Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 Bugs Bunny cartoon short, released in the Merrie Melodies series and directed by Friz Freleng.
The plot is simple. Bugs is a concert pianist performing Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2". While playing, he begins to be bothered by a mouse that is living inside his piano. The mouse interrupts Bugs's recital repeatedly, sometimes jumping out from a hole to play a note that doesn't fit, sometimes playing an entirely different piece. Bugs tries to get rid of the mouse, at one point shoving a stick of dynamite into the piano, but the mouse always escapes. In the climax, Bugs flips the pages of his music only to find a tangled morass of notes all over the page. After a brief silent prayer, Bugs sits down to play—only to hear the mouse over on stage right, pounding out the frantic ending of the rhapsody on a toy piano that sounds real. Bugs plays the last three notes of the rhapsody, and the cartoon ends.
"Rhapsody Rabbit" provides examples of:
- Actually Quite Catchy: When the mouse starts a "boogie woogie" number, Bugs are surprised at first but slowly begins to join in.
- Alliterative Title: "Rhapsody Rabbit".
- Bowdlerise: The scene where Bugs shoots an audience member was cut on the former WB channel.
- Some airings on Cartoon Network and Boomerang cut straight to the title card.
- Curse Cut Short: After the mouse beats him into playing the finale, Bugs angrily plays the last few notes and appears to mouth "son of a bitch!".
- Disproportionate Retribution: An audience member keeps bothering Bugs by coughing and clearing his throat repeatedly, so Bugs resorts to pulling out a gun and shooting him just to silence him.
- Expy: The mouse is basically Jerry.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Bugs dons a white tie and tails (but no trousers) along with his usual gloves.
- Knuckle Cracking: Done for a gag as Bugs sits down to play his difficult piece.
- Mickey Mousing: Used throughout the cartoon, like when the mouse is running down the keys of the piano, playing the rhapsody as he goes.
- No-Dialogue Episode: Bugs Bunny cartoons usually had plenty of talking and wisecracks, but this one is mostly silent. The mouse never talks, and Bugs only has three lines:"Eh, what's up, doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him. Wrong number."
"Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!"
"Look, one hand! No hands!" - Oddball in the Series: One of only a few Bugs Bunny cartoons in which Bugs was the butt of the joke.
- Offing the Annoyance: Bugs shoots the audience member who won't stop coughing.
- Piano Key Wave: Has quite a few of these, including the piano keyboard acting like a typewriter carriage and, at one point, Bugs literally picking up the keys and letting them fall back down.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Actually averted. Renowned pianist Jakob Gimpel performed the Liszt "Rhapsody" for the cartoon. Although, there is a brief moment in between the lassan and friska sections where Bugs and the mouse play some boogie-woogie. After trapping the mouse inside the keys, the mouse taunts Bugs by playing "Chopsticks". When he throws some dynamite into the case, the mouse plays "Taps".
- Standard Snippet: During the opening credits, the first few notes of "Merrily We Roll Along" are briefly heard, before transitioning into Wagner's Siegfried funeral march.
- The Show Must Go Wrong: The mouse continually interrupts and upstages Bugs, eventually playing the finale in Bugs's place.
- Wolf Whistle: Bugs, flipping through his book of sheet music, stops on a picture of a pin-up girl hidden inside. A wolf whistle emits from the audience, and Bugs flashes an embarrassed grin before flipping the pages ahead some more.
