The tenth episode of Tiny Toons Looniversity.
Upon hearing that the annual performance of “Wabbit Season”, the in-universe origin story of Acme Loo, is on the horizon, Buster and Plucky become obsessed with being cast as Bugs. Fortunately, they both get roles in the play. Unfortunately, neither of them are Bugs. In fact, Hamton is the one getting the role, which is a problem for him because of his tremendous stage fright. Thanks to the directional debut of Babs, nobody gets what they want. But is there a method to Babs' stylistic approach?
This episode provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Buster believes that only he can truly portray Bugs. He’s voiced by Eric Bauza, who has taken the reins of Bugs since the late 2010s. Bauza's also voiced Elmer Fudd, who Babs casts Buster as.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In-universe. Plucky, outraged at being cast as the cactus, tries to shoehorn a made up origin story into the production. Said story features the cactus being neglected by its parents. It lasts for two hours. Babs shoots this down, but that doesn’t stop Plucky from trying to perform it in the final show.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The four members of the first graduating class of ACME Loo, and the main cast of Wabbit Season, are Bugs, Granny, Elmer, and... a random cactus.
- Assumed Win: Plucky and Buster show signs of this when casting is announced. For the former, it’s because he’s a self-proclaimed professional actor. For the latter, it’s for two reasons: 1. Plucky can’t hop, an absolute must for anyone playing Bugs. 2. The director is his sister. To their chagrin, neither of them are cast as Bugs.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Babs explains that she cast Hamton as Bugs because they both have a lot in common. Hamton instantly assumes that Bugs also dressed as a lint roller for seven Halloweens.
- Coupled with Skewed Priorities, Sweetie cheerfully tells Babs that they can get their money back for the props when it looks like Buster's not showing up to the performance.
- Disaster Dominoes: At first, the show only seems to go wrong with flubbed lines and Plucky’s ad-libbing. Everything goes absolutely downhill when Buster proceeds to do a stunt he doesn’t know how to perform. The harness he’s in sends him flying out of control, accidentally picking up Hamton in the process. While Buster crashes into the wall, Hamton lands on the prop table, catapulting several sharp carrots towards Fifi, which pin her to the backdrop. This culminates in the scenery falling down and catching fire.
- Faux Horrific:
- Fifi is visually terrified at being cast as Granny because Granny wears “neutrals”.
- Not to be outdone, Plucky despairs at being cast as the random cactus because it has no lines. His greatest fear is also a world without mirrors.
- Flop Sweat: Hamton sweats so much he leaves a large puddle on the floor. Furthermore, the sweat eats a hole through the scenery he's sitting on and falls through.
- Impact Silhouette: After Dizzy quits the production, he leaves one through the wall giving the "peace out" sign.
- Large Ham: Who else but Plucky? He insists on the lead role and gives an overwrought performance at his audition; when he's cast as the cactus instead, he wants a two-hour soliloquy. Babs convinces him that she cast him in a non-speaking part because he can communicate more with his face than anyone else in the cast.
- Mythology Gag:
- Fifi auditions for the role of Lola, whom she views as the coolest female on campus. They were both voiced by Kath Soucie.
- Babs impersonates Bob Ross, similarly to how her 1990 counterpart would do impressions. She doesn’t vocally imitate him, though.
- Ocular Gushers: Babs does this after finding out the school play's first act is a disaster. The women's restroom does not get flooded due to there being a drain in the floor.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Nobody is happy with the roles Babs gives them, but Hamton is absolutely paralysed at the idea of playing Bugs.
- Fifi and Sneezer have this reaction when Hamton lands on the prop table and launches some carrots at them. They’re both pinned to the wall.
- Performance Anxiety: Hamton has always played non-speaking background roles because he's self-conscious of his stutter. He panics when he's cast in the lead role of Bugs Bunny, but after Babs explains her reasoning for casting him — that Bugs use to have a stutter as well — he manages to give a great performance.
- Playing a Tree: Babs casts Plucky as a cactus in ACME Looniversity's school play, much to the latter's ire, since the cactus doesn't have any lines. Ironically, Hamton hoped to be able to get the part of the cactus, much to Babs' surprise, as he played vegetation in seventeen different school plays growing up.
- Poor Communication Kills: Both Babs and Buster are at fault for the play's rough first act.
- Babs's first gig as a professional director is of "Wabbit Season". To the chagrin of all the actors who auditioned, she casts them as characters they don’t want to play. Her aim was to subvert expectations by
having her cast go out of their respective comfort zones to broaden their range. She doesn’t explain her motivation until after the first act has gone wrong. - Buster, having taken umbrage at being cast as Elmer Fudd, becomes a passive-aggressive prima donna, refusing to speak to Babs or turn up to rehearsals. Despite this, he shows up on the night of the performance, doing a stunt without knowing how it works.
- Babs's first gig as a professional director is of "Wabbit Season". To the chagrin of all the actors who auditioned, she casts them as characters they don’t want to play. Her aim was to subvert expectations by
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: Along with Hamton, whose stage fright makes his stutter worse, we also learn from Babs that Bugs use to stutter as well; Bugs admits that it comes back from time to time.
- Prima Donna Director: Babs gradually becomes this when she's assigned to direct the Acme Looniversity production of Wabbit Season. Much of the cast is unhappy with the roles they've been assigned, but she doesn't want to hear their complaints, and keeps insisting Plucky say nothing and do nothing in his role as a cactus. It even gets to the point where Babs starts feuding with her own brother Buster for not letting him play Bugs, all the while claiming the cast's complaints are interfering with "her vision". It isn't until the first act of the performance goes horribly wrong that makes Babs realizes what she's done because she refused to listen to the cast members and hadn’t been telling why about the choices she made like she should’ve done in the first place. Once she directly talks to them about why she made those casting choices, the rest of the play goes smoothly and becomes a success on the newspaper.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Dizzy is among the Toons who auditions, but bails upon hearing it’s a non-union play.
- During the montage, Babs' overzealous and incoherent directions for the stagehands prompts Furball to throw up his hands and walk off.
- When the first act of the play is botched, Plucky simply walks offstage.
- The Show Must Go Wrong: The first act, at least. Several factors are at play: Babs refusing to listen to her cast, Buster not rehearsing a stunt and Plucky’s ego are the biggest offenders. It culminates with the stage on fire.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Sweetie tells the baffled audience that the show will have an intermission, insisting that it’s not over, whilst she extinguishes the flames.
- Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Buster uses Sweetie to communicate with Babs how bad she is as a director. To Plucky’s delight, this degenerates into a fight which ends with Babs essentially telling the cast that they’re doing the show her way and they need to put up and shut up.
