Daffy Duck & Egghead

Daffy Duck and Egghead Merrie Melodies series
Title Card
Directed by	Tex Avery
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Voices by	Mel Blanc Cliff Nazarro
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Virgil Ross
Distributed by	Warner Brothers Pictures
Release date(s)	January 1, 1938 (USA)
Color process	Color
Running time	7 min, 37 sec
Language	English

Daffy Duck and Egghead, two "nuts"

Daffy Duck & Egghead is a 1937-produced, 1938-released Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It features the early, zany version of Daffy Duck, who spends the film harassing Egghead (later becoming Elmer Fudd), marking the second appearance of Daffy Duck (after Porky's Duck Hunt, which this cartoon is basically a reworking of), his first in color, and first where he is given his current name. It includes a set-piece song-and-dance number by Daffy (shown with a blue band around his neck, instead of the usual white), doing his own variation of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (the theme for Looney Tunes).

Plot

The story begins with Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic Joe Penner) who 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 time, so Daffy puts a blind sign, a cup of pencils and, disguise glasses on Egghead. ("Too bad, too bad," as Daffy says.)

Daffy then walks away and sings a song by himself, in a set-piece drawn in a different style from the rest of the cartoon, and also containing the subdued, early form of Daffy's lisp, which is absent in the rest of the film:

My name is Daffy Duck,

I worked on a Merry-Go-Round,

The job was swell

I did quite well

Till the Merry-go-round broke down.

(Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo-hoo!)

The guy that worked with me,

Was a horse with a lavender eye,

Around in whirls, we winked at girls

Till the Merry-go-round broke down.

(plays flute)

Up and down and round we sped,

That dizzy pace soon went to my head,

Now you know why I'm dizzy

And do the things I do

I am askew [or "a screw"] and you'd be too

If the Merry-go-round broke down.

(Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo!)

If the Merry-go-round broooooooookkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeee (while stretching his neck) down (calmly; not singing)

Daffy then shakes hands with his reflection from the lake and they both dive back into the water.

Later, Egghead finally manages to capture Daffy by shooting a pair of gloves from his gun, knocking Daffy out and allowing Egghead to place him in a net. Just as Egghead celebrates, a duck from the mental ward comes to claim Daffy. He thanks Egghead for helping to catch Daffy, and tells him that Daffy is 100% nuts. "Yeah?" Egghead asks, "Yeah!" answers the duck warden. At that moment, both he and Daffy beat Egghead up before woohoo-ing out into the distance. Egghead becomes fed up with the antics and decides to join them as the cartoon ends.

Trivia

This was a Blue Ribbon cartoon for many years. [1] For television airings, a Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon title card, made for the 1995 dubbed version, was shown, much like in television airings of The Night Watchman. Afterwards, the title of the episode was in the older Blue Ribbon title card from the 40's. For DVD release, the original title cards to this episode were shown. The 1940's Merrie Melodies end music played over the end title, as that very dubbed version was used as the source of restoration.

Censorship

• On Cartoon Network and The WB!, the scene where Egghead shoots an audience member after standing up from his seat numerous times is gone. [2]
• According to animation historian David Gerstein, the ending was later compared with the Hare-Um Scare-Um's ending scene, which involved the Bugs Bunny prototype bounces his head on the floor after a beaten hunter's gun is dropped by the rabbit. The hunter then is isane, and does the same thing. This scene was removed from all TV prints of Hare-um Scare-um due to the similarity. [3]

See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929–1939)

External links

• Daffy Duck & Egghead at the Internet Movie Database