Daffy Duck

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
"Daffy" redirects here. For other uses, see Daffy (disambiguation).
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed.
Find sources: "Daffy Duck" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December
2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Daffy Duck

Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies character

First appearance Porky's Duck Hunt (1937)

Tex Avery
Created by
Bob Clampett

Voiced by Mel Blanc (1937–1989)

Jeff Bergman (1989–1993, 1997, 2002–2004, 2007,

2011–2018)

Joe Alaskey (1990–2011, 2014)

Greg Burson (1990, 1992–1995, 1997–1998)

Maurice LaMarche (1991)
 Frank Gorshin (1996)

Dee Bradley Baker (1996, 2008, 2016–2020)

Billy West (1999)

Sam Vincent (Baby Looney Tunes; 2001–2006)

Jeff Bennett (2003–2004, 2006)

Eric Bauza (2018–present)

(see below)

Developed by Bob Clampett

Chuck Jones

Robert McKimson

Friz Freleng

Frank Tashlin

Arthur Davis

In-universe information

Alias Duck Dodgers

Species American black duck

Gender Male

Family None specified

Significant other Melissa Duck

Tina Russo

(The Looney Tunes Show)

Nationality American

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger

Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as
an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney
Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in which he is usually depicted as a foil for either Bugs
Bunny or Porky Pig.  He was one of the first of the new "screwball" characters that
[1]

emerged in the late 1930s to replace traditional everyman characters who were more

popular earlier in the decade, such as Mickey Mouse, Porky Pig, and Popeye.
Daffy starred in 130 shorts in the golden age, making him the third-most frequent
character in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, behind Bugs Bunny's 167
appearances and Porky Pig's 153 appearances. Virtually every Warner Bros. cartoon
director, most notably Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson, and Chuck Jones, put his own
spin on the Daffy Duck character.
He was ranked number 14 on TV Guide's list of top 50 greatest cartoon characters. [2][3]
 Contents

 1History
o 1.1Origin
o 1.2Golden Age Years
 1.2.1Daffy's early years, 1937–1940
 1.2.2World War II Daffy, 1941–1945
 1.2.3Evolving "Earlier" Daffy 1946–1952
 1.2.4Experimenting with Daffy 1953–1964
 1.2.4.1Pairing of Daffy and Porky in parodies of popular movies, 1951–1965
 1.2.4.2Pairing of Bugs and Daffy, 1951–1964
 1.2.5Solo Daffy
 1.2.6Daffy's pairing with Speedy in 1965–1968
o 1.3The Daffy Duck Show
o 1.4More recent years
 2Comics
 3Voice actors
 4Other media
 5See also
 6References
o 6.1Sources

History
Origin
Daffy first appeared in Porky's Duck Hunt, released on April 17, 1937.  The cartoon was
[4]

directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett. Porky's Duck Hunt is a standard

hunter/prey pairing, but Daffy (barely more than an unnamed bit player in this short) was
something new to moviegoers: an assertive, completely unrestrained, combative
protagonist. Clampett later recalled:
"At that time, audiences weren't accustomed to seeing a cartoon character do
these things. And so, when it hit the theaters it was an explosion. People would
leave the theaters talking about this daffy duck." [5]

This early Daffy is less anthropomorphic and resembles a normal black duck. In fact,

the only aspects of the character that have remained consistent through the years
are his voice characterization by Mel Blanc; and his black feathers with a white neck
ring. Blanc's characterization of Daffy once held the world record for the longest
characterization of one animated character by their original actor: 52 years.
The origin of Daffy's voice, with its lateral lisp, is a matter of some debate. One
often-repeated "official" story is that it was modeled after producer Leon
Schlesinger's tendency to lisp. However, in Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not
All Folks!, he contradicts that conventional belief, writing, "It seemed to me that such
an extended mandible would hinder his speech, particularly on words containing
an s sound. Thus 'despicable' became 'desth-picable.'"
Daffy's slobbery, exaggerated lisp was developed over time, and it is barely
noticeable in the early cartoons. In Daffy Duck & Egghead, Daffy does not lisp at all
except in the separately drawn set-piece of Daffy singing "The Merry-Go-Round
Broke Down" in which just a slight lisp can be heard.
In The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), Daffy has a middle name, Dumas as the writer
of a swashbuckling script, a nod to Alexandre Dumas. Also, in the Baby Looney
Tunes episode "The Tattletale", Granny addresses Daffy as "Daffy Horatio Tiberius
Duck". In The Looney Tunes Show (2011), the joke middle names "Armando" and
"Sheldon" are used.
Golden Age Years

Daffy as he first appeared in Porky's Duck Hunt (1937).

Daffy in drag as Carmen Miranda in Yankee Doodle Daffy (1943).

Daffy's early years, 1937–1940

Tex Avery and Bob Clampett created the original version of Daffy in 1937. Daffy
established his status by jumping into the water, hopping around, and yelling, "Woo-
hoo!" Animator Bob Clampett immediately seized upon the Daffy Duck character
and cast him in a series of cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s. The early Daffy is a
wild and zany screwball, perpetually bouncing around the screen with cries of "Hoo-
hoo! Hoo-hoo!" (In his autobiography, Mel Blanc stated that the zany demeanor was
inspired by Hugh Herbert's catchphrase, which was taken to a wild extreme for
Daffy.)
World War II Daffy, 1941–1945
 600 Bomb Squadron emblem Daffy Duck.

Daffy would also feature in several war-themed shorts during World War II,
remaining true to his unbridled nature. He battles a Nazi goat intent on eating Daffy's
scrap metal in Scrap Happy Daffy (1943), hits Adolf Hitler's head with a giant mallet
in Daffy the Commando (1943) and outwits Hitler, Goebbels and Goering in Plane
Daffy (1944). Oddly enough, it was only after these wartime escapades that Daffy is
actually subject to conscription into military service, in the form of "the little man from
the draft board", whom he tries to dodge in Draftee Daffy (1945). In the real world,
Daffy was indeed "drafted" as a mascot for the 600th Bombardment Squadron. [citation

needed]

Evolving "Earlier" Daffy 1946–1952

For Daffy Doodles (his first Looney Tunes cartoon as a director), Robert

McKimson tamed Daffy a bit, redesigning him yet again to be rounder and less
elastic. The studio also instilled some of Bugs Bunny's savvy into the duck, making
him as brilliant with his mouth as he was with his battiness. Daffy was teamed up
with Porky Pig; the duck's one-time rival became his straight man. Arthur Davis, who
directed Warner Bros. cartoon shorts for a few years in the late 1940s until upper
management decreed there should be only three units (McKimson, Friz Freleng, and
Jones), presented a Daffy similar to McKimson's. McKimson is noted as the last of
the three units to make his Daffy uniform with Jones's, with even late shorts, such
as Don't Axe Me (1958), featuring traits of the "screwball" Daffy. Starting in You
Were Never Duckier, Daffy's personality evolved to be from being less loony and
more greedy.
Experimenting with Daffy 1953–1964

While Daffy's looney days were over, McKimson continued to make him as bad or
good as his various roles required him to be. McKimson would use this Daffy from
1946 to 1961. Although, even McKimson would follow in Jones' footsteps in many
aspects with cartoons like People Are Bunny (1959) and Ducking the Devil (1957).
Friz Freleng's version took a hint from Chuck Jones to make the duck more
sympathetic, as in the 1957 Show Biz Bugs. Here, Daffy is overemotional and
jealous of Bugs, yet he has real talent that is ignored by the theater manager and
the crowd. This cartoon finishes with a sequence in which Daffy attempts to wow the
Bugs-besotted audience with an act in which he drinks gasoline and
swallows nitroglycerine, gunpowder, and uranium-238 (in a greenish solution),
jumps up and down to "shake well" and finally swallows a lit match that detonates
the whole improbable mixture. When Bugs tells Daffy that the audience loves the act
and wants more, Daffy, now a ghost floating upward (presumably to Heaven), says
that he can only do the act once. Some TV stations, and in the 1990s the cable
network TNT, edited out the dangerous act, afraid of imitation by young children.
Pairing of Daffy and Porky in parodies of popular movies, 1951–1965

While Bugs Bunny became Warner Bros.' most popular character, the directors still

found ample use for Daffy. Several cartoons place him in parodies of popular
movies and radio serials; Porky Pig was usually a comic relief sidekick. For
example, Daffy in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) as "Duck Twacy" (Dick
Tracy) by Bob Clampett; in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), Daffy was the hero
and Porky Pig was the villain. In Drip-Along Daffy (1951), named after the Hopalong
Cassidy character, throws Daffy into a Western with him labeled "Western-Type
Hero" and Porky Pig labeled "Comedy Relief". In Duck Dodgers in the 24½th
Century (1953), a parody of Buck Rogers, Daffy trades barbs (and bullets)
with Marvin the Martian, with Porky Pig retaining the role of Daffy's sidekick.
In Rocket Squad (1956), a parody of Dragnet and Racket Squad, Daffy and Porky
Pig pair up once again. Daffy also played Stupor Duck, a parody of the Adventures
of Superman television series. Robin Hood Daffy (1958) casts the duck in the role of
the legendary outlaw Robin Hood with Porky Pig as Friar Tuck. Besides being
playing parodies, Daffy also played a salesman-who continually annoys a potential
customer into buying something: in Fool Coverage, Daffy actually succeeds into
selling Porky Pig a $1,000,000 accident policy which only works under impossible
conditions-unfortunately for Daffy, all the conditions occur!
Pairing of Bugs and Daffy, 1951–1964

Bugs's ascension to stardom also prompted the Warner Bros. animators to recast
Daffy as the rabbit's rival, intensely jealous, insecure and determined to steal back
the spotlight, while Bugs either remained cool headed but mildly amused and/or
indifferent to the duck's jealousy and/or used it to his advantage. Daffy's desire to
achieve stardom at almost any cost was explored as early as 1940 in Freleng's You
Ought to Be in Pictures, but the idea was most successfully used by Chuck Jones,
who redesigned the duck once again, making him scrawnier and scruffier. In Jones'
"Hunting Trilogy" (or "Duck Season/Rabbit Season Trilogy") of Rabbit Fire, Rabbit
Seasoning and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (each respectively launched in 1951, 1952, and
1953), Daffy's attention-grabbing ways and excitability provide Bugs Bunny the
perfect opportunity to fool the hapless Elmer Fudd into repeatedly shooting the
duck's bill off. Also, these cartoons reveal Daffy's catchphrase, "Youuu're
deththpicable!" Jones' Daffy sees himself as self-preservationist, not selfish.
However, this Daffy can do nothing that does not backfire on him, more likely to
singe his tail feathers as well as his ego and pride than anything.  It is thought that
[6]

Chuck Jones based Daffy Duck's new personality on his fellow animator Bob
Clampett, who, like Daffy, was known as a loud self-promoter. In Beanstalk
Bunny Daffy, Bugs and Elmer are once again teamed up in a parody of Jack and the
Beanstalk (with Elmer as the giant); in A Star Is Bored Daffy tries to upstage Bugs
Bunny; while in the spoofs of the TV shows The Millionaire and This Is Your
Life, The Million Hare Daffy tries to defeat his arch-rival Bugs Bunny for a
$1,000,000.00 prize given out by his favorite TV show and This Is a Life? Daffy tries
to upstage Bugs Bunny in order to be the guest of honor on the show; in all four of
these cartoons Daffy ends up a loser because of his own overemotional personality
(which impairs Daffy's common sense and reasoning ability) and his craving for
attention.
Solo Daffy

Film critic Steve Schneider calls Jones' version of Daffy "a kind of
unleashed id."  Jones said that his version of the character "expresses all of the
[7]

things we're afraid to express."  This is evident in Jones' Duck Amuck (1953), "one

[7]

of the few unarguable masterpieces of American animation" according to Schneider.

 In the episode, Daffy is plagued by a godlike animator whose malicious paintbrush
[8]

alters the setting, soundtrack, and even Daffy. When Daffy demands to know who is
responsible for the changes, the camera pulls back to reveal none other than Bugs
Bunny. Duck Amuck is widely heralded as a classic of filmmaking for its illustration
that a character's personality can be recognized independently of appearance,
setting, voice, and plot.  In 1999, the short was selected for preservation in the
[8]

United States National Film Registry.

Daffy's pairing with Speedy in 1965–1968

When the Warner Bros. animation studio briefly outsourced cartoon production
to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE) in the 1960s, Daffy Duck became an
antagonist in several cartoons opposite Speedy Gonzales, who refers to Daffy as
"the loco duck." In Well Worn Daffy (1965), Daffy is determined to keep the mice
away from a desperately needed well seemingly for no other motive than pure
maliciousness. Furthermore, when he draws all the water he wants, Daffy then
attempts to destroy the well in spite of the vicious pointlessness of the act, forcing
Speedy to stop him. The Warner Bros. studio was entering its twilight years, and
even Daffy had to stretch for humor in the period. In many of the later DFE cartoons,
such as Feather Finger and Daffy's Diner, Daffy is portrayed as a more sympathetic
character (often forced to turn against Speedy at the behest of a common enemy)
rather than the full-blown villain he is in cartoons like Well Worn Daffy and Assault
and Peppered. The last cartoon featuring Daffy and Speedy is See Ya Later
Gladiator, in what animation fans call the worst cartoon made by Warner Bros. [9]

The Daffy Duck Show