Iza Does Art

Bugs Bunny and Fetish

There are many cartoons that unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, dabble into the fetish field, but one of the longest enduring cartoon characters to do so would have to be Bugs Bunny. He has been around since about 1938, even if he did not have his iconic name at that point yet. Bugs Bunny is a three foot tall grey rabbit, or hare, with white gloves he rarely ever takes off, large front teeth that hang out of his mouth, a rounded face with tall ears, big eyes and feet, and he generally doesn’t wear clothing. He is a trickster character that is overconfident and quick witted. Bugs Bunny originally was voiced by Mel Blanc and spoke with a Brooklyn-Bronx dialect. By definition, Bugs Bunny is an anthropomorphic character due to the fact that he is a rabbit with human characteristics. His world is filled with other anthropomorphic characters ranging from a talking duck by the name of Daffy Duck to Wiley Coyote. But humans also populate the world, the main human person being Elmer Fudd, a hunter with a speech impediment. The most obvious fetish that Bugs Bunny displays in the show Looney Tunes would have to be cross-dressing. Bugs Bunny is a transvestite that has no qualms about being openly bisexual or bi-curious.

As mentioned earlier, Bugs Bunny has been around a long time. His first prototype was featured in the short Porky’s Hare Hunt from April 30, 1938. Back then he was a white rabbit, but he was so popular that he appeared in another short titled Prest-O Change-O in 1939. The third appearance he made was in Hare- um Scare-um also in 1939. This was where he finally was given his iconic name, but only on a model sheet scribbled on by Gil Turner, one of the animators on the short. He was named for Ben “Bugs” Hardaway who also gave Bugs Bunny his personality. In this short Bugs Bunny was not white anymore but grey, much as he is now. The short was also the first time Bugs Bunny cross-dressed and attempted to seduce the antagonist. Finally in the short A Wild Hare, July 27, 1940, Bugs Bunny appears in his fleshed out form that we know today. One of the main influences for Bugs Bunny’s character is Groucho Marx.

Tex Avery was one of his creators and gave him part of his personality. In A Wild Hare, Bugs Bunny also utters his famous line of “What’s up, Doc?” It was not until his seventh appearance that the audience was introduced to his name “Bugs Bunny” for which he is known so well today. By World War Two, Bugs Bunny quickly became the front man, or bunny, of the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. Ironically enough, Bugs Bunny was only supposed to show up in one short, but obviously that did not happen. Contributing to Bugs Bunny’s popularity was his “bombastic personality” (Global Openness Community), which also quickly earned him star status. Soon enough, much like with other animation studio characters, Bugs Bunny was put up against the greatest villains of the time such as Adolf Hitler, Herman Goering, and let us not forget the Japanese. There even was a short called Bugs Bunny Nips the Nip, 1944 where Bugs Bunny went up against a group of Japanese, but that short is no longer shown due to the harsh racial stereotypes presented in it. In his 1945 cartoon Herr Meets Hare, in which Bugs Bunny faces off against Hitler, his famous reference to Albuquerque was born.

After the War, Bugs Bunny continued to charm his way onto the TV and silver screen. His last theatrical cartoon was False Hare, 1964, but that certainly was not the end of him. In 1958, Bugs Bunny even won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons for the short Knighty Knight Bugs. In the fall of 1960, Bugs Bunny got his own show, The Bugs Bunny Show, which ran for a full 40 years on television. Mel Blanc died in 1989, forcing a voice actor change to Joe Alaskey and Billy West. One of Bugs Bunny’s most popular shorts would have to be What’s Opera, Doc? It parodies Wagner’s Opera Der Ring des Nibelungen and has even been selected by the United States Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry. It was the first cartoon accepted to that honor. This cartoon also shows Bugs Bunny in drag tricking Elmer Fudd into thinking he’s a beautiful woman and makes Elmer fall in love with Bugs Bunny. Elmer manages to kill Bugs Bunny with a tremendous storm and other natural disasters, but he feels deep remorse at doing so. As Elmer carries the dead Bugs Bunny into the sunset weeping for him, Bugs looks up and talks to the audience and breaking the fourth wall. He is notorious for engaging the audience and breaking out of the story to talk to the public.

Today Bugs Bunny has starred in over 200 shorts and movies combined, not counting video games or documentaries. In 2002, TV Guide crowned him as the greatest cartoon character in history. Bugs Bunny is the oldest of cartoon characters in the top ten and has held his spot for the last eight years at number one. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was the first cartoon character to be featured on a United States postage stamp. He is a classic and always will be. Often as gags Bugs Bunny would not only dress up in drag, but also kiss the antagonists of the shorts he appeared in, which was more often than not male.

Now what makes Bugs Bunny a fetish character are that he is bold, quick witted, admired, and many seek to be like him. He openly dives into cross-dressing, usually to avoid being captured by the antagonist, but he goes so far as to seduce him. Often as soon as his disguise is lifted, he will kiss the antagonist as a distraction and escape and be chased. When the cartoons were first created and aired, things like that were not thought about as anything other than humorous. That does not change that Bugs Bunny enjoyed dressing in the opposite gender’s clothes and had a love for giving himself large breasts. Many fetishists enjoy skin suits with inflatable breasts, and even though Bugs Bunny did not wear skin suits, he still accentuated the breasts in his outfits. He also loves to wear bright red lipstick with his feminine outfits.

I think he works as a fetish character because he has been displaying fetishes before they were even in the light of day. Today of course fetish is all over the place, but he has been around for over sixty years and he has not changed much since the mid 1940s. Whenever he is in drag, he is perfectly natural as if nothing is out of order, and he certainly does not mind kissing other characters in the show. So far he has had only two female bunny characters act as his love interests. Honey Bunny who has been long forgotten, and Lola who had a big part in the movie Space Jam in which she was way over sexualized. Even in that movie Bugs Bunny kisses both Lola and one of the male aliens, even if the second kiss was only as a distraction. It is obvious in the confident way that Bugs Bunny carries himself that he feels no shame for parading around in women’s clothing or kissing other men. Bugs Bunny has had the same personality since about the 1940s, and it has always been over confident. He is over all a highly entertaining character meant for children, but adults enjoy him just as much. No one freaks out about him cross-dressing and it might be because he is a cartoon character for which it is highly acceptable to be strange.

In conclusion, Bugs Bunny has changed the way characters in cartoons are created. Before him, cartoon characters were always all silly and goofy, but Bugs Bunny changed that. He is sly and full of himself, going so far that he does not even always stick to the script by breaking the fourth wall and coming out of the performance to talk to the audience. He thoroughly entertains children and adults alike. Kids love him because of how great his character is, adults love him because of how nostalgic he is. Most of the word grew up with the Bugs Bunny cartoons because they are so much fun for everyone. He travels all over the world, always taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ending up somewhere else in the world and going on crazy adventures. Everyone wants to come out on top like Bugs Bunny through intelligence and not just dumb luck. He earns his wins, he isn’t just handed them. He is still so popular and I doubt he ever will be unpopular. His situations may get adjusted to fit the times, but his personality will always stay the same; sly, funny, and quick witted.

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CNN. Bugs Bunny tops greatest cartoon characters list. 07/30/2002. CNN Entertainment. 11/28/2010. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/30/cartoon.characters/index.htm l

Bugs Bunny. Wikipedia. 12/05/2010. Wikimedia Foundation. 12/05/2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_Bunny

Bugs Bunny. IMDb. 11/28/2010. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000574/ Bugs Bunny. Global Oneness Community. 11/28/2010.

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Bugs_Bunny/id/1940365