Yosemite Sam is running for mayor. One of his campaign promises is "to rid this country of every last rabbit." Bugs chokes on his carrot when he hears this.

"Hey, this calls for strategy. I'll fight fire with fire," he proclaims. He decides to run against "Honest Sam."

Talk about smear campaigns! Mainly, what these two guys try to do is the blow the other guy up, with dynamite stuck in everything from watermelons to pianos. It's the usual fare, but that means some clever gags and Bugs usually outwitting the loud and obnoxious Sam.

In the ending, well, let's just saw a "dark horse" surprises both candidates.

Even fifty years later this short holds up as a terrific commentary on life in America. Here's Yosimite Sam, running for mayor on a platform that promises to exterminate rabbits. "Two rabbits in every pot." Bugs hears this and needs to run against him to save his own skin.

Sound familiar?

Usually I am not a huge fan of the Looney Tunes cartoons where Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam are partnered together, as they almost always end up in a pretty mediocre string of slapstick jokes. Here, there were still slapstick jokes, but, for me, they seemed to be funnier and there seemed to be a secret personality let out from Yosemite Sam in this episode that I had not seen before (I do not want to give spoilers, but basically how he feels about partnership). Also, some of the slapstick gags included were ones that (according to reviewers on IMDb) have been repeated several times, I had not seen before, so I found them almost delightful to watch. (The piano one was one of them.) The theme of the episode was also quite entertaining. If there was one thing I did not like about this episode, it was that almost all of the jokes end up with dynamite going off or guns being fired. Pretty dull.

In this episode, we first see Yosemite Sam trying to place himself in the title of mayor, by convincing the townspeople to respect him. As he strings out a rather irrelevant list of things he will do for them, Sam tells the people he will eradicate every rabbit. Duh, Bugs Bunny is listening nearby - and of course -, he does his best to fight against Sam and become mayor. Cartoon capers commence...

I do not want you to go away thinking that I really like this episode, it is not one of my very favourites. It is one of my favourites which includes Bugs and Sam.

I recommend this to people who like all Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny jokes and for Looney Tunes fans in general. Enjoy "Ballot Box Bunny"! :-)

Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam run against each other for mayor in a small town. Needless to say, they have all sorts of dirty tricks to play on each other; Karl Rove has got nothing on these guys. I wish to assert that politics would be better if it was more like what "Ballot Box Bunny" portrays. Sure, you may say, politics is already dirty enough - especially with George W. Bush getting us into the Iraq War and the recent revelations of Mark Foley's creepy activities. But seriously folks, wouldn't you prefer Bugs and Sam's actions to politicians running touchy-feely ads telling us how they'll lead us through prosperity and adversity? All in all, a classic cartoon. And don't forget to vote on November 7!

Ballot Box Bunny (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Another winning Looney Tunes episode this time finds Yosemite Sam running for Mayor when Bugs Bunny shows up and decides to run against him. With the two in a battle for the job you just know one of them are going to get blown up. The word explosion is the key here because there are many throughout the short and all of them get some very big laughs. We have an exploding cigar, piano, canon and all of them give some hysterical laughs. Sam's character is wonderful here and really steals the film, although there's no doubt he was one of Bug's greatest co-stars. What I also enjoyed was the look of Sam after being blown up countless times. Each time gave Sam a new look and I loved all of them.