Duck! Rabbit, Duck! is a 1953 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot[]
Daffy Duck tears down and burns "Duck Season" signs to trick Elmer Fudd into thinking it's really Rabbit Season. After Daffy shows Elmer where Bugs Bunny lives, Elmer is about to shoot Bugs. After Bugs convinces him that he is a fricasseeing rabbit and needs a license to be able to shoot, Elmer realizes he has no such license. Daffy decides to make one for Elmer. Daffy can't make the license, though, because he can't spell fricassee and asks Bugs for help. Bugs add the words "duck" in spelling fricassee, and Elmer ends up shooting Daffy. Each presentation of the sign is accompanied by a brass fanfare of a fox hunting call, and is, of course, followed by a gunshot. Bugs then puts on a duck disguise. Daffy sees him, but forgets himself and shouts "Shoot the duck!" to which Elmer obliges by shooting the nearest duck — Daffy. He finally goes completely insane and convinces Elmer that he is an elk, a fiddler crab, and many more animals. Bugs dresses as a Game Warden. Elmer, in his own delirium, asks Bugs what season it is. Bugs tells Elmer that is baseball season (Elmer runs after a baseball, shooting at it). Bugs asks Daffy what hunting season is it really. Daffy says it is really Duck Season and hunters start shooting at Daffy, who crawls to Bugs saying "You're dethpicable!"
Animal Season[]
- Daffy: Well, I guess I'm the goat. (Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Goat Season Open" and Elmer points his gun at Daffy). What? (Elmer shoots Daffy). You're a dirty dog.
- Bugs: And YOU are a dirty skunk!
- Daffy: I'm a dirty skunk? I'M a dirty skunk?! (Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Dirty Skunk Season" and Elmer shoots Daffy).
- Daffy: Brother! Am I a pigeon!? (Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Pigeon Season" and Elmer shoots Daffy. Later on in the cartoon, after Bugs appears to Elmer as an angel...)
- Daffy: ARE YOU NUTS?! Why, if he's dead, then I'm a mongoose! (Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Mongoose Season" and Elmer shoots Daffy).
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
Like "Rabbit Fire" and "Rabbit Seasoning", "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" was also edited on ABC, CBS, The WB, FOX, and on the syndicated version of Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends to remove the many scenes of Daffy getting shot by Elmer (and the end where Daffy gets blasted by a circle of hunters after foolishly telling Bugs that it's duck hunting season). However, the initial version of this cartoon shown on ABC suffered from severe editing in the same vein as "Hare-Less Wolf", "Hare Trimmed", and "Hillbilly Hare":
- The beginning where Daffy is shown warming himself over a fire made from the "Duck Season" signs he took down and telling the audience that he's a duck bent on self-preservation was cut on ABC, going from Daffy taking down the "Duck Season" signs to Elmer walking through the snow, singing "A-Hunting I Will Go". Whether the edit was made for time or because ABC's censors thought it would lead impressionable children to start fires (even though the viewer doesn't see Daffy actually burn the signs) isn't known.
- Elmer shoving his gun in the back of Bugs' head, after Elmer shoots Bugs' mug full of black-strap molasses and Bugs comments that he didn't think molasses would run in January, was cut on ABC.
- Unlike "Rabbit Fire" and "Rabbit Seasoning" (which only partially edited Daffy being shot by replacing the gunshots with still images of Bugs observing and leaving the audio intact), most of the scenes of Daffy getting shot by Elmer were edited on ABC similarly to CBS and the WB, leading to a very choppy and incoherent short. At the time, ABC didn't have the technology to replace violent scenes with alternate footage, so the censors took to cutting every scene of Daffy getting shot (except for the "mongoose season" part, most likely because the shooting was already off-screen).
Notes[]
- The scene where Daffy demands that Elmer shoot him because it's elk season briefly appears in the original Space Jam movie from 1996.
- This is the only "Hunter's Trilogy" short to credit Richard Thompson and Abe Levitow.
Transcript[]
For a complete transcript, click here.
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
References[]
External Links[]
- "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" at SuperCartoons.net
- "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" on the SFX Resource Wiki