87 Fun Facts About Bugs Bunny

Which Bugs Bunny line did Tex Avery borrow from his Texas high school's everyday slang?

"Eh... What's up, doc?" was plain teenage talk at Avery's Dallas high school in the 1920s, where "doc" meant what "dude" means now, so he thought nothing of the line.

Which cartoon line is carved on the gravestone of Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny?

"That's all, folks!" is on his stone at Hollywood Forever. Bugs made Blanc famous, but the farewell he took to the grave belonged to another of his voices, Porky Pig.

Which 1940 Tex Avery short is considered Bugs's official debut?

A Wild Hare gave the rabbit his voice, his carrot and his catchphrase in one cartoon, yet it never names him: "Bugs Bunny" only reached the screen the following year.

In which 1938 cartoon did a prototype of Bugs first appear?

Porky's Hare Hunt was close to a remake of Porky's Duck Hunt from the year before: the studio swapped its crazy bird for an equally crazy rabbit and reran the chase.

Bugs is famously gray, but what color was his 1938 prototype?

White. The prototype was a small white rabbit, more country clown than city slicker, though he already tormented his pursuer with the wit and relish of the later Bugs.

Which director's nickname gave Bugs his name, via a model sheet labelled "Bugs's Bunny"?

Ben Hardaway was known as "Bugs", so a sketch made for his cartoon was marked as Bugs's bunny, and studio publicity soon turned that label into the rabbit's own name.

Which predator, unnamed in his 1949 debut, got his full name and a speaking voice hunting Bugs in 1952?

Wile E. Coyote introduces himself to Bugs as a genius in Operation: Rabbit, then loses to him every time, his best trap ending under a train.

Who plays DJ Drake, the stuntman who teams up with Bugs and Daffy in Looney Tunes: Back in Action?

Brendan Fraser also plays himself: DJ is the star's long-suffering stunt double, a joke the actor suggested, and he ends the film by punching Fraser.

In Space Jam (1996), what are the tiny Nerdlucks called once they steal NBA talent and turn into hulking players?

The Monstars drain the skills of five NBA players and win the first half easily, then have to hand the talent back when Bugs's Tune Squad wins on a last-second dunk.

Which 1958 Friz Freleng short is the only Oscar winner among Bugs's cartoons?

Knighty Knight Bugs makes Bugs a court jester sent to recover the Singing Sword from the Black Knight, whose fire-breathing dragon has a sneezing cold.

Whose opera cycle does What's Opera, Doc? (1957) parody?

Richard Wagner's Ring cycle is squeezed into about seven minutes, with Elmer as Siegfried and Bugs disguised as Brünnhilde; the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1992.

Which director made the rabbit-season, duck-season hunting trilogy that turned Bugs and Daffy into rivals?

Chuck Jones began the trilogy with Rabbit Fire in 1951, which ends with the two of them tearing down hunting signs until one reads "Elmer Season".

In which 1953 short is the unseen animator tormenting Daffy Duck finally revealed to be Bugs?

Duck Amuck has the animator erase Daffy's scenery and then Daffy himself before the camera pulls back to the drawing board, where Bugs asks, "Ain't I a stinker?"

Friz Freleng traced part of Bugs's fast-talking manner to a pushy salesman in which 1934 screwball comedy?

It Happened One Night: its hero scares off the pushy Oscar Shapeley by inventing a gangster friend called "Bugs" Dooley, one of several echoes of the film in the cartoons.

Which actor's carrot-eating scene did three of Bugs's directors cite as the model for his habit?

Clark Gable talks fast through a mouthful of raw carrot while explaining how to hitch a ride, the offhand pose the cartoon rabbit made his own.

Mel Blanc denied being allergic to carrots, so why did he spit them out while recording Bugs?

Chewing interrupted the dialogue: there was no time to swallow between lines, so Blanc bit a real carrot for the crunch, spat it into a spittoon and carried on.

Mel Blanc described Bugs's voice as a blend of which two New York accents?

Bronx and Brooklyn was Blanc's mix for a tough city slicker in 1940, replacing the goofy country guffaw he had given the rabbit's prototype two years earlier.

Which DC hero got joint billing with Bugs in the title of a four-issue crossover comic in 2000?

Superman shared the title with Bugs in a miniseries where the imp Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Do-Do send the Looney Tunes loose among DC's heroes, then set about swapping Superman with Elmer Fudd.

Which US military branch made Bugs an honorary member after he marched off singing its hymn in Super-Rabbit?

Marines: the Corps enrolled him as a private and kept promoting him until he mustered out at the war's end as a master sergeant.

Whenever his tunnelling lands him somewhere strange, Bugs says he should have turned left at which city?

Albuquerque first took the blame in Herr Meets Hare (1945), when Bugs surfaces in Germany's Black Forest, asks Hermann Göring the way to Las Vegas and has to run for it.

Which songwriter wrote the war-bond song that Bugs sings in a 1942 short for the US Treasury?

Irving Berlin wrote Any Bonds Today? at the Treasury's request and signed away his rights, so he never made a penny from it; Porky and Elmer join Bugs for the last refrain.

In 2018 a frame of Bugs mocking a chubby Elmer Fudd went viral as which fake video-game character?

Big Chungus came from joke cover art for a game that never existed, using a frame of 1941's Wabbit Twouble; Warner Bros. later put him in a real mobile game and moved to trademark the name.

In a cameo for Paramount's Puppetoons, Bugs pops out of his hole, looks around and says what?

"Hey, I'm in the wrong picture!" is his exit line in Jasper Goes Hunting: ordered out of a rabbit hole at gunpoint by a scarecrow, he greets him as usual, looks round and ducks back down.

Which creature gets the better of Bugs for once in Falling Hare (1943), nearly crashing the bomber he is trapped in?

A gremlin outwits him from airfield to cockpit, and the plane's nosedive stops just above the ground only because it has run out of gas, a joke about wartime rationing.

Which drawling rival outsmarts Bugs in three cartoons in a row, each time in a race?

Cecil Turtle wins the first race by posting lookalike cousins along the course; when Bugs finally crosses the line first in the third, the turtle gets him arrested for speeding.

On which network did The Bugs Bunny Show debut in prime time in 1960?

ABC ran it in prime time for two seasons, then moved it to Saturday mornings, where versions of the show kept running on network television until 2000.

In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs had to share every frame equally with which character?

Mickey Mouse and Bugs fall through the sky side by side because Warner lent its biggest star to a Disney production only on condition that he got exactly as much screen time as Disney's.

In which Warner Bros. fighting game, launched in 2024, could players pit Bugs against Batman, Shaggy and Arya Stark?

MultiVersus put Bugs at the front of its cover art, but the free-to-play brawler was delisted and its servers closed in May 2025, a year after its full launch.

Which two Tiny Toon Adventures stars does Bugs mentor at Acme Looniversity?

Babs and Buster are his counterparts among the students: the show's premise is that the old Looney Tunes stars have retired from show business to teach cartoon skills to the young.

Which 1991 short was Bugs's first theatrical cartoon since 1964?

Box-Office Bunny opens with a 100-screen multiplex built right over Bugs's rabbit hole: he surfaces inside, and usher Elmer tries to throw him out for having no ticket.

Which comedian leaves the golf course to join Bugs's Tune Squad as a late substitute in Space Jam?

Bill Murray turns up when the Tune Squad is a player short, and in the final seconds his help gets the ball to its captain for the winning dunk.

Which character was introduced in Space Jam as Bugs's love interest?

Lola Bunny joins the team for the big game while a smitten Bugs tries to win her over, and she warms to him only after he saves her from being flattened on court.

On his 1997 US postage stamp, what is Bugs leaning against?

A mailbox: the Postal Service turned down a stack of Warner Bros. designs before settling on a postal theme, while collectors worried that a studio's star would commercialize the stamp program.

In which 1950 short does Bugs shave, massage and finally marry Elmer Fudd on an opera stage?

Rabbit of Seville starts when Elmer chases Bugs through a stage door and the curtain goes up on both of them, so the chase is played out as the evening's opera.

Which magazine put Bugs at number one on its 2002 list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters?

TV Guide drew up the list for its 50th anniversary, and a star of cinema shorts beat every television character on it: Homer Simpson came second.

What nickname did Bugs use in his Nike sneaker commercials of the early 1990s?

Hare Jordan paired Bugs with Michael Jordan in a 1992 commercial, a double act that led to Space Jam four years later and, in 2015, to an anniversary sneaker with a tongue inspired by his carrot.

What name did the hairy monster in sneakers, who first chased Bugs in 1946, finally receive in 1980?

Gossamer means a fine, filmy cobweb, about the last thing a hulking heap of hair resembles, and he had menaced Bugs in two cartoons before anyone called him that.

In The Looney Tunes Show, Bugs treats which character as a pet dog?

Taz is at first mistaken for a dog and kept as a house pet called Poochie; when Bugs learns the truth and takes him home to Tasmania, he chooses to stay.

Who voiced Bugs in Looney Tunes Cartoons, the HBO Max series that began in 2020?

Eric Bauza voiced Daffy and Tweety in it as well, so many of the show's quarrels are one man in a booth; the part won him the first Children's and Family Emmy for voice performance.

Which NBA star headlined the 2021 sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy?

LeBron James and his son are trapped inside Warner's computer servers by a rogue AI, and he finds Bugs living alone: the other Looney Tunes have wandered off into other films' worlds.

From which wisecracking comedian did Bugs borrow his battle cry, "Of course you realize, this means war"?

Groucho Marx gave Bugs more than the line: the rabbit wields his carrot the way Groucho wielded a cigar, as a prop to punctuate the wisecracks.

In Ali Baba Bunny, Bugs and Daffy tunnel into a sultan's treasure cave while heading for which California beach town?

Pismo Beach is reached only by Bugs, who finds a pearl in a clam there; Daffy, shrunk by a genie for his greed, turns up to claim it and is shut inside the shell.

Which cocky Disney sprinter from an Oscar-winning 1935 short is believed to have helped inspire Bugs's design?

Max Hare, the boastful loser of Disney's The Tortoise and the Hare, lent his lean build and upright swagger to the rabbit when Tex Avery had him redrawn for 1940.

Which insult, often credited to Bugs, did Daffy Duck actually aim at Elmer Fudd in a 1948 short?

Nimrod is the Bible's mighty hunter, so "my little nimrod" was sarcasm at a hapless one; the cartoons are often said to have turned the name into slang for a fool, though its origin is uncertain.

Bugs's future descendant Ace Bunny leads the team in which 2000s series?

Loonatics Unleashed is set in 2772, when a meteor strike gives six descendants of the Looney Tunes superpowers; Ace, a film stunt rabbit until then, becomes their leader.

Which voice actress played Bugs's foe Witch Hazel after first voicing a witch of the same name for Disney?

June Foray said she gave the Disney witch a British accent and made the Warner one "all American", and she went on voicing Bugs's version from 1956 until 2005.

In Long-Haired Hare, the orchestra obeys Bugs because they take him for which real conductor, famous for using no baton?

Leopold Stokowski was a regular at the Hollywood Bowl, where the short is set: Bugs arrives in a wig, snaps the baton he is handed and makes the singer hold one note until the shell falls in.

Which short, hot-tempered gunslinger did Friz Freleng create because Elmer Fudd seemed too mild a foe for Bugs?

Yosemite Sam was partly a self-portrait: Freleng admitted he had the same temper, was small himself and once wore a red moustache.

In Space Jam, what is really in the bottle of secret potion that Bugs uses to rally his team at halftime?

Plain water is all it holds, but the Looney Tunes players believe it gives them strength and storm back in the second half.

In a 1946 short, Bugs single-handedly plays every position against the brutish Gas-House Gorillas in which sport?

Baseball is the game, staged at New York's Polo Grounds, where Bugs throws a pitch, outruns it and catches it himself at home plate.

Which American theme-park chain won the rights in 1984 to feature Bugs and the Looney Tunes characters?

Six Flags gained the characters after buying Marriott's Great America park in Gurnee, Illinois, and its parks pair them with DC Comics heroes.

A 1995 short puts a heartbroken Bugs in a wartime nightclub, with Daffy at the piano, to parody which film classic?

Casablanca gets both parody and homage in Carrotblanca, which casts Tweety as the thief, Pepé Le Pew as the captain and Penelope Pussycat as the lost love.

In a 1944 short, a hungry family leaves carrot soup out as bait, and Bugs ends up filling which fairy-tale girl's role?

Goldilocks is the guest the Three Bears hoped to trap; with no porridge in the house they cooked carrot soup and caught a rabbit instead.

Mel Blanc lay in what state after a 1961 car crash until a doctor got a reply by addressing him as Bugs?

A coma had left him unresponsive until a neurologist asked how Bugs was feeling and Blanc answered in the rabbit's voice.

Which actor voiced Mr. Swackhammer, the alien amusement-park boss who wants Bugs as his newest attraction in Space Jam?

Danny DeVito ended up as the film's only celebrity voice actor, playing the owner of the failing outer-space park Moron Mountain.

Which Los Angeles landmark honoured Bugs in 1985, making him only the second cartoon character it had recognised?

The Hollywood Walk of Fame gave Bugs a star of his own, an honour usually reserved for flesh-and-blood entertainers.

In a 1947 short, which moping holiday figure cons Bugs into taking over the yearly deliveries?

The Easter Bunny pulls the same trick on an unsuspecting rabbit every year, and Bugs's cheerful mood lasts only until he meets an egg-smashing brat.

In the series Baby Looney Tunes, the infant Bugs, Daffy and friends are raised by which older Looney Tunes character?

Granny, best known as Tweety's owner, cares for the babies until her nephew Floyd takes over the babysitting late in the series.

With which Looney Tunes character did Bugs share the title of a long-running CBS cartoon hour launched in 1968?

The Road Runner already had a CBS show of his own, so the network simply merged it with Bugs's and stitched seven cartoons into each episode.

Which sport does Bugs take up in a 1953 short reportedly made because a producer had declared it could never be funny?

Bullfighting was ruled out as a subject by producer Eddie Selzer, and by the director's account that order is exactly why Bully for Bugs got made.

Which film star's caricature keeps begging Bugs for a handout in 8 Ball Bunny, echoing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

Humphrey Bogart's panhandler keeps reappearing while Bugs escorts a lost ice-show penguin to the South Pole, unaware the bird really lives in Hoboken.

Which comedian plays Mr. Chairman, the Acme boss scheming to turn humanity into monkeys in Looney Tunes: Back in Action?

Steve Martin's villain is after the Blue Monkey diamond, a gem he plans to use on the whole world's population to make it subservient.

Which composer's Hungarian Rhapsody does Bugs play as a harassed concert pianist in the 1946 short Rhapsody Rabbit?

Franz Liszt's showpiece turned up again months later in Tom and Jerry's The Cat Concerto, a strikingly similar cartoon that won the Academy Award.

Which voice actor, also the voice of Fry in Futurama, spoke for both Bugs and Elmer Fudd in Space Jam?

Billy West had already originated Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show when he took on the two Looney Tunes roles for the 1996 film.

In Hillbilly Hare, Bugs makes two hillbilly brothers pummel each other by acting as the caller for what?

A square dance fills the second half of the cartoon: Bugs unplugs the jukebox, picks up the fiddle and calls ever more violent moves.

Which bashful, slow-witted vulture made his screen debut in 1942 when his mother sent him to catch Bugs for dinner?

Beaky Buzzard is called Killer by his mother in that first cartoon, and his dopey voice was modelled on Edgar Bergen's dummy Mortimer Snerd.

Which producer ran the studio that made Bugs's first cartoons until Warner Bros. bought it outright in 1944?

Leon Schlesinger was a distant relative of the Warner brothers and had produced their cartoons since taking over from Harman and Ising in 1933.

By 1942 Bugs was the number one star of which Warner cartoon series, the colour sister line to Looney Tunes?

Merrie Melodies went all-colour in the mid-1930s while Looney Tunes stayed black and white; once both were in colour, shorts were assigned to either series at random.

After a quarrel over the ending of The Heckling Hare, Tex Avery left for which rival studio, where he created Droopy?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gained Avery after his producer objected to the cartoon's finale and suspended him for four weeks without pay, and he walked out for good.

Which film actor is caricatured as the mad scientist who wants Bugs as his monster's dinner in Hair-Raising Hare?

Peter Lorre's likeness keeps a hairy orange-red giant in sneakers, and Bugs first senses trouble when he feels he is being watched.

Which swashbuckling actor appears in live-action footage as the real Robin Hood at the end of the short Rabbit Hood?

Errol Flynn swings in through a clip lifted from his 1938 adventure, startling Bugs, who had refused to believe the outlaw existed.

Which actor plays Al-G Rhythm, the scheming artificial intelligence Bugs's team must beat in Space Jam: A New Legacy?

Don Cheadle, a long-time fan of the 1996 original, took the part of a self-aware program that rules the Warner Bros. server world.

Mel Blanc voiced Bugs, but which radio actor supplied Elmer Fudd's voice from 1940 until his own death?

Arthur Q. Bryan was better known to radio listeners as the wisecracking Dr. Gamble on the comedy Fibber McGee and Molly.

Which famously deep-voiced filmmaker narrated Bugs Bunny: Superstar, a 1975 documentary on the Warner cartoon studio?

Orson Welles was a friend of the documentary's director, who at first planned its linking scenes as a parody of Citizen Kane.

Which 1940 Disney feature does A Corny Concerto spoof, with Elmer Fudd as its scruffy host in an ill-fitting tailcoat?

Fantasia's real host, the critic Deems Taylor, is the man Elmer mocks as he introduces two Johann Strauss waltzes, with Bugs starring in the first.

Which storybook girl, drawn as a loud 1940s teenager, is carrying Bugs in her basket in a 1944 short?

Little Red Riding Hood is so grating here that Bugs and the wolf end up siding against her, in the first cartoon to give Mel Blanc a voice credit.

In Hare We Go, Bugs joins the crew of which explorer, who has argued with a king over the world's shape?

Christopher Columbus gets his chance after Bugs studies his globe and takes his side, and Queen Isabella offers her jewels if the pair can prove it.

Which singer starred with Ryan O'Neal in the 1972 screwball comedy that takes its title from Bugs's famous greeting?

Barbra Streisand's hit was made as a homage to Bringing Up Baby and to Bugs's own cartoons, one of which plays on screen in its final scene.

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) teamed Bugs with rival studios' characters to warn children against what?

Drug abuse is the target of the special, which was financed by McDonald's and shown at once on all four major American networks.

Which legendary creature crushes Bugs and Daffy with loving hugs in a 1961 short after their tunnel misses Palm Springs?

A yeti named Hugo is waiting because the pair surface in the Himalayas, and he mistakes Daffy for a rabbit before turning his affection on Bugs.

Which 1937 pop song became the opening and closing theme of the Looney Tunes shorts?

The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down was written by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin, and an instrumental version opened and closed the cartoons from 1937 to 1969.

What nickname did Tex Avery's unit, future creators of Bugs, give their small building on the Warner lot?

Termite Terrace housed the unit for only about a year, yet the name stuck as shorthand for the whole classic Warner cartoon studio.

Which impressionist first succeeded Mel Blanc as Bugs, debuting as a presenter at the 1990 Academy Awards?

Jeff Bergman won the job with a tape that let listeners switch back and forth between his impressions and the original Mel Blanc recordings.

In a 1955 short, Bugs volunteers to become the pet of which doctor from Victorian fiction, with alarming results?

Dr. Jekyll is the kind gentleman who feeds Bugs in the park each morning, but at home he keeps drinking the potion that turns him into Mr. Hyde.

In The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, a telegram tells Elmer Fudd he must stop harming rabbits in order to collect what?

An inheritance of $3 million from his uncle Louie is at stake, so Elmer has to let Bugs go and then put up with his antics around the house.

Which hero of a Longfellow poem stalks Bugs for his dinner in a 1941 short that earned an Oscar nomination?

Hiawatha's cartoon lost that Academy Award to Walt Disney's Lend a Paw, a defeat that a later Bugs short turned into part of its plot.

Which American folk hero owns the oversized vegetable garden Bugs raids in a 3-D short from 1953?

Paul Bunyan leaves his dog Smidgen on guard, and the cartoon was the only one the Warner studio ever produced in 3-D.