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You Were Never Duckier is a 1948 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.

Title[]

The title is a play on the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier.

Plot[]

The National Poultry Show is being held, and Daffy Duck looks at the matinee showing the prizes for the judging. The first prize for best rooster is $5000, and the best duck is $5. Daffy is not happy about this, and decides to disguise himself as a rooster (using rubber gloves and the tail feathers of an actual rooster) to get $5000. Meanwhile, Henery is being taught all about roosters by his father. Henery decides to head to the poultry show and catch himself a rooster.

Daffy's plan backfires when Henery decides to take him home. Daffy says he's a special breed of rooster, and thinking that Henery's father is the judge to give him the $5000, he tags along. Daffy then finds out he is in a chickenhawk's house, and tries to escape, but fails. Henery's father then starts to prepare Daffy as a meal. Daffy tries to prove he is really a duck, even trying to take his disguise off (to no avail). When he tries to escape, Henery's father grabs his "head" (the rubber glove), and the glove lands on his head, then he proceeds to chase Daffy, who is finally able to escape because Henery accidentally hits his father with a mallet.

Before the contest begins, Daffy puts on another glove. Then, at the contest, Daffy loses to Henery's father, disguised as a Rhode Island red rooster. Daffy then tries for the best duck prize, but loses that as well - to Henery, wearing a disguise consisting of a clothespin and two flippers.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • When this short was featured on CBS' The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, the following parts were cut out/edited:[2]
    • The part where Daffy runs for the door after realizing that Henery Hawk and his father are going to eat him was missing the part where Henery Hawk closes the door on Daffy and Daffy slams face-first into the door (the part afterwards where Daffy's beak can be seen from outside as he cries, "Help!", gets pulled back in, and is seen again when Daffy says, "I distinctly said, 'Help!'" was not edited).
    • The part where George K. Chickenhawk chases Daffy in circles in one door and out of another and Henery accidentally hits George instead of Daffy was replaced with a shot of Daffy looking off-screen, but the shot of George on the floor with stars coming out of his head was not cut.

Notes[]

  • This cartoon ushered in a new "era" as the first Warner Bros. cartoon in the post-1948 package to be released. As a result, all cartoons released from this point forward remained available for television distribution under Warner Bros., instead of being outsourced to Associated Artists Productions or Sunset Productions. Likewise, it is the first cartoon directed by Chuck Jones in the post-1948 package.
  • This cartoon marks the start of a direction change for Daffy Duck, from a "screwball" character, to a greedy, self-centered one (though, according to commentary by Eric Goldberg on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 DVD, this cartoon showed Daffy as being both a greedy, self-centered character and a screwball one). This cartoon was also the next-to-last Henery Hawk short to not be directed by Robert McKimson, and one of only three to be directed by creator Chuck Jones (after "The Squawkin' Hawk" and followed by "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"). Two more cartoons would also depict both the "greedy" and "screwball" incarnations of Daffy at once in the same cartoon; "Daffy Dilly" (1948) later in the year, and "Don't Axe Me" (1958) ten years later.
  • As Henery arrives at the contest, “C. Jones Shoes” is shown to the left of the entrance, a reference to director Chuck Jones.
  • Along with "The Pest That Came to Dinner" and "Hot Cross Bunny", this cartoon was supposed to be in the pre-1948 cartoon package due to production numbers, being before "Haredevil Hare". Since the cartoon was released after July of 1948, the cartoon remained in the hands of Warner Bros.
  • In the 1954-55 season, the cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue - the first post-1948 cartoon to get one. This was only one of five post-1948 WB cartoons to get a Blue Ribbon reissue prior to 1956, with the original credits cut. The others were "Daffy Dilly", "The Foghorn Leghorn", "Kit for Cat", and "Scaredy Cat". This cartoon is the only one of these not to have been reissued in the 1955-56 season. The original opening and credits have since been restored for its DVD release.

Gallery[]

References[]

Henery Hawk Cartoons
1942 The Squawkin' Hawk
1946 Walky Talky Hawky
1947 Crowing Pains
1948 You Were Never DuckierThe Foghorn Leghorn
1949 Henhouse Henery
1950 The Scarlet PumpernickelThe Leghorn Blows at Midnight
1951 Leghorn Swoggled
1952 The EGGcited Rooster
1955 All Fowled Up
1961 Strangled Eggs
Daffy Duck Cartoons
1937 Porky's Duck Hunt
1938 Daffy Duck & EggheadWhat Price PorkyPorky & DaffyThe Daffy DocDaffy Duck in Hollywood
1939 Daffy Duck and the DinosaurScalp TroubleWise Quacks
1940 Porky's Last StandYou Ought to Be in Pictures
1941 A Coy DecoyThe Henpecked Duck
1942 Conrad the SailorDaffy's Southern ExposureThe Impatient PatientThe Daffy DuckarooMy Favorite Duck
1943 To Duck .... or Not to DuckThe Wise Quacking DuckYankee Doodle DaffyPorky Pig's FeatScrap Happy DaffyA Corny ConcertoDaffy - The Commando
1944 Tom Turk and DaffyTick Tock TuckeredDuck Soup to NutsSlightly DaffyPlane DaffyThe Stupid Cupid
1945 Draftee DaffyAin't That DuckyNasty Quacks
1946 Book RevueBaby BottleneckDaffy DoodlesHollywood DaffyThe Great Piggy Bank Robbery
1947 Birth of a NotionAlong Came DaffyA Pest in the HouseMexican Joyride
1948 What Makes Daffy DuckDaffy Duck Slept HereThe Up-Standing SitterYou Were Never DuckierDaffy DillyThe Stupor SalesmanRiff Raffy Daffy
1949 Wise QuackersHoliday for DrumsticksDaffy Duck Hunt
1950 Boobs in the WoodsThe Scarlet PumpernickelHis Bitter HalfGolden YeggsThe Ducksters
1951 Rabbit FireDrip-Along DaffyThe Prize Pest
1952 Thumb FunCracked QuackRabbit SeasoningThe Super SnooperFool Coverage
1953 Duck AmuckMuscle TussleDuck Dodgers in the 24½th CenturyDuck! Rabbit, Duck!
1954 Design for LeavingQuack ShotMy Little Duckaroo
1955 Beanstalk BunnySahara HareStork NakedThis Is a Life?Dime to Retire
1956 The High and the FlightyRocket SquadStupor DuckA Star Is BoredDeduce, You Say
1957 Ali Baba BunnyBoston QuackieDucking the DevilShow Biz Bugs
1958 Don't Axe MeRobin Hood Daffy
1959 China JonesPeople Are BunnyApes of Wrath
1960 Person to Bunny
1961 The Abominable Snow RabbitDaffy's Inn Trouble
1962 Quackodile TearsGood Noose
1963 Fast Buck DuckThe Million HareAqua Duck
1964 The Iceman Ducketh
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseMoby DuckAssault and PepperedWell Worn DaffySuppressed DuckCorn on the CopTease for TwoChili Corn CornyGo Go Amigo
1966 The AstroduckMucho LocosMexican MousepieceDaffy RentsA-Haunting We Will GoSnow ExcuseA Squeak in the DeepFeather FingerSwing Ding AmigoA Taste of Catnip
1967 Daffy's DinerQuacker TrackerThe Music Mice-TroThe Spy SwatterSpeedy Ghost to TownRodent to StardomGo Away StowawayFiesta Fiasco
1968 Skyscraper CaperSee Ya Later Gladiator
1980 The Yolks on YouThe Chocolate ChaseDaffy Flies NorthDuck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century
1987 The Duxorcist
1988 The Night of the Living Duck
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 (Blooper) Bunny
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
1995 Carrotblanca
1996 Superior Duck
2003 Attack of the Drones
2004 Daffy Duck for President
2012 Daffy's Rhapsody
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