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| Wabbit Twouble | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Bob Clampett |
| Story by | Dave Monahan |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Sid Sutherland |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 8:22 |
| Language | English |
Wabbit Twouble is aMerrie Melodiescartoon starringBugs Bunny, produced byLeon Schlesinger Productions and released on December 20, 1941, byWarner Bros. Pictures.[1]
Elmer Fudd arrives at "Jellostone National Park", aiming for a tranquil retreat. Upon arrival, he sets up his campsite, unknowingly positioning his tent over Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. Bugs plays a series of pranks on Elmer, leading the latter into perilous situations such as hanging off a cliff and encountering a grizzly bear. Elmer eventually grows frustrated and leaves, destroying the park's entry sign along the way, leading to his arrest for destruction of government property. The short ends with Elmer finding himself sharing a jail cell with Bugs and the bear from earlier.
This is the first of several Bugs Bunny films that refer to Elmer Fudd'sspeech impediment, intentionally misspelling the names ofBob Clampett,Sidney Sutherland, andCarl Stalling, as well as the roles of Story, Supervision, and Musical Direction, in the credits to match the speech impediment.
Tex Avery began the project which Clampett finished; Avery is not credited on screen.[2] This was the first Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoon directed by Clampett, with a story by Dave Monahan and musical direction by Carl W. Stalling. Although Sid Sutherland is the only credited animator, theshort was also animated byVirgil Ross,Rod Scribner, andRobert McKimson.Mel Blanc provided the voices for Bugs and the bear, andArthur Q. Bryan provided the voice for Elmer.
For the cartoon, Elmer was redesigned as a fat man (based on voice actorArthur Q. Bryan's own physique) in an attempt to make him funnier. The "fat Elmer" would only make three more appearances in theLooney Tunes/Merrie Melodies canon –The Wabbit Who Came to Supper,The Wacky Wabbit andFresh Hare, in addition to acameo appearance in the war bond advertisementAny Bonds Today? – before returning to the slimmer form by which he is better known, forThe Hare-Brained Hypnotist. This cartoon was the only time, though, that the "fat Elmer" also had a red nose. This is also the only cartoon with the "fat" version of Elmer still under copyright; all other "Fat Elmer" cartoons are in the public domain.Cartoon Network's anthology seriesToonHeads later focused an episode on this particular design for Elmer in 1999 with "The Year Elmer Fudd Got Fat", which includedWabbit Twouble.
Animation historianDavid Gerstein writes, "Wabbit Twouble represents a variant on thetrickster of fable and myth who doesn't wait to pester first. Clampett's Bugs invades others' lives for the fun of it—especially when those others seem, like Elmer, to be easy targets... Bugs has immediately identified Elmer as the perfect patsy and mocks his girth and mannerisms. From the point of view of the classic trickster, some people simply deserve a hard time."[3]
In December 2018, a still frame from the short depicting Bugs mocking Elmer by imitating his likeness became anInternet meme. The meme originated from fictitious cover art for a video game titledBig Chungus ("chungus" is aneologism coined by video game journalistJames Stephanie Sterling in 2012)[4] which featured the still frame and was popularized by aFacebook post by aGameStop manager inColorado Springs, who alleged that a customer had asked about purchasing the fictional game as a gift for her son.[5]
In April 2021, the character was added to the mobile gameLooney Tunes World of Mayhem.[6][7] Big Chungus was briefly featured in the 2021 filmSpace Jam: A New Legacy,[8] and was eventually trademarked byWarner Bros. themselves.[9]
British politicianNigel Farage has recorded several paid videos on the platformCameo per request that mention memes such as Big Chungus andAmong Us imposters.[10]
| Preceded by | Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1941 | Succeeded by |