Daffy Duck & Egghead

Daffy Duck & Egghead
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Airdate:	1 January 1938 Blue Ribbon reissue: 20 April 1946
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	3819
Production Number:	MM-6-7
Copyright Renewed:	27 September 1965
Starring:	Daffy Duck Egghead
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Danny Webb
Director:	Fred Avery
Written By:	J.B. Hardaway
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Virgil Ross Irven Spence (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

Daffy Duck & Egghead is a 1938 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.

Plot

Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic Joe Penner) is annoyed by a rotoscoped shadowman in the audience who doesn't sit down. Egghead shoots the audience member and the member falls after going through extended "death throes". Egghead hears a call from the grass, and out comes Daffy Duck biting his nose (just like he did to Porky Pig in "Porky's Duck Hunt"). While fighting, a tortoise (with a voice imitating radio comic Parkyakarkus) comes and tries to give Daffy and Egghead new weapons. When the tortoise goes away, Egghead uses his real gun and Daffy tries to make him shoot the apple on his head. Egghead misses all the times, even when Daffy's near him, so Daffy puts a blind sign and a cup of pencils and the disguise glasses on Egghead, with Daffy saying, "Too bad." Daffy then walks away and sings a variation of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by himself, then shakes hands with his reflection from the lake and they both dive back into the water.

Later, Egghead finally catches Daffy, using a glove which knocks Daffy on the head. Egghead jumps for joy, until an ambulance comes. A duck comes out and thanks Egghead for catching Daffy. The duck describes Daffy as "Crazy! Looney-tuney! and more importantly 100% nuts!!" However, the two ducks start acting crazy again, and Egghead acts crazy himself.

Caricatures

• Joe Penner - Egghead's voice
• Tony Labriola's character Oswald - "Oh, yeah."
• Harry Parke's character Parkyakarkus - turtle

Availability

(1988) VHS
Cartoon Moviestars: Daffy!

(1988) LaserDisc
Cartoon Moviestars: Daffy! and Porky!

(1991) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 1, Side 2, Firsts

(1992) VHS
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2: Firsts

(1996) VHS
Further Adventures of Daffy Duck

(2005) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Four (restored with original titles)

(2011) DVD
The Essential Daffy Duck, Disc 1 (restored with original titles)

Goofs

• When Daffy gives Egghead a cigar for "winning" the duel, he smashes it on the ground and the cigar completely disappears.

Censorship

• On Cartoon Network (American feed only; overseas Cartoon Network channels have this uncut, though Cartoon Network America has aired this uncut once), Boomerang (American feed only; overseas Boomerang channels have aired this uncut), and The WB, the scene where Egghead shoots an audience member after telling him to sit down was cut. The "shooting the annoying audience member" gag later used in "Rhapsody Rabbit" and "The Ducksters" was left uncut on Cartoon Network and Boomerang (the WB also censored the gag in "Rhapsody Rabbit" and "The Ducksters" never aired on the WB).

Notes

• When the film was reissued in 1946, it was renamed to Daffy Duck and Egghead, replacing the ampersand with the word "and."
• This is the first color appearance of Daffy Duck as well as being his first appearance in the Merrie Melodies series.
• The cartoon's ending is later reused in the ending of Walter Lantz's Andy Panda cartoon, "Knock Knock" (1940), which marked the debut of Woody Woodpecker; both cartoons were written by Ben Hardaway.
• This is the only cartoon where Daffy's collar is blue instead of white.
• This is the first cartoon where the 10 paces gag is used.
• Daffy would sing his own variation of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" again, albeit with different lyrics, in "Boobs in the Woods" (1950).
• After the "Love-Lure" duck decoy is deployed by Egghead, then rejected by Daffy, he plants a sign that states "T’aint funny McGee." This would have been familiar to audience members as it was a frequent retort from Molly to Fibber in the long-running radio series "Fibber McGee and Molly."
• In 1995, Turner made recreated opening titles for this cartoon. The opening was from "Wacky Wild Life", followed by a recreated BR Merrie Melodies card, then the original title card fades in. The other cartoon to have recreated Blue Ribbon titles in the Turner "dubbed version" is "The Night Watchman".
  • Additionally, the dubbed version replaces the ending cue with the 1941-55 "Merrily We Roll Along" theme. As the restored version's soundtrack is sourced from the US dubbed version, this error persists on the original title print.
• The man in the audience is writer Tedd Pierce.
• The film was copyrighted on 26 November 1937.
• Vitaphone release number: 8226

Gallery

Daffy Duck and Egghead: two "nuts"

Egghead shooting an audience member, a scene that has been censored on the WB and most Cartoon Network and Boomerang feeds

Daffy biting Egghead's nose

The turtle makes Daffy and Egghead duel with guns

The Nut-House Duck thanks Egghead for capturing Daffy

Production background with Jungle Natives cel from "The Isle of Pingo Pongo"

Egghead's model sheet

Daffy's model sheet

Comparisons of Blue Ribbon title cards of the cartoon between the original reissue version (top) and the Turner "dubbed version"'s recreated version (bottom)

Lobby card

References

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Daffy Duck Cartoons

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