Bugs Bunny from Looney Tunes may be the greatest character ever created. Mickey Mouse is more iconic, but that’s mainly a function of its role as a mascot for a huge multinational corporation. Beloved characters like Homer Simpson and Ash Ketchum have left undeniable marks in pop culture, but they are essentially human characters who just happen to appear in animated series.
Bugs, on the other hand, is definitely one animated movie. Every aspect of his character is rooted in this reality; his fearlessness, his flexibility and his invincibility all stem from the essential qualities of animation. From moment to moment everything is possible, everything is arranged to ensure his success, and in this he moves through his world with unfailing confidence.
A wrong turn in Albuquerque
Bugs Bunny has been a towering figure in pop culture for over 75 years, and in that time countless writers, animators, and producers have scrutinized the character. However, what we call Bugs Bunny was fully formed very early on.
Animation directors such as Bob McKimson, Friz Freleng, and especially Chuck Jones defined the character and made him the carefree, smart-ass villain we know today. The 1930s and 1940s were the early days of animation (Mickey Mouse, for example, was created in 1928), and Warner Brothers encouraged Jones and company to first find and then push the boundaries of the new art form. by.
The results were astonishingly inventive. Kinetic, dynamic and energetic, the early WB cartoons defined what a cartoon is. Then, in the borderline chaos of the Looney Tunes universe, they dropped a point of immense, unwavering nonchalance: Bugs Bunny.
Drawing heavily on the stage persona of Groucho Marx, with vaudevillian one-liners like, “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive,” Bugs was always two steps ahead. Supernaturally calm, Bugs breaks the fourth wall, viewing his fellow cartoon characters with a kind of bewildered disdain. He knows that the rules they believe govern their universe are all flexible and contingent and certainly don’t apply to him.
What’s wrong, doctor?
In fact, it is this existence outside the rules of his universe that most defines Bugs Bunny. His disrespect for the rules of the world he lives in has an air of anarchism to it, as when he tells Yosemite Sam, who acts as a prison guard, “Eh, you wouldn’t be so tough if you weren’t wearing that uniform.” .” Bugs is not beholden to them, or anyone portrayed as a bit of a dork. He is a lawless existence, and seems unreasonably charmed. It is therefore not difficult to imagine that perhaps we would all do well to follow the same approach.
However, anarchists are not alone in claiming Bugs’ subversive energy. Jones, Freleng, and other Warner Bros animators took a keen interest in the visual arts movements of the time, to the point that individual frames of their cartoons could easily pass for abstract expressionist paintings. So it should come as no surprise that Bugs, especially through his Groucho Marx lineage, has a bit of a surrealist in him.
In fact, a major part of Bugs’ appeal to adults is due to the cleverness with which he distorts the reality around him. Bugs’ intrigues and diversions, like the famous “Duck Season – Rabbit Season” play, or when he points out that “this defies the law of gravity, but I never went to law school,” don’t follow the rules of our world, but they have a strange kind of logic to them.
Tricks and cheaters
Bugs Bunny’s behavior, whether heroic or anti-social, including his fourth wall breaking, gender bending, and language games, all boil down to one main characteristic: Bugs lives in this world, but doesn’t play by the rules. In this way he resembles nothing more than the impostor figures seen in the world mythologies.
A trickster figure is a character archetype found in many cultures and mythologies around the world. They usually use humor, cunning and deceit to achieve their goals. Because they operate outside of cultural norms, cheaters are often disruptive and unpredictable, a direct affront to their culture’s assumptions and all the ideas we take for granted, often without even realizing that they are not universal or inevitable.
Examples of trickster figures from different cultures include Loki from Norse mythology, Anansi from West African folklore, and Coyote from Native American folklore, and like these figures, Bugs enjoys his own freedom from social norms. Witty and smart, he enjoys outsmarting his opponents, especially Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and other opponents facing more traditional structures.
Bugs often uses trickery and trickery to get what he wants and to protect himself, and like other tricksters, Bugs Bunny challenges authority and societal norms, for better or for worse. In this way we can see that Bugs played a small but key role in 20th century Americana and the great cultural shifts it underwent; it’s a role we could use a little more of right now.