12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: If there is no evidence provided in the Opening Post that the page is broken, the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what constitutes evidence.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
What Price Porky (LT, Clampett) - In a "Porky Pig" cartoon.
Porky & Daffy (LT, Clampett) - In a "Porky Pig" cartoon. Redrawn in color, 1967.
The Daffy Doc (LT, Clampett) - Redrawn in color, 1967.
Daffy Duck in Hollywood (MM, Avery): Last Daffy cartoon directed by Avery.
1939
Daffy Duck And The Dinosaur (MM, Jones): The first Chuck Jones short to use the character. We also start to see a hint of what Daffy would later become, as he is presented as more thoughtful and calculating than he usually was in his early appearances.
Scalp Trouble (LT, Clampett) - In a "Porky Pig" cartoon. Remade as "Slightly Daffy" in 1944; redrawn in color 1967.
Wise Quacks (LT, Clampett) - In a "Porky Pig" cartoon.
Naughty Neighbors (LT, Clampett) - In a "Porky Pig" cartoon, cameo. - Redrawn in color, 1967.
Arguable due to also being an Unpopular Popular Character. He's not just liked second to Bugs, he gets nothing but cricket chirps and tomatoes in the face. Not to mention if there's another character around for comparison, they'll usually prove more popular as well, sometimes even a similar Butt Monkeyjust to add insult to injury.
Any time he has to watch his own kids ("Wise Quacks") or his eggs ("Quackodile Tears").
Breakout Character: Intended as a one shot foil for Porky in Avery's "Porky's Duck Hunt". Audiences became fascinated by the character's wacky abrasive personality, leading WB to place him in more shorts. These days he stands as the most prominant Looney Tunes star outside fellow Breakout Character Bugs Bunny.
Butt Monkey: Most later interpretations, especially Chuck Jones' version, to the point of playing the Straw Loser in the series. It gets Deconstructed however, in Back in Action.
He was even voiced by Mel Blanc in his first few appearances, and his debut cartoon "Knock Knock" ended in the exact same way as "Daffy Duck and Egghead".
Carnivore Confusion: The Warner Bros. standard. This gets really bizarre in later cartoons like "Duck Soup to Nuts" and "Daffy Duck Hunt", where Daffy is almost as anthropomorphized as Porky.
"Sufferin' succotash!" (pronounced "Thufferin' thuccotash!") quite often in earlier shorts, before it was given to the similarly-voiced Sylvester the cat.
Cloudcuckoolander: Especially in earlier shorts, even the later more ambitious versions aren't all that stable at times.
Characterization Marches On: Not only was he not conniving and arrogant in his early appearances, but he actually said Bugs Bunny was his hero. Oh how the times have changed.
Chick Magnet: Not an aspect that is always stressed but Daffy has had plenty of women fall for him. The gorgous red headed duck Femme Fatale from "The Super Snooper" fell for him at first sight, lavished him with kisses and wanted to marry him right away. Another female in "The Duxorcist" allowed him to kiss her only moments after they met. Even Hatta Mari in Plane Daffy, who attempted to seduce him got turned on the second time they kissed. The Martian Queen Ty'ranee in Duck Dodgers loved him as well. The Looney Tunes Show pairs him with Tina. Not only that but there have been many times Daffy has been shown to be married to different female ducks with lots of kids. He is easily the most sexually active character out of the entire Looney Tunes crew.
Possibly lampshaded in an old Gold Key comic story ("The Charming Chump") after he gets a talkative Abhorrent Admirer in the form of Debbie Duck:
Depending on the Writer: One of the most notable examples in the series, nearly every director had a unique take on Daffy, some baring little resemblance to others (though this is partially due to the character's Flanderization).
Early Installment Weirdness: Daffy was originally a mindless heckler who went about his antics for no clear motivation, and was adorned with a pudgy, tiny design. Clampett began fleshing out Daffy's character later on, before Jones, Freleng and Mckimson settled into their own interpretations of the waterfowl.
Era Specific Personality: Avery and Clampett developed the "screwball" version of the early period. Jones' version is usually considered the contemporary rendition, a Composite Character is used on occasion however usually in the shorts by Bob Mc Kimson and Frank Tashlin. The adaptations from the 80's onward usually showcased the Jones Daffy with only a touch of Screwball Daffy.
This even got a Lampshade Hanging in "Pronoun Trouble", a Looney Tunes comic book story by animation historian Earl Kress:
Daffy: I'm not a bad sort. Why does this keep happening to me? Oh, sure, I was kind of goofy when I was younger and then went through an egotistical, greedy phase, but I don't deserve this...
Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Occasionally goes into full-blown Pepe Le Pew mode ("A Coy Decoy", "Duck Soup to Nuts", "The Prize Pest"). He invokes the trope in "The Duxorcist":
"And I thought French was a romantic language!"
Expy: Not long after his conception, director Ben "Bugs" Hardaway took the character of Daffy and made him into a rabbit character called Bugs' Bunny (note the possessive term). This character was ultimately a failure, however, as he was even more obnoxious than Daffy ever was, to the point where the audience was rooting more for the victims rather than the rabbit.
Of course following this "Bugs' Bunny" would supposedly provide inspiration for "Bugs Bunny", who maintained a similar (if somewhat toned down) abrasiveness as Daffy. In this case the Expy would become an even bigger hit than Daffy himself and continues being one of the most notable cartoon characters to date.
Fast Tunnelling: Perhaps he learned it from Bugs. In at least one episode he was shown to be tunneling someplace by himself.
Faux Affably Evil: In contrast to his mere Jerkass or Affably Evil persona beforehand, the De Patie Freleng shorts evolved Daffy into an motivelessly ruthless villain, though with the same bumbling pathos as before. This depended on the scenario however, with some shorts presenting him as more sympathetic antagonist or an outright buddy of Speedy.
Femme Fatale: Hata Mari of Plane Daffy and the unnamed duck suspect in The Super Snooper are both parodies of the type. It turns out that the latter hasn't actually done anything wrong, but she still acts the part.
Flanderization Again one of the most notable examples in the franchise (if not the animated scene as a whole), evolving from a slightly bombastic Cloud Cuckoo Lander to a luckless Ted Baxter.
Fur Is Clothing: In "The Wise-Quacking Duck", confronted with the oven, he distracts his antagonist by performing a strip-tease routine with his feathers.
He also refers to himself as "a henpecked duck!" in "The Stupid Cupid", probably in reference to the aforementioned cartoon. Pretty much any time he's shown married, he's this. In "The Super Snooper", he actively refuses to get involved with the gorgeous Femme Fatale, even after she proves her innocence, for fear of letting it happen again: "She's got that ol' ball-and-chain look in her eyes!"
The song he sings to set up his characterization as a Badly Battered Babysitter in "The Up-Standing Sitter".
"Daffy Duck's Rhapsody" begins as this and then segues into an "I Want" Song.
I Have A Family: Used twice as a ploy to get away from Porky. In "Duck Soup to Nuts" he calls out his sobbing "family" to say goodbye to him before Porky shoots him; Porky feels guilty and lets him off the hook, at which point the wife and kids remove their disguises and reveal themselves to be a few of Daffy's duck friends who were paid to get him out of trouble. In "Riff Raffy Daffy", he uses a pair of wind-up toys as his "children". (In the cartoons where he actually did have a family, he never utilized this trope.)
Image Song: "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody", performed by Mel Blanc; recently turned into a 3D short film.
It Amused Me: Rather consistantly in his earlier Screwy Squirrel years. He became more ambitious and "self prethervational" in his callousness in later shorts (though that doesn't mean he doesn't still enjoy it).
Knight of Cerebus: Astonishingly enough, Daffy is actually this to the rest of Speedy Gonzales' Rogues Gallery. While still highly comical in tone, the situations Speedy was placed in were sometimes a lot more dire against Daffy, who stands as the only villain competant (and malicious) enough to hold ground against the mouse, even beating him a couple of times.
What about whipping poor mice in "Assault and Peppered"?
And keeping mice from drinking out of a well For the Evulz in "Well Worn Daffy"?
It's worth noting this was basically a variation what Sylvester was doing in the majority of his bouts with Speedy, only Daffy was much more successful in keeping Speedy out, only losing due to an enormous Villain Ball at the last minute. All of it is still played in a slapstick tone however.
Loveable Rogue: In a lot of his "transitional" shorts, Robert McKimson played this role with Daffy for the majority of his original run (he could on occasion lean into not-so-lovable Schemer territory though).
Screwy Squirrel: Daffy Duck pre-flanderization though he still retains it as another part of his personality, also an Ur Example of the entire trope. It's especially prominent in Daffy Duck And Egghead.
Stupid Evil: A lot of his antagonistic bouts against Speedy seemed to lean into this. Most his constant abuse is enflicted by himself rather than Speedy, and could usually be prevented if he wasn't so insistant on spiting the little rodent, who offers a truce nearly every minute or so.
After having Took a Level in Jerkass, he arguably leaned even further into this trope. In some of his bouts against Speedy and Bugs, he is an outright genuine villain (in comparison to the more playful Screwy Squirrel he usually was in the above examples), but still usually the primary focus.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with Porky, and Bugs, and Speedy... Usually the very people Daffy is trying to victimize in some manner are actually the closest he has to actual friends.
Word Salad Lyrics: His Talkative Loon version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" in "Boobs in the Woods". (It's basically a rewrite of a similar song sung by the Bugs Bunny prototype character in "Hare-Um Scare-Um".)
Oh, when they say I'm nutsy, it sure gives me a pain!
Please pass the ketchup, I think it's going to rain!
Oh, you can't bounce a meatball, though try with all your might,
Worthy Adversary: Subverted against Bugs, where he was even more harmless than Elmer. Oddly enough played more straight against Speedy, though still bumbling, existing as the sole villain to actually defeat, or even so much as invoke fear into the rodent. Even plays the trope's traditional chemistry, with Daffy, in almost a rare case of continuity, gaining a softer spot for Speedy in later shorts.
Women Prefer Strong Men: In the short "Muscle Tussle," Daffy's girlfriend is swept off her feet by a muscular beach hunk.
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