Rascally Rabbit

"Ain't I a stinka?"

"Te capiam, cunicule sceleste!"^note Latin: "I'll get you, you wascally wabbit!"

— Negima! anime, episode 9 title

The Rascally Rabbit is a rabbit or hare that is mischievous, troublesome or tricksome. Rabbits and hares have long been depicted as tricksters in worldwide mythology, and this has carried over to modern fiction.

To a certain degree this can be Truth in Television, at least from the point of view of any farmers or gardeners trying to keep rabbits and hares from doing damage to their crops.

Since foxes, the primary enemies of rabbits in fiction, also have a reputation as tricksters, it's not uncommon to have stories about a fox and a rabbit trying to outsmart each other.

May also be a Righteous Rabbit if they're a Karmic Trickster, or even a Rabbit Magician. Compare to rabbits that are flat out evil and violent, which would be the Hair-Raising Hare, and rabbits that are used for the sake of cuteness, which is Bunnies for Cuteness. Also compare Screwball Squirrel, another small, furry animal that's often a trickster and prankster. See also Lucky Rabbit's Foot.

---

Examples

Anime and Manga

• In D.N.Angel, With is a living art creature that strongly resembles a rabbit (the Anime explicitly calls him a rabbit). He acts as a familiar to a Phantom Thief and his shapeshifting powers are used to trick people. In the anime, he also sometimes engages in minor acts of mischief such as tagging along with Daisuke at school by hiding in Daisuke's school bag or eating all the strawberries.
• Happy Happy Clover:
  • While Kale is the strongest of the bunch, he's also prone to being very mischievous and sometimes leave some rude comments.
  • The main heroine Clover is prone to getting into trouble and is very hyperactive much to some annoyance for her friend Kale.
• Hare of Monster Rancher is typically the schemer, and is introduced as a con artist.
• Shiina of Oumagadoki Doubutsuen spends much of his time pulling silly pranks on his friend/employee Hana and making strange jokes, though he does know when to buckle down and get serious. His immature personality seems to stem from the fact that he was cursed when he was a small child and has spent the years since then in almost complete isolation with nothing but talking animals for company.

Advertising

• The Trix Rabbit is constantly trying schemes to trick his way into getting the Trix cereal, though, unlike the classical trickster, he usually fails.
• The Nestle Quik (now known as Nesquik) bunny is a trickster as well, but more benevolent. He leads the kids around the neighborhood doing chores for grownups so the grownups will reward them with Quik. There have been other ads where he is chased for his chocolate milk.

Comics

• "Br'er" Riley Rabbit in Disney Mouse and Duck Comics is a clever, mischievous rabbit who always has a trick or two up his sleeve.
• Usagi Yojimbo: The title character, while typically a Righteous Rabbit, will indulge in a little subterfuge should the situation call for it.

Fan Works

• Inko in Izuku Midoriya the Rabbit is a rabbit like her son. Unlike her son, however, she is very mischievous and will shamelessly steal any and all food items she can find. When Izuku's friends come over with a bouquet of flowers as a get-well gift, she used her Telekinesis quirk to steal most of the flowers from right under their noses.
• In the New Zork chapter of With Strings Attached, the harveys that kidnap John invoke Bugs Bunny as trickster: “... gonna be terrorists like Saint Bugs!”

Film

• A direct-to-video film The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, was released in 2006.
• The 1949 version of Alice in Wonderland portrays the White Rabbit as a sneaky, ambitious sycophant who looks for any way to advance himself even if it means hurting others. He frames Alice for the theft of the Queen's tarts and truly hopes she'll end up executed.
• In 1975, Brer Rabbit stories were retold for an adult audience in the cult Ralph Bakshi film Coonskin.
• The 1946 Disney film Song of the South is a frame story based on three Br'er Rabbit stories, "The Laughing Place", "The Tar Baby", and "The Briar Patch".
• Judy Hopps in Zootopia is a Righteous Rabbit, but she does manage to outscam the Cunning Like a Fox Nick Wilde. "It's called a hustle, sweetheart."

Literature

• The title characters of Enid Blyton's book The Adventures of Binkle and Flip are a pair of mischievous rabbits.
• The Also People opens and closes with two stories about the Shona (Zimbabwe and south Zambia) folk hero Tsuro the hare. Tsuro is used as an allegory of the Doctor.
• In Anansi Boys, it is mentioned that some trickster rabbit stories were initially Anansi's.
  The story of the Tar-Baby, the one they tell about Bre'r Rabbit? That was Anansi's story first. Some people thinks he was a rabbit. But that's their mistake. He wasn't a rabbit. He was a spider.
• Because of the Rabbit: When Emma's Pépère was alive, he used to tell her stories about Monsieur Lapin, who was always getting into trouble. Sometimes he would trick his way out, and sometimes he would learn a lesson. For example, once he saw Monsieur Renard sitting in the middle of some blueberries he wanted to eat, grooming his tail. Monsieur Lapin said, "You missed a spot," and got Renard so worked up trying to reach the spot that he spun around and around and fell over dizzy. Lapin ran over and ate the blueberries.
• Big Trouble for Tricky Rabbit; Native American Trickster Tales and Here Comes Tricky Rabbit!: Native American Trickster Tales by Gretchen Will Mayo include trickster rabbits from Native American legends.
• Bunnicula, a vampire bunny, although harmless, can do things like inexplicably escape his cage in the night and drain the juices out of vegetables.
• Peter Rabbit (aka Peter Cottontail) in Thornton Burgess's Burgess Bedtime Stories is also something of a trickster.
• How Rabbit Tricked Otter: And Other Cherokee Trickster Stories — This collection of 15 Cherokee tales introduces the trickster-hero Rabbit, the most important character portrayed in the animal stories of the Cherokee culture. The surefooted messenger who carries important news to his animal friends near and far, Rabbit is charming and mischievous—he tricks others and is often tricked himself. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses; sometimes he is lazy and mean, sometimes kind and caring—but somehow Rabbit always survives.
• The thief rabbit from I Want My Hat Back, who unfortunately stole from the wrong bear and gets eaten because of it.
• Lapin Plays Possum: Trickster Tales From the Louisiana Bayou — Lapin is a classic trickster rabbit and is considered by some to be the Cajun equivalent of Brer Rabbit.
• Max of the children's series Max and Ruby is an innocent example. He's a scheming tot who regularly gets into mischief, much to his sister's dismay.
• Mr Bunnsy from Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure, the Book Within a Book in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. His adventure begins when he notices that the farmer's field is full of lettuce, and he isn't.
• Rabbit Makes a Monkey of Lion: A Swahili Tale by Verna Aardema — Rabbit and his friends play tricks on the regal but somewhat dim-witted lion, King of the Forest, in an attempt to steal his honey.
• Struwwelpeter: In "The Story of the Man That Went Out Shooting", a huntsman goes hunting hares but is unaware that a hare is already watching him from a bush, laughing at him and thumbing his nose at him behind his back. When the huntsman then unwisely takes a nap beneath a tree, the hare steals his gun (and dons his spectacles). Cue the hare chasing the huntsman with the gun, and the huntsman screaming for help and finally jumping into a well to save himself while the hare fires a bullet narrowly over him. This is the only story in Struwwelpeter in which the protagonist is not a misbehaving child, thus framing the huntsman's humiliation by the hare as a just punishment.
• The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote is a retelling of a Zapotec legend by Tony Johnston. In it, Rabbit outwits Coyote.
• Tio Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) And Other Latin American Trickster Tales is an audiobook that includes rabbit trickster tales.
• Watership Down has El-ahrairah, the rabbits' own mythological/folkloric trickster figure. During their journey, the rabbits tell several tales of El-ahrairah's trickster abilities, and it's presented as a worthy trait that all rabbits should strive to emulate.
• Who Is Boo?: The Terrific Tales of One Trickster Rabbit is a book for children that chronicles a perpetually curious rabbit who is in a continual race around the world and along the way, meets many animals. The title character is inspired by Nanabozho, a trickster figure in Ojibwe mythology, but the story itself is drawn from the trickster characters prevalent in many cultures.
• Zomo The Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa by Gerald McDermott is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Live-Action TV

• Bunny Rabbit on Captain Kangaroo always cons the Captain out of a bunch of carrots.
• On the final episode of the original Concentration, one of the gag prizes was "A Wascally Wabbit."

Music

• In 1984, American composer Van Dyke Parks produced a children's album, Jump!, based on the Brer Rabbit Tales.
• One of Flobots' emcees is named Br'er Rabbit.
• "The Creggan White Hare" is about a beautiful, crafty creature who eludes capture.
• "Outfx the Fox" by Danny Kaye is a song all about this trope.

Mythology and Oral Tradition

• Brer Rabbit is a central figure in the Uncle Remus stories of the Southern United States. He is a trickster character who succeeds by his wits rather than by brawn, tweaking authority figures, and bending social mores as he sees fit. The story of Br'er Rabbit, a contraction of "Brother Rabbit", has been linked to both African and Native American cultures.
• In Africa, the hare figures prominently in the storytelling traditions in Western, Central, and Southern Africa. These tales continue to be part of the traditional folklore of numerous peoples throughout those regions. In the Akan traditions of West Africa, the trickster is usually the spider Anansi, though the plots of spider tales are often identical to those of rabbit stories.
  • In West Africa, many tribal cultures, such as the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Wolof of Senegal, have traditional story cycles about an irrepressible hare trickster who is equal parts rascal, clown, and culture hero.
  • In Central Africa, "Kalulu" the rabbit is widely known as a tricky character, getting the better of bargains
  • In one pan–African story, the Moon sends Hare, her divine messenger, down to earth to give mankind the gift of immortality. "Tell them," she says, "that just as the Moon dies and rises again, so shall you." But Hare, in the role of trickster buffoon, manages to get the message wrong, bestowing mortality instead and bringing death to the human world.
• Rabbits feature as tricksters in the mythology of many Native American cultures.
  • It is believed that the the Creeks and the Cherokee in particular contributed to the development of the Brer Rabbit stories.
  • In Anishinaabe mythology, particularly among the Ojibwa, Nanabozho is a spirit, and figures prominently in their storytelling, including the story of the world's creation. Nanabozho is the Ojibwe trickster figure and culture hero.
  • The Centzon Totochtin in Aztec Mythology are a group of 400 rabbit gods who represent drunkenness, parties, and fertility.
  • In Potawatomi myth, Wabosso is the Great White Hare (and the younger brother of Nanabozho) who travels north to become the greatest of magicians among the supernaturals
  • The Utes tell the story of Ta–vwots, the Little Rabbit, who shatters the sun and destroys the world, all of which must be created again
  • An Omaha rabbit brings the sun down to earth while trying to catch his own shadow.
  • Among the Micmac and Passamaquoddy of the Northeast coast it is Mahtigwess the Rabbit who is a powerful trickster. Rabbit has m'te'olin, great magical powers.
  • The rabbit is the trickster animal for the Seminoles and the Miccosukees.
• In Celtic Mythology, a puca is a shapeshiffing trickster that has a rabbit as one of its forms.
• There are a number of Central American stories about Juan Thul, a trickster rabbit.
• Chinese idioms dating to at least the Warring States Period about the rascaliness of rabbits: "The Clever Hare Has Three Nests" and "Once the Clever Hare is Dead, the Dog is Cooked".
• In the Panchatantra tales of India, Hare is a wily trickster whose cleverness and cunning are pitted against Elephant and Lion.
• In Tibetan folktales, quick-thinking Hare outwits the ruses of predatory Tiger.
• In Japan, the fox is the primary trickster animal, but hares also are clever, tricky characters. Usually depicted as male (whereas fox tricksters are most often female), hares in Japanese folktales tend to be crafty, clownish, mischievous figures.
  • Most famously, the Hare of Inaba was a rabbit god that attempted to trick a bunch of crocodiles/sharks into acting as a bridge for him. When he told them he'd tricked them, they tore all his fur off. Shortly after, 81 gods on their way to woo a princess saw him and heard his story. Eighty of those gods told him to wash in the sea and dry in the wind, which just made him hurt more. In contrast, the bag-carrier Ōnamuchi told the hare to wash in fresh river water and roll in fluffy cattails. The hare got better and told Ōnamuchi that he would get to marry the princess.

Professional Wrestling

• Short-lived All Japan Pro Wrestling gimmick Rabbit Boy, who toppled the (not at all) Giant Jet

Theatre

• Harvey has Harvey the pooka, a large anthropomorphic rabbit who can be seen only by the protagonist, from the play and film bearing his name.
• Silly Rabbit, Tricksters Are for Kids is a collection of trickster tales from around the world, including "Brer Rabbit", "Brer Alligator in Trouble", and "Tio Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) and Raven".

Video Games

• New Super Mario Bros. U has the thieving bunny Nabbit.
• MIPS, the rabbit in Super Mario 64, who has a Power Star and will run off rather than give it to Mario. In the DS version, MIPS is replaced by a whole bunch of rabbits who have "borrowed" the keys to the minigames.
• Tewi Inaba from the Touhou Project is a youkai rabbit and a chronic liar, prankster, and con artist who might be the Hare of Inaba from Japanese folklore. Her perennial victim is Reisen Udongein Inaba, the much more straight-laced Moon Rabbit.
• In the Mists of Pandaria expansion of World of Warcraft, we get the Virmen, a race of anthropomorphic rabbits that straddles the line between this and Hair-Raising Hare. They're mostly found in the Valley of Four Winds as a farm pest, though a burrowing variety in Kun'Lai peaks called "Wascally Wirmen" also exists.

Web Animation

• Cuddles from Happy Tree Friends is known for mischievous behavior that, going by the premise of his series, often gets him and other characters brutally killed.
• Pekora Usada of hololive fame is a prankster par excellence. Her Minecraft antics in particular are chock-full of Comedic Sociopathy, to the point where it's a Running Gag among her fans to call her a war criminal!

Western Animation

• The greedy Rancid Rabbit from CatDog, to the point of being borderline evil.
• Subverted somewhat with Crusader Rabbit. Crusader was more of a Quixotic hero but could use some wiles where he needed to.
• Pickle from Endangered Species (2015) is a wacky, playful, oftentimes-troublesome rabbit.
• The Claymation character Grabbit the Rabbit is based on various trickster legends, given a modern twist. For example, "Brain of the Forest" has three Impossible Task stories reinvented as a Game Show.
• Looney Tunes and relatives:
  • Bugs Bunny is constantly using his trickster tactics to outwit and harass everyone. In the early days, he was something of a prankster and would just prank others for his own amusement. Over the years he became more of a Karmic Trickster and only went after those who struck first. Bugs is the Trope Namer, about 99% directly. He was typically called a "Wascally Wabbit" by Elmer Fudd.
    • Bunny and Claude, Lighter and Softer rabbit Expies of Bonnie and Clyde, continue the tradition. They're an Outlaw Couple who steal carrots and outwit an incompetent sheriff.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures' Buster and Babs Bunny take after Bugs in this fashion.
  • Loonatics Unleashed has Ace Bunny and Lexi Bunny.
  • New Looney Tunes turns Lola Bunny into this (well, she's Bugs' Distaff Counterpart after all).
• Before Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who also demonstrated trickster tendencies.
• Hanna-Barbera's Ricochet Rabbit of Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long Coyote started out rascally in an episode of Touchè Turtle in 1962. He was changed into a sheriff two years later who had an assortment of tricky bullets.
• In the Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist, the Artful Dodger is a rabbit.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Bunny Hunt" features trickster sea bunnies (a type of seaslug here played as a Fantastic Fauna Counterpart to rabbits) that is so mischievous that a single sea bunny was good enough to get Squidward to destroy his own garden and cause a ruckus at SpongeBob's house despite SpongeBob's attempts to deal with the bunny. SpongeBob makes the situation worse by making the sea bunnies reproduce, causing a horde of offspring sea bunnies to eventually get Squidward to destroy his own house at the end.
• In the ThunderCats (2011) episode "The Duelist and the Drifter", the Drifter combines this trope with Righteous Rabbit. He's an eccentric rabbit man who serves as a Trickster Mentor to Lion-O.
• Louise Belcher from Bob's Burgers is a human, but she is almost never seen without her trademark rabbit-eared hat. She's also a con artist and Nightmare Fetishist at the age of nine.

Other

• Rabbitails -- Tales of Trickster Rabbits From All Over is a CD for children that includes music and a collection of traditional rabbit trickster tales.
• Zomo the Trickster Rabbit is a puppet show about the legendary African trickster rabbit.

---