On a Prize Ham

Sing along as the words are below the video!

Whose our favorite TV Star?
Who comes on with a wham?
Whose got the laughiest show by far?

(Porky) Porky Pig

Our favorite ham!

When the music starts
You wanna tap your toes
You feel like dancin’ a jig
Swing around in a circle and doe see doe
Time to watch Porky Pig!

Oh, tat’s Porky
Porky Pig
He’s the barnyard
Mr. Big!

Now promenade all around the room
And find yourself a good seat
The show’s a gonna be startin’ soon
Time to watch

Time to watch … Porky Pig

Background
Porky Pig is a long-time from Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

Creators: Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett

Two of Freleng’s childhood classmates were nicknamed “Porky” and “Piggy”

Porky transitioned from a shy little boy to a slimmer adult

Bob Clampett permanently made Porky a young adult who was cuter, slimmer, smarter, and eventually less of a stutterer

Porky’s second outing, Gold Diggers of ’49 (1936), was also the first cartoon directed by Tex Avery

Originally voiced by Joe Dougherty (1935–1937)

Interestingly, Joe Dougherty had a natural stuttering problem, but producers replaced him with Mel Blanc because Dougherty’s uncontrollable stuttering increased production costs

Starting with the 24th film, Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937), Mel Blanc voiced voice Porky for over 50 years (1937–1989)

Filmography
He is the oldest continuing Looney Tunes character

Porky was once the star of the show before Bugs Bunny became the star …. even then, Porky continued to be popular

First appearance: I Haven’t Got a Hat (1935)
Last appearance: Muchos Locos (1966)

Porky Pig appeared in 153 cartoons during cartoon’s Golden Age

After debuting in 1935, 15-17 new shorts released each year (1936-1940). Production decrease to 12 (1941), 2-8 new releases (1942-1948), and then 1956 was the last year with more than 1 new release

Porky only has a minor role in his first film, but the fat little stuttering pig quickly became popular

Personal
Father is Phineas, but his mother is unnamed

Mild-mannered and shy personality

Personality allowed him to be a good straight-man for zany characters as Sylvester Pussycat, Charlie Dog, Daffy Duck, and/or Bugs Bunny

This short, but classic blooper, which is opposite to his screen personality, was made in 1938

Honors
Porky was ranked number 47 on TV Guide’s list of top 50 cartoon characters

Porky received only one Oscar nomination: The Swooner Crooner (1944)

Porky in Wackyland, a film that sends Porky on a quest to find the last of the surreal Dodos, was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry (2000)

Appearances
Regularly appeared with other Warner Brother stars in syndication

The Porky Pig Show, ran Saturday morning on ABC (1964 to 1967)

Porky Pig and Friends ran 1971-1990

Appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Space Jam, and Back in Action

Porky’s own comic book ran from 1942-62, was revived in ’65 by Gold Key Comics, and continued until 1984

Appeared in Dell Comics’ Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics until 1962

In his share of video games and on a variety of lunch boxes and T-shirts

His most well-known signature line is this classic

On a Foghorn Reprise

With his classic, That’s a joke… I say, that’s a joke son, plus numerous one-liners, Foghorn Leghorn is one of my favorite classics. As a matter of fact, he was an early honoree here, but that was before I developed the format I now use. With that in mind, it’s time to give him this overdue honor!

Background
A large, friendly rooster with an overbearing personality

Created by Robert McKimson

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Brothers

Original based on The Sheriff, a West Coast radio character, but after the growing popularity of Senator Claghorn, a classic radio character on the nationally syndicated Fred Allen Show, Foghorn followed Claghorn’s character

Original voice by Mel Blanc (1946-1987), followed by 9 others

Starred in 28 cartoons between 1946 and 1963
First: Walky Talky Hawky (August 31, 1946)
Last: Banty Raids (1963)

Walky Talky Hawky nominated for Academy Award, but lost to Tom and Jerry’s The Cat Concerto

Made a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Space Jam (1996)

Appeared in commercials for GEICO, KFC, Oscar Meyer Hotdogs

Personal
Loves to hum Camptown Races, but only knew the words “Duh dah, Duh dah”

Appears with Henery Hawk – a young chickenhawk who usually is seen looking for a chicken to eat, but doesn’t know what a chicken looks like

Dog nemesis is Barnyard Dog (aka George P Dog)

Also appeared with Barnyard Cat, Bill the Weasel, Poppy and Elvis (Enjoy this classic rant with Barnyard Cat

In attempting to woo the widowed Miss Prissy, he babysits her son, Egghead Jr

Moves around a lot – one address is Cucamonga, California where he received a telegram from Rhode Island Red, but also flies south of the “Masie-Dixie Line” to get “out of the deep freeze and into the deep south”

Went to Chicken Tech and with his chum, Rhode Island Red

Grandfather to Feather Buster

Classic Quotes
Foghorn Leghorn has many classic one liners … enjoy the video with a collection, as well as the list below.

Okay, I’ll shut up. Some fellas have to keep their tongues flappin’ but not me. I was brought up right. My pa used to tell me to shut up and I’d shut up. I wouldn’t say nothin’. One time darn near starved to death. Wouldn’t tell him I was hungry.

Boys as sharp as a bowling ball.

Pay attention, boy!

Boy’s like a dead horse — got no get-up-and-go.

That boy’s as strong as an ox, and just about as smart.

That boy’s like a tattoo … gets under your skin.

Go away boy. Ya bother me.

This is gonna cause more confusion than a mouse in a burlesque show!

You’re doing a lot of choppin’, but no chips are flyin’. I’m cuttin’ but you’re not bleedin’!

Clunk enough people and we’ll have a nation of lumpheads.

Aaaaaahhhhh, shuuutupp!!

Nice girl, but about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.

That womans as cold as a nudist on an iceberg.

She reminds me of Paul Revere’s ride – a little light in the belfry.

Gal reminds me of the highway between Ft. Worth and Dallas – no curves.

Boy’s like a dead horse – got no get up and go.

That kid’s about as sharp as a pound of wet liver.

If kid don’t stop talkin’ so much he’ll get his tongue sunburned.

That dog’s as subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oat meal.

Look sister, is any of this filtering through that little blue bonnet of yours?

I’ve got this boy as figgity as a bubble dancer with a slow leak.

You look like two miles of bad road.

I-I-I know what you’re gonna say son. When two halves is gone there’s nuthin’ left – and you’re right. It’s a little ol’ worm who wasn’t there. Two nuthins is nuthin’. That’s mathematics son. You can argue with me but you can’t argue with figures. Two half nuthins is a whole nuthin’.

Enjoy the full episode of PoP Goes the Weasel (1953)

On a Sweety Tweety or Tweety Sweety

Background
Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons.

The name Tweety is a play on “sweetie” and “tweet”

His characteristics are based on Red Skelton’s famous Mean Widdle Kid

Directors: Bob Clampett, Fritz Freleng (vast majority), Chuck Jones, Gerry Chiniquy

Voices: Mel Blanc (42-89), Jeff Bergman, Bob Bergen, Joe Alaskey, Eric Goldberg, Billy West, Samuel Vincent, Greg Burson

Many of Mel Blanc’s characters are known for speech impediments. One of Tweety’s most noticeable is that /s/, /k/, and /g/ are changed to /t/, /d/, or (final s) /θ/ (so is he actually named Sweetie?

In Canary Row and Putty Tat Trouble, Tweety sings, “I’m a tweet wittow biwd in a gilded cage; Tweety’th my name but I don’t know my age. I don’t have to wuwy and dat is dat; I’m tafe in hewe fwom dat ol’ putty tat.” (Translation: “I’m a sweet little bird in a gilded cage, Sweety is my name but I don’t know my age. I don’t have to worry and that is that. I’m safe in here from that old pussycat”)

Personal
A male yellow canary

Originally not canary, but simply a generic (and wild) baby bird in an outdoors nest – naked (pink)

In his early appearances cartoons, Bob Clampett made Tweety aggressive

Friz Freleng made Tweety more cutesy … and even more so when Granny was introduced

On the original model sheet, Tweety was named Orson

Tweety’s voice and some of this attitude resembles Bugs Bunny as a child

Learn how to draw Tweety

Filmography
49 episodes in the Golden Age
First: Tale of Two Kitties (November 21, 1942)
Last Golden Age: Hawaiian Aye Aye (1964)

In his debut, a not-yet-named Tweety is against two hungry cats (Babbit and Catstello)

The second Tweety short, Birdy and the Beast, finally bestowed the baby bird with his new name (here’s a clip)

Honors
#33 (with Sylvester) in TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters

Academy Award Winner (Best Short Subject, 1947, Tweety Pie) – teamed with cat (later to be named Sylvester) for the first time

Time proves Sylvester and Tweety are a successful pair (I honored Sylvester in this June 2012 post)

Most of their cartoons followed a standard formula: A hungry Sylvester wanting to eat the bird, but some major obstacle stands in his way (Granny, her bulldog Hector, other dogs, or other cats)

Sylvester’s schemes resemble those of Wile E. Coyote’s efforts with Roadrunner

Famous Quotes
“Awww, the poor kitty cat! He faw down and go (in a loud, tough, masculine voice) BOOM!!” and then grins mischievously.

“I tawt I taw a puddy tat!”
“I did! I did taw a puddy tat!”
“Oh, hello, Puddy Tat. What you doin’ up there?”
“Bad ol’ puddy tat!”
“Uh oh, wecked the puddy tat. You know, I lose more puddy tats that way.” ~Bad Ol’ Putty Tat
“Well, whaddya know? I got an admirer!”
“You cwushed my wittle head!”
“My poor, wittle cranium.”
“I wonder what that puddy tat up to now?”
“Now, how do you suppose I got my wittle self in such a pwedicament?” ~Bad Ol’ Putty Tat
“Uh-oh, that Puddy Tat after me again.” ~Bad Ol’ Putty Tat
“That old puddy tat is never gonna find me in here.” ~Bad Ol’ Putty Tat
“You bad ol’ puddy tat!”
“You can’t catch me!”
“Take that! Bad ol’ puddy tat!”

Originally Tweety said, “I did! I taw a puddy tat!”n… but somehow, overtime, an extra ‘did’ appears …”I did! I did taw a puddy tat!”

Other Appearances
A small part in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Tweety appears as part of the TuneSquad team in Space Jam

A 1995 Frosted Cheerios commercial with Sylvester

A 1996 Christmas commercial for Target with LeAnn Rimes had Tweety giving her a kiss on the cheek as the other Looney Tunes characters line-danced to Rimes’ song Put a Little Holiday In Your Heart

The following video games: The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal, Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2

British artist Banksy’s 2008 The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill – Click here to see  a video of the work

Comics: Dell Comics Four Color series #406, 489, and 524, Dell Comics (#4-37, 1954–62), and Gold Key Comics (#1-102, 1963–72).

Enjoy this tribute to Tweety Bird and Sylvester

On the Greatest

Thanks to Rich for the above
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Notables
Bugs Bunny is a cultural icon

According to NPR, Bugs has appeared in more films (both short and feature-length) than any other cartoon character and is the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world

A Wild Hare (1940) received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film

Since his debut, Bugs only appeared only in color Merrie Melodies films

Bugs only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes film is a cameo in Porky Pig’s Feat (1943)

Bugs did not star in a Looney Tunes film until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons (1944)

The first cartoon character honored on a U.S. postage stamp

On December 10, 1985, Bugs received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Ranked #1 in TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time (2002)

His stock…has never gone down…Bugs is the best example…of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon character, he’s a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh. He is tops. (A TV Guide editor on CNN)

Bugs cartoons are listed 34 times on The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes list of cartoons

Bugs also received an Oscar nomination for Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1942)

Because Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt didn’t win, What’s Cookin’ Doc? (1944) spoofed the Academy in which Bugs demands a recount by claiming “sa-bo-TAH-gee”

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Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) with a medieval Bugs trades battling Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film

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Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! compose the “Rabbit Season/Duck Season” trilogy and are famous for originating the “historic” rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck

What’s Opera, Doc? (1957), casts Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a parody of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and the US Library of Congress (in 1992) deemed it “culturally significant”, thus selecting it for preservation in the National Film Registry

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Personal
Born July 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York below Ebbets Field (home of the Brooklyn Dodgers)

Characteristics include clever, trickster, flippant, and personable until you mess with me attitude (and this scene is one of my all-time favorites)
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A known traveler, but frequently making the wrong turn in Albuquerque

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Antagonists include Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby the Dog, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig,Tasmanian Devil, Gossamer, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, the Crusher, Gremlin, Count Blood Count and a host of others

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Bugs’ carrot-chewing standing position, is based a Clark Gable scene with Claudette Colbert in a scene from It Happened One Night

Bugs occasionally communicates with the audience to explain something to the audience, such as

• Be with you in a minute, folks!
• Feisty, ain’t they?
• That happens to him all during the picture, folks.
• Gee, ain’t I a stinker?
• Of course you know, this means war!

The origin of a classic Bugs Bunny line

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Background
Happy Rabbit, though different looking and a forerunner to Bugs, first appears in Porky’s Hare Hunt (1938)

Created by the animators and staff of Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) with staff including Tex Avery, Robert McKimson, and Mel Blanc

Mel Blanc originated the Bugs Bunny’s voice

Debuted in A Wild Hare (July 27, 1940) featuring Elmer Fudd and Bugs in a hunter-tormentor relationship

A Wild Hare also debuted Bugs’ most famous catchphrase: “What’s Up Doc?”

First use of Bugs Bunny’s name on-screen is in Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (1941)

“Bugs” Bunny (quotation marks only used, on and off, until 1944)

168 cartoon shorts, most of which were directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and Chuck Jones

Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs’ first film in the Looney Tunes series

Last Golden Age appearance in False Hare (1964)

12 episodes have been banned because of political correctness

An interview Martha Goldman Sigall (at age 92 in June 2009) who worked at Leon Schlesinger’s Studios in 1939 when the studio created Bugs Bunny

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Beyond Cartoons
In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show

The Bugs Bunny Show (through different formats and titles) appeared on network television for 40 years

Bugs featured in various network television specials in the 1970s and 80s

Films include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Box Office Bunny, and Space Jam

Because of an equal-time agreement between Warner Brothers and Disney, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse always appeared together in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit introduced Bugs’ girlfriend, Lola Bunny (see a tribute)

Bugs has also appeared in numerous video games
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Memorable Lines
My favorite when referring to politicians

A few other … do you remember any of these?

• Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.
• OOH! Look at four-legged airplane!
• Carrots are devine… You get a dozen for a dime, It’s maaaa-gic!
• Eeeeeeh, watch me paste that pathetic palooka with a powerful, pachydermous, percussionpitch.
• Don’t think it hasn’t been a little slice of heaven…’cause it hasn’t!
• Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?
• Do you happen to know what the penalty is for shooting a fricaseeing rabbit without a fricaseeing rabbit license?
• I wonder what the poor bunnies are doing this season?
• Oh, well, we almost had a romantic ending!
• My, I’ll bet you monsters lead innnnteresting lives.
• Here I go with the timid little woodland creature bit again. It’s shameful, but…ehhh, it’s a living.
• I bet you say that to all the wabbits.
• For shame, doc. Hunting rabbits with an elephant gun. Why don’t you shoot yourself an elephant?
• I know this defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law!
• Eh, what’s up, doc?

On the Love Skunk

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A Warner Brothers, Looney Tunes, and Merrie Melodies cartoon character

A French skunk who is constantly seeking love

Storylines typically involve Pepé in pursuit of what appears to be a female skunk (“la belle femme skunk fatale”)

Has two big turnoff: his odor and his inability to take “no” for an answer

Created by Chuck Jones (1945)

A short video with Chuck Jones on Pepé

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17 shorts; first – Odor-able Kitty, last – Louvre Come Back to Me (1962)

1949 Academy Award winner: For Scent-imental Reasons

First voiced by Mel Blanc, who based the voiced on Charles Boyer’s Pepé le Moko (Algiers, 1938)

In first short he was named Stinky, but revealed to by a philandering American skunk named Henry with wife and children

Odor of the Day (1948) is the only cartoon in which Pepé is not a “lovebird” nor does he have a French accent; but not directly by Chuck Jones (but Arthur Davis)

Memorable Lines

• Do not come wiz me to ze Casbah – we shall make beautiful musicks togezzer right here!
• I am ze locksmith of love, no?
• I am the broken heart of love. I am the disillusioned. I wish to enlist in the Foreign Legion so I may forget. Take me!
• I like it! Come back! Ze corned beef does not run away from ze cabbage!
• How is it that she can sleep when I am so near? We must stoke the furnace of love, must we not?

Links with Pepé sound clips
From Soundboard
From Megawavs

Enjoy this episode: The Cats Bah