Trivia / Bugs Bunny

• Banned in China: "Bewitched Bunny" was banned by the National Film Board of Canada when it was released in 1954, for Bugs' line of "Ah sure, I know. But aren't they all witches inside?" when Hazel is turned into a female rabbit, but retains Hazel's laugh. The ban was rescinded three days later.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The word "Nimrod" becoming an insult is often credited to Bugs calling Elmer Fudd by that name, in an ironic parallel to Nimrod, a great hunter mentioned briefly in the Book of Genesis, with the thought that kids, perhaps not knowing that obscure Biblical figure, thought it was a novel way of saying "moron", and started using it. But the cartoon where Elmer was called "Nimrod" was "What Makes Daffy Duck" in 1948, by Daffy himself. Bugs did use the term later, calling Yosemite Sam a "little Nimrod" in 1951's "Rabbit Every Monday".
• Black Sheep Hit: Knighty Knight Bugs, the only Bugs short to win an Oscar, is generally regarded as a solid Bugs entry but not really anything special.
• Creator Backlash: Some directors such as Friz Freleng hated working on the Bugs vs Elmer series, claiming Elmer was so meek and minimal a threat it was difficult not to devolve Bugs' character more into that of an unheroic bully. Other more imposing antagonists such as Yosemite Sam and Marvin the Martian were created specifically to rectify this, though Sam would become just as ineffective as Elmer, if still more belligerent.
  • Robert McKimson complained this strategy itself started to backfire, with Jones and Freleng so insistent on making Bugs look heroic and affable he became a Flat Character by the end of The '50s. Freleng himself started to notice this as well, joking in an interview that they figured Bugs was "getting old" and no longer mischievous.
• Creator's Favorite: Mel Blanc always said that Bugs was his favorite character to voice, to the point that he considered the rabbit something of an alter ego, incorporating him into his personal life. He had a hot tub with a tile mosaic of Bugs' face at the bottom, used "Bugs Bunny" as his CB radio handle, and credited Bugs with saving his life after he was briefly in a coma following a 1961 car accident.^ExplanationDepending on who you want to believe, Blanc either saw Bugs on TV after waking up and surprised the doctor by saying "What's up, Doc?", or the doctor got Blanc to speak for the first time after waking up by addressing him as Bugs.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In the Japanese dub of ''The Bugs Bunny Show, Bugs was voiced by Kazue Takahashi.
• Life Imitates Art: Sort of. After Bugs appeared as a U.S. Marine in "Super-Rabbit", the real Marines made him one. He was officially inducted into the force as a private, complete with dogtags. The character was regularly promoted until Bugs was officially "discharged" at the end of World War II as a Master Sergeant.
• More Popular Replacement: Since the original ending to 1939’s Hare-Um Scare-Um (which had never even been theatrically released) has been found and released on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, this restored cut has effectively replaced the original on television, being the version that airs on MeTV’s Toon in with Me and Bugs Bunny and Friends.
• The Other Darrin:
  • While Mel Blanc was alive, there were a handful of cases (mainly children's albums, TV promos and redub work) where various voice actors took on the role of the iconic rabbit for an officially licensed product, presumably because of availability (or affordability) issues with Blanc.
  • After Blanc died in 1989, a variety of others have voiced Bugs, especially Jeff Bergman (who was Blanc's first official replacement, and took over permanently in 2011), but also Joe Alaskey, Greg Burson, Billy West (most famously in Space Jam), Eric Bauza and, on a couple of smaller non-animated projects, Blanc's son Noel.
• The Red Stapler: Inverted. According to an article in The New Yorker, Bugs' popularity has resulted in a decline of rabbit meat as an American food staple.
• Referenced by...: Shares a page with the Looney Tunes franchise.
• Time Marches On: 8 Ball Bunny: Animal welfare laws and zoological care standards established since the 1960s have basically spoiled the cartoon’s Twist Ending for modern audiences, who would sooner expect a top hat-wearing showbiz penguin like Playboy to have been born in captivity anyways (putting aside his previous appearance in Frigid Hare, where he actually was a wild animal).
• What Could Have Been: Tex Avery originally wanted to call him Jack E. Rabbit.
• Write What You Know: "What's Up, Doc?" was a very popular Texan colloquialism that Fred "Tex" Avery, nicknamed for the state in which he grew up, often heard when he was in college.

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