Six AREN'T Looney Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Bugs Bunny made his first appearance in the 1938 short film 'Porky's Hare Hunt', although this prototype looked very different from the final version familiar from his many appearances over the years. His appearance in 1940's 'A Wild Hare' is therefore usually considered his first official film. This film also included Elmer Fudd in his full-developed form, and their hunter-taunter relationship was firmly established, along with the catchphrase "What's up, Doc?". His first screen credit, however, did not come until 'Elmer's Pet Rabbit' in 1941. Bugs's voice has been supplied by a number of actors, including the amazing Mel Blanc (the primary voice until his death in 1989). While Bugs started his career in film, he has since been seen on television, in comic books, and a comic strip that ran for over 50 years. He stands as the most frequently-appearing character in the so-called Golden Age of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, with 167 appearances.

Second in that ranking is Porky Pig, with 153 appearances on screen, the first star of the studio who was later supplanted by the more wacky characters that followed. his characteristic stutter was there in his first screen appearance, 'I Haven't Got a Hat' (1935), albeit in a minor role. The stutter actually belonged to the first man to provide his voice, Joe Dougherty, but he found it too difficult to produce a controlled stutter on cue, so was eventually replaced (starting with 'Porky's Duck Hunt' in 1937) by Mel Blanc. This film also saw the first appearance of Daffy Duck (also voiced, this time with a lisp, by Mel Blanc), who was to go on to become the third most frequent character from the studio. As was the case for many Looney tunes characters, this first appearance evolved significantly over the years, as he became far more anthropomorphic and sarcastic, while retaining the zany nature suggested by his name.

Marvin the Martian, small black figure who wears a Roman soldier's helmet and skirt, is a frequent antagonist to Bugs and Daffy, as he plans to take over the earth. His first appearance was in the 1948 cartoon 'Haredevil Hare', where he and Bugs cross paths and his plan to annihilate Earth with a Uranium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator is foiled. In 1953, 'Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century' saw him facing both Daffy Duck (in the persona of Duck Dodgers for the first time) and Porky Pig. When Daffy and Porky finally locate Planet X, they find Marvin has already claimed it; nobody should be surprised that the ensuing confrontation results in the planet being destroyed.

Yosemite Sam, whose real name is apparently Aloysius Bartholamew Sam, is usually seen in cartoons with a Wild West setting, where he is an aggressive gunslinger with a hair-trigger temper, leading to lots of shooting. His deepest hatred is for rabbits, especially Bugs, who gets great pleasure from taunting Sam. In other settings, his enormous cowboy hat may be replaced, but the abundant flowing moustache remains. His first appearance was in 'Hare Trigger' in 1945, when he tried to rob a train on which Bugs was a passenger. I don't need to tell you who came out on top, do I?

Wile E. Coyote and his nemesis the Road Runner first appeared in the 1949 short 'Fast and Furry-ous', which followed a pattern that was to become familiar. He wants to catch the Roadrunner, but instead of using a coyote's usual hunting skills relies on exotic traps and tools (not yet all coming from the Acme corporation, as came to be the case) with comical results. These cartoons regularly show Wile E. Coyote defying the law of gravity - he only plummets to earth when he realises that he has run over the edge of the cliff.

Tweety is a canary who (in most cartoons, but not the very earliest ones) is paired with Sylvester Cat, and always wins - obviously, since it would all end if Sylvester did manage to eat him! Their relationship is not unlike that of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, in that Sylvester puts a lot of effort into increasingly extravagant attempts to catch and eat Tweety, always foiled (often by their owner, Granny, or her bulldog Hector). In most of them Tweety delivers his trademark line, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" Tweety's first film, 1947's 'Tweetie Pie' (with a Sylvester-like cat named Thomas) won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Pepé le Pew is a skunk (you'd never guess that from his name) who seems to be French, despite the fact that skunks live only in North America. The chases in his cartoons are in search of love, not food. He is usually fooled by a black cat who has accidentally had white stripe painted on her back and tail, and who (understandably) has no interest in his amorous advances. The humour of these cartoons has definitely aged well. Not only is his behaviour a slanderous portrayal of French men, his behaviour is clearly sexual harassment in anyone's language.

Foghorn Leghorn first appeared in 'Walky Talky Hawky', a 1946 short that actually featured Henery Hawk, as the title suggests. He is a large rooster with a strong Southern accent, and a loud voice (as suggested by calling him Foghorn) which he uses to make bombastic declarations. As well as regularly confronting the attempts of the diminutive Henery Hawk to catch and eat a chicken, he often finds himself pitted against Barnyard Dawg as they play pranks on each other. His other major focus is on wooing Miss Prissy, an apparently-widowed hen.