You think he’s got a chance? Well, now, I wouldn’t say that...
"Draftee Daffy" is a 1945 Looney Tunes short, directed by Bob Clampett and starring Daffy Duck.
The cartoon starts with Daffy reading the newspaper about the military making a "Smashing frontal attack on enemy rear", and is ecstatic about it. He marches around his house, singing praises about America and how he'd love to be in the military, fighting on the front lines—that is, until he receives a phone call that the "Little Man from the Draft Board" is on his way to deliver Daffy his draft notice. Initially eager, Daffy immediately gets cold feet about the idea of actually going to war, and when the little man in question arrives to give Daffy his card, the waterfowl tries everything in his power to try and evade him...
"Draftee Daffy" provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Draftee Daffy
- Beardness Protection Program: Daffy tries to hide from the Little Man from the Draft Board by wearing a fake beard. He peeks through the window and sees the Little Man wearing the exact same beard.
- Black Bead Eyes: The Little Man generally has these, but when Daffy first sees him through the keyhole of his door, all we see is an extreme close-up of the Little Man's eye, drawn hyper-realistically with sclerae, an iris and lashes.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: The Little Man's "Well, now I wouldn't say that" was taken from Mr. Peavey, the scatterbrained pharmacist in the radio program The Great Gildersleeve.
- Bottle Episode: Aside from the ending, nearly all of the entire episode is confined inside of Daffy's house.
- Cartoon Bomb: At one point, Daffy tries to lock the Little Man in his closet with a bomb. The Little Man ends up giving the bomb to him and he doesn’t realize what’s going on until it’s too late.
- Conscription: The entire cartoon's plot involves Daffy attempting to evade getting his draft notice from the Little Man from the Draftboard.
- The Cat Came Back: No matter what Daffy does to the Little Man from the Draft Board, he just keeps coming back.
- The Determinator: The Little Man from the Draft Board will stop at nothing to give Daffy his draft card.
- Darker and Edgier: A cartoon about draft-dodging during the biggest war? Granted, it shows dodging the draft to be in the wrong, but this was pushing the boundary on a sensitive topic...
- Delayed "Oh, Crap!": After getting the call from the draft board, Daffy continues singing.Daffy: Oh the little man from the draft board is coming to see me! Oh the d-d-d-d-d-d-THE MAN FROM THE DRAFT BOARD!?
- Dirty Coward: Daffy starts off as a fair weather patriot singing praises about the military, only to chicken out at the very idea of actually going off to war.
- Downer Ending: Daffy ends up getting blown to Hell while trying to escape, and he finds out the Devil down there is actually the Little Man in disguise, still intending to give him that card!
- Draft Dodging: What Daffy is trying to do for the whole short, even trying to murder the draft man at one point.
- Evil Laugh: When Daffy locks the Little Man inside the safe, while briefly turns into a devil.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: Daffy unwittingly blows himself up while trying to escape on a rocket and crashing landing it, and he ends up in Hell.
- Hero Antagonist: The Little Man, as he was just doing his job for the military.
- Hypocritical Humor: Daffy starts off lauding the war effort, but balks at the idea of actually taking part in it.
- Implacable Man: The man from the draft board literally follows Daffy to Hell itself to try to give him the draft card.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After trying to avoid him throughout the entire cartoon, Daffy traps the little man from the draft board in a safe and builds a wall by the safe, so he won’t get out and Daffy would avoid getting drafted. It ends with him being sent to Hell, and adding insult to injury, the little man from the draft board is waiting for him.
- Latex Perfection: Despite being in the Fire and Brimstone Hell at the end, Daffy thinks he's finally safe from the Little Man from the Draftboard, until the small-sized Devil starts tugging off his rubber mask while saying "Well now I wouldn't say that..."
- Miles Gloriosus: Daffy, natch. He spends the first couple of minutes of the short singing about how cool it would be to be a soldier, until he actually gets a draft order, and then he laments that he will be sent to the front and spends the rest of the short trying to dodge the draft.
- Negative Continuity: While several other Daffy Duck shorts portray Daffy as a willing solider on the front lines, Daffy is portrayed as a fair weather patriot turned draft dodging coward here.
- Nice Guy: The Little Man, despite being the antagonist of the cartoon, is genial and pleasant in personality.
- No Name Given: The Little Man from the Draftboard is only known as such.
- Oh, Crap!: Daffy has this reaction when he realizes he's about to get drafted into the military. He has more of this reaction whenever he spots the Little Man or realizes the Little Man managed to get one over on him.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The Little Man uses this tactic to stay one step ahead of Daffy.
- Running Gag: "No, NO... YOU wouldn't say THAT..."
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: The Little Man, who Daffy has absolutely no luck evading.
- Undead Tax Exemption: Averted. Not even dying and going to Hell will allow Daffy to dodge being drafted.
- Wartime Cartoon: The cartoon was released by the tail end of World War II, and involves Daffy dodging the draft. In fact, this is the last one.
