Foghorn Leghorn was directly inspired by the character ofSenator Claghorn, a blustery Southern politician played byKenny Delmar onFred Allen's popular 1940sradio show. Foghorn adopted many of Claghorn's catchphrases, such as "I say..." and "That's a joke, son!" Delmar's inspiration for Claghorn was a Texas rancher who was fond of saying this.[4]
According toKeith Scott, the character's voice was also patterned after actorJack Clifford who played a hard-of-hearing West Coast-only radio character from the 1930s, known simply as The Sheriff, on a radio program calledBlue Monday Jamboree.[5] The accent has similarities to that of anotherMel Blanc voice:Yosemite Sam (a near-strictlyFriz Freleng character); and even more similar to a proto-Sam character inStage Door Cartoon.
Physically, Foghorn Leghorn is depicted as a very largerooster with aSouthern accent; he is easily the tallest of all the regularLooney Tunes characters. He has a bombastic and somewhat unrefined personality, and shows a penchant for mischief. Aside from the Senator Claghorn reference, "Foghorn" is indicative of his loudmouthed personality, while "Leghorn" refers to a particular Italian breed of chicken. According toA Broken Leghorn andRaw! Raw! Rooster! Foghorn lives on "Old MacDonald's Farm" in Cucamonga, California, and had attended Chicken Tech University; his college roommate and rivalRhode Island Red is a practical joker and even more obnoxious than Foghorn himself.
Foghorn often fancies himself a mentor figure to the smaller and younger characters he encounters, particularlyHenery Hawk, tossing off bits of self-styled sagacity interjected with phrases like "Pay attention, son", or "Look at me when I'm talkin' to ya, boy", both of which are borrowed heavily from Senator Claghorn's vernacular. But this proves to be Foghorn's worst trait, as his loud and fast mouth and propensity for over-explanation eventually annoys his intended subjects so much that, completely fed up with him, they end up hitting him over the head with a blunt object, yelling "Ahhhhh,shaddap!" and leaving in a huff.
Beginning with the 1949 cartoonHenhouse Henery, Foghorn frequently performs a verse from theStephen Foster song "Camptown Races", softly humming the lyrics while loudly singing the refrain "Doo-Dahh! Doo-Dahh!", and ending the verse, again loudly, with "Ohh, Doo-Dahh Day!" He often hums the song more than once in a given short, though in the 1950 cartoonThe Leghorn Blows at Midnight, he hums "Camptown" only at the beginning, but then hums "Old MacDonald" in two later scenes. On occasion, he also sings his own lyrics if they are related to what he's doing at the time. "Camptown Races" essentially became Foghorn's signature tune and one of the most widely familiar uses of the song in popular culture. The final theatrical film in which Foghorn sings "Camptown" isMother Was a Rooster (1962).
Many of Foghorn's cartoons involve his perennial prank war withBarnyard Dawg, though it is never revealed how or why their feud started in the first place. Foghorn is often the initial aggressor, but unlike most of the other Looney Tunes rivalries, Foghorn pranks Dawg out of sheer self-amusement and Dawg is usually the one with the winning hand in nearly every short they appear together, although both lost inWalky Talky Hawky,Of Rice and Hen, andMother Was a Rooster, and Foghorn managed to have some victories over Dawg in theLooney Tunes comic books. But for all of Foghorn's pranks, Dawg is just as adept at retaliation.
Most of the Leghorn cartoons begin the same: Foghorn, humming "Camptown Races" to himself and carrying a wooden plank, sneaks up on Dawg while he is sleeping, often facing into his doghouse with his back protruding out the entry hole. Foghorn then pulls Dawg up by his tail and uses the plank to give him a whacking on his rear (in nearly every cartoon, Foghorn gives Dawg eight whacks), at which point the angered Dawg chases after Foghorn barking, but can only go as far as the rope to which he is tied, which either yanks him back or stops him. In the latter case, he keeps barking at Foghorn, who tells him, "Aah-h, sha-daahhp!" or does something to Dawg to force him to stop.
Despite their feud, Foghorn and Dawg manage to get along in a few instances, usually joining forces to defeat somebody who has caused problems for both of them (e.g.Daffy Duck inThe High and the Flighty or a fox inFox-Terror).
In the 1958 shortFeather Bluster, the prank feud has been passed down to Dawg's and Foghorn's respective grandsons, and the now-elderly Foghorn is puzzled as to why the little leghorn is behaving the way he is, but the elderly Dawg is only too happy to point out there's nothing wrong with him, except that "he takes afteryou."
Other recurring themes throughout the cartoons include the attempts of the naive and diminutiveHenery Hawk to catch and eat a chicken and Foghorn usually tricking him into believe that he is another animal and that Dawg is a chicken; and Foghorn's own efforts to woo the widowed henMiss Prissy, often by babysitting her studious son,Egghead Jr. Foghorn is joined in a few episodes by aweasel called "Bill", who initially attempts to eat him but ends up joining forces to outwit the aforementioned canine.
^Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989).Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 170.ISBN0-8050-0894-2.
