cat", Porky title drops the name of the cartoon to Sylvester when trying to convince him nothing's in the kitchen after trying to drag Sylvester in the kitchen once again.
    • In both "I Taw a Putty Tat" and "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", Tweety Bird himself title drops both of them respectively and they're also his catchphrases.
    • In "Rabbit Punch", Bugs title drops the name of the cartoon when heckling "The Champ" after the announcer counts down when Bugs is knocked out by "The Champ".
  • Title Montage: The first opening for The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (i.e. the one without the new Darrell Van Citters animation) features clips from old cartoons, including "What's Up, Doc?", "Hot Cross Bunny", "Stupor Duck", "Person to Bunny", and "Long-Haired Hare", among others.
  • Title Reading Gag: At the beginning of "Tortoise Beats Hare", Bugs Bunny appears and reads the credits on the title card, mispronouncing the names. Then he gets to the title and reads it, and after a second realizes what it says and loses it.
  • Toilet Humour: The implied bed-wetting scene in "Porky's Badtime Story"/"Tick Tock Tuckered" as well as "Daffy Duck Slept Here"; one of the racing dogs in "The Greyhounded Hare" is named Whizzer (though it can follow that he was named for his speed and not weak bladder).
    • "The Sneezin' Weasel": The baby chick runs for the bathroom after having castor oil administered to him.
  • Tongue-Out Insult: On one occasion, The Dog sticks his tongue out at Foghorn Leghorn. It turns out to be a bad idea, as the rooster merely seizes the tongue, and says, "If you're, I say, if you're going to hang that thing out for all the world to say, you might as well give it some color!" and proceeds to paint the tongue green.
  • Too Dumb to Fool:
    • The giant in "Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk."
      Giant: Hey, wait a minute! Trying to pull a fast one on me, eh? Well, he [Bugs] can't outsmart me, because I'm a moron!
    • While Elvis Buzzard from "Backwoods Bunny" spends most of the cartoon getting rings run around him, he notably doesn't fall for Bugs' Disguised in Drag routine. He swoons at first, but quickly reveals he knows full well it's Bugs, whose head he still intends to blow clean off.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin The Martian, the Tasmanian Devil, Daffy Duck, in short, Bugs Bunny's enemies. Oh, and did we mention Wile E. Coyote? A constant is that someone almost inevitably acts against all reasonable logic to drive the plot forwards, even Bugs himself. From ignoring yet another Paper-Thin Disguise, to failing to realize that a very obvious prank or trap is about to go off, to outright walking off of a cliff only to have a Delayed Reaction to realizing that Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress. Were it not for the sheer power of Cartoon Physics, almost every character in the shorts would be dead several times over, sometimes even within the same short, and occasionally there's even an explicit gag that they did outright die, such as Daffy or Sam biting off more than they could chew.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Daffy Duck at the end of Bob Clampett's "The Wise Quacking Duck". after getting his feathers shot off and being put in a gas oven, Daffy is somehow alive and quips, "Say, now you're cooking with gas!" while drizzling jus all over himself.
    • Pepé Le Pew on most occasions — the most infamous one being 1953's "Wild Over You," where Pepé goes after an escaped wildcat, despite the fact she keeps beating the tar out of him. (His ending line is proof that "Wild Over You" fits this trope: "If you have not tried eet, do not knock eet!")
  • Toothy Bird: Most of the birds are at least on occasion.
  • Traveling-Pipe Bulge: In "Billboard Frolics", a cat traps a dog in a piece of pipe, which bulges where the dog thrashes around inside.
  • Train Job: How Yosemite Sam gets his introduction in "Hare Trigger". He later tries (unsuccessfully) to rob a train in "Wild and Woolly Hare".
  • Tranquil Fury: The Tasmanian Devil would occasionally slip into this.
  • Tree Cover: Used frequently.
  • Turtle Island: In The Ducktators a Japanese duck, implied to be Hideki Tojo, places a sign on a turtle, who gets mad and beats him up with said sign (despite that the duck briefly stops him to show a button that reads, "I am Chinese" — a reference to Chinese-American immigrants who were mistaken for Japanese and were put in internment camps because of it).
  • Un-Cancelled: A few times. The first was in 1953 when WB temporarily closed the cartoon unit for a few months, due to a variety of factors like the 3-D fad; the unit opened a few months later. The next was in 1963 when WB, facing increasingly stiff competition from TV and less theaters running theatrical shorts before movies, shut the cartoon unit down again. From 1964 to 1967, cartoons were produced at DePatie-Freleng instead. In 1967, production resumed at Warner Bros. but only two years later, the cartoon division was shut down for good.
  • Uncertain Doom: In one Roadrunner short, the coyote requests that the cartoon be ended before he hits bottom, so that his fate remains (technically) unknown.
  • Uncle Tomfoolery: The reason why there's a collection of cartoons called 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:
    • A Running Gag involves characters like Wile E. Coyote getting seriously injured and then being perfectly fine in the next scene with no explanation as to how they recovered from their injuries.
    • Hugo, the Lennie expy abominable snowman Bugs and Daffy met once in The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961), ended up melting into a puddle ("He melted! He really was a snowman!") in his first appearance. He ended up inexplicably coming back in all his yeti-like glory in Spaced Out Bunny (1980) and was last seen on the moon, recruiting Marvin the Martian as his new "George".
      Hugo: (with Bugs in his grip) Oh boy, oh boy, at last my own little bunny rabbit.
      Bugs Bunny: (straining) ...Oh no--Not again...
  • Unintentional Period Piece: Surprisingly frequently.
  • Un-Robotic Reveal: In one short, Wile E. Coyote consults a computer to find ways of capturing Bugs Bunny, all of which fail. At the end the computer opens up and out comes...
    Bugs Bunny: Of course, the real beauty of this machine is that it has only one moving part.
  • Updated Re-release: In the TV special "Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet", one of the cartoons featured is "Rabbit Every Monday". During the scene where Bugs tricks Sam into thinking there's a party in the stove, the big band music and footage from the original cartoon is replaced with disco music and footage.
    • "To Beep or Not to Beep": Despite all the footage being reused from the TV pilot "The Adventures of the Road Runner", the music is brand new, replacing Milt Franklyn's with Bill Lava's.

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