"Devil May Hare" is a 1954 Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Robert McKimson and starring Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil, with the latter in his debut role.
One day, while doing spring cleaning, Bugs sees a stampede of animals racing past his burrow. After learning from a terrified turtle that the Tasmanian Devil is on a rampage, Bugs looks it up in the dictionary to learn that it is a strong, murderous beast with powerful jaws and a ravenous appetite for anything...and while he was reading, it has snuck up behind him! The fast talking rabbit manages to convince the brute that he's too skinny for a meal and offers to help set him up with a menagerie...with every one of Bugs supposed menu items resulting in Taz suffering humiliating and painful moments. When the devil sees through Bugs' tricks and pursues the rabbit, Bugs is required to use a surprising ace up his sleeve in order to make everyone happy.
Edited into 1979's Bugs Bunny's Valentine (a.k.a. Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers), primarily to use the ending as evidence that Bugs Bunny is a better matchmaker than Cupid himself.
"Devil May Hare" provides examples of:
- Bowdlerise: Versions of this short shown on CBS's "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour" cut out the scene of Bugs using a slingshot to pop the bubble that Taz blew, making it look as if the bubble burst on its own.
- Bubblegum Popping: Bugs feeds the Tasmanian Devil a chicken made from gum and baking soda. The baking soda gives Taz hiccups, and every time he hiccups the bubble gets bigger until Bugs blows it away, dragging Taz away with it. It floats until Bugs hits it with a slingshot and it bursts, leaving Taz hanging from the trees.
- Buried Alive: Bugs' first trick is to have Taz dig for groundhogs, while he fills in the hole Taz dug like a grave. Unfortunately, it didn't work, leading to Taz's most notable quote:
- The Cameo: In trying to figure out why the animals are stampeding, Bugs tries to ask around to random animals, but they all ignore him. He finally blocks the path of a turtle to get an explanation. Said turtle bears a striking resemblance to the early, short-lived Looney Tunes character Cecil Turtle.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Bugs doesn't flinch when he finds the Tasmanian Devil inside his burrow and casually converses with him.
- Children Are Innocent: A little fawn comes up to lick Bugs on the hand, oblivious to the danger the Tasmanian Devil possesses. Bugs tries to warn the fawn and protect it from Taz by convincing him that it's made of straw, but Taz decides to go after Bugs instead while the fawn stays there looking on.
- Dinner Deformation: Bugs disguises an inflatable raft as a pig, and after tricking Taz into eating it, pulls the string, causing it to inflate inside him, resulting in his body taking on the raft's shape.
- The Dreaded: Taz. His Establishing Character Moment is him causing every animal, predator and prey alike, to flee from him with his very arrival.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Notice how Taz is actually speaking coherent sentences here, even with a few cases of broken English? Yeah, he won't be doing that much after this short.
- Foreboding Fleeing Flock: The stampede of animals running past Bugs Bunny to flee Taz.
- Horrifying the Horror: Even other apex predators like lions and bears run from the Tasmanian Devil.
- It's Personal: Taz's delivery of the line "But YOU'RE not [made of straw]" makes it clear at that point, Taz's desire to kill and eat Bugs was not just for hunger.
- Long List: Bugs reads the list of the Tasmanian Devil's prey in an encyclopedia.Bugs: [Reading article] "A strong, murderous beast, jaws as powerful as a steel trap. Eats tigers, lions, elephants, buffaloes, donkeys, giraffes, octopuses (Bugs pronounces it as "octopus-se-ses"), rhinoceroses (pronounced "rhino-ce-saurus-se-ses"), mooses, ducks..."
Taz: Rabbits.
Bugs: Rabbits? It doesn't say "rabbits" here.
[Taz writes "...and Rabbits" on bottom of page] - Love at First Sight: Taz and the She-Devil immediately fall for each other upon first meeting.
- Misplaced Wildlife:
- Almost all of the animals listed as the Tasmanian Devil's prey are not even native to Tasmania.
- And then there's the Animal Stampede consisting of several species from different continents.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: Bugs initially convinces Taz not to eat him by saying all he'd have is 'one skinny rabbit'.Bugs: (Rolling up his fur to show his puny bare leg) Look! No meat!
- Pragmatic Villainy: As noted above, Taz is initially convinced not to eat Bugs since he’s very skinny and would not make a filling meal. However, as Bugs puts him through more and more tricks, Taz stops caring and begins trying to eat him in earnest.
- Right Behind Me: When a little fawn shows up, Bugs tries to get it to run before Taz gets it, saying "He's a mean, vicious, nasty, no-good, baggy-eyed, marble-headed ignoramorous! He's a stupid...", only to trail off when he realizes that Taz is behind him.Taz: Flattery'll get ya nowhere, and you can't fool me again.
- The Runt at the End: The stampede of animals that runs past Bugs ends with a turtle, whom Bugs manages to stop by placing a shovel in front of him to ask him what's going on.
- Speedy Snail: Of the animals running away from the Tasmanian Devil, the fastest one is a turtle (who looks rather like Cecil Turtle from Bugs' early days).
- Tranquil Fury:
- "What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?" Coolly said by Taz right before he prepares to attack Bugs for burying him.
- Taz goes into this again when Bugs tries to get a fawn to flee and insults him in the process.
- Tree Buchet: To catch a deer (actually a dummy built by Bugs), Bugs has Taz hit it with a boulder using a tree as a giant slingshot. But as Taz pulls back on the rubber band, Bugs saws off the tree, causing it to fly into Taz.
- Volatile Tasmanian Devil: This is the cartoon that introduces the Trope Codifier, after all.
- Win-Win Ending: The cartoon gets a Surprisingly Happy Ending for everyone when Bugs gets Taz off his back by getting him married to a lonely Tasmanian She-Devil.Bugs: All da woild loves a lover. But in dis case, we'll make an exception.
