"Uh, I'm your neighbor from down the street. I brung you those carrots you asked about. Personally, I don't think a stew is a stew without carrots."
Compressed Hare is a 1961 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, starring Bugs Bunny in his fourth outing with Wile E. Coyote.Bugs Bunny's neighbor, Wile E. Coyote, calls the former over through a telephone while he is showering so that he can borrow a cup of carrots for his stew. Bugs then finishes his bath and comes over to his neighbor's cave with the promised cup of carrots, but as soon as he glimpses at Wile E.'s mailbox, he mocks him as he knocks on the door and is promptly captured.
Inside, Wile E. ties his leporid neighbor to a stake and goes to select a bottle of wine. However, Bugs manages to escape by triggering a Rube Goldberg-esque chain of events that culminates in Wile E.'s Murphy bed driving him into the floor, and as soon as the rabbit makes his getaway, the Coyote makes new unsuccessful attempts to subdue Bugs, like a vacuum cleaner, a cannon, quick-drying cement and a massive 10 billion-volt electric magnet as well as an iron carrot.
Tropes:
- Acme Products: Wile E. tries to fool Bugs with an ACME Iron Carrot in his scheme to capture him with the 10 billion-volt electric magnet.Wile E. Coyote: By George, Wile E., you've done it this time. You genius, you.
- Aside Glance: Bugs over how Wile E. put "genius" on his mailbox.
- Bound and Gagged: Well, minus the "gagged" part. Wile E. restrains Bugs to a stake after capturing him at the start of the short. Bugs is still able to jump while in his tied-up state, though.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Bugs blithely chats with Wile E. even as the Coyote is tying him up inside his cave.
- Wile E. has a good line about the predicament that Bugs is in when Bugs is tied up at Wile E.'s lair later:
Wile E.: You're staying for lunch, all right— you are lunch. - Didn't See That Coming: Bugs is able to work around the cannon, thanks to a makeshift pipe network that simply sends the cannonball back up to Wile E.'s home at the top of the hill. The cannonball promptly comes down the hill, leaving Wile E. to question how this is possible before getting hit in the head.
- Didn't Think This Through: Wile E. never considers the possibility of Bugs faking eating the iron carrot. He flips on the 10 Billion-Volt Magnet, which attracts everything but Bugs.
- Disaster Dominoes: After sending a wine cork into Wile E.'s eye with a jump on a floorboard, Bugs jumps on the same floorboard again to shoot another cork out. Wile E. manages to dodge that one, but now has to watch as it causes his ironing board to open, the iron to slide on it and fall on the pedal of his trash bin to open the lid and launch the cork onto a Mouse Trap, which launches the bait onto a spoon in a saucepan, propelling a pea in the spoon which triggers a switch causing Wile E.'s Murphy bed to open and drive its owner into the floor.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Just look at the way the rocket inserts itself into Wile E.'s cave before it explodes...
- Eye Scream: While tied to a stake, Bugs jumps on a floorboard which triggers a cork from one of Wile E.'s wine bottles to pop out and fly into his right eye.Wile E. Coyote: (removes the cork from his eye) Now look here, me bucko!
- Forcibly Formed Physique: Bugs' mailbox is the second thing to be caught by the electric magnet, but not before it flies into Wile E.'s face and deforms it into its shape.
- Gone Horribly Right: The 10 Billion-Volt Electric Magnet actually works, except it pulls every single metal object from all over the world (and from space!) within Wile E's cave. Among them a rocket, which explodes. Also doubles as Gone Horribly Wrong, since it was supposed to catch Bugs (who didn't eat the Iron Carrot).
- Hammered into the Ground: Happens to poor Wile E. when his Murphy bed opens right on top of him.
- Hollywood Magnetism: For his final attempt to catch Bugs, Wile E. constructs a giant electric magnet with 10,000,000,000 volts. However, since it has such an insane amount of volts, it ends up attracting a lot of miscellaneous stuff, ranging from the small iron carrot; Bugs' mailbox, iron, frying pan, trash can, steel mallet, cast-iron stove, and bed; a variety of manmade metal objects, a bulldozer, a bus, an ocean liner, the Eiffel Tower, various bits of space stuff from outer space, and finally to a ginormous rocket that lodges itself in Wile E.'s cave and blows up.Bugs Bunny: One thing's for sure, we're the first country to get a coyote into orbit.
- Idiot Ball: Wile E. never bothers to throw the off switch on his magnet, no matter how much metal stuff gets drawn into his cave.
- Murphy's Bed: Wile E.'s bed falls right on top of him thanks to a pea launched from a spoon in a saucepan.
- Pun: At least two from Wile E. and one from Bugs.
- "What a wonderful way to cement a friendship!"
- "Well, now he has concrete evidence that I'm a good neighbor."
- "Now that rabbit's really got a magnetic... (chuckles) personality!"
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Wile E. described the tied up Bugs as wild game.Wile E.: You are game, aren't you?
Bugs: [smirking] Oh, uh, I'm game all right. [starts up the Disaster Dominoes] - Pun-Based Title: Of "compressed air".
- Standard Snippet:
- Bugs recites "Singing in the Bathtub" during his bath at the beginning of the cartoon.
- "Powerhouse" is heard during the Rube Goldberg-esque sequence in Wile E.'s cave.
- Tempting Fate: After the vacuum stunt backfires on Wile E., Bugs remarks that's the end of that, only to see Wile E. rolling a cannon towards him.
- Villain Respect: Thinking he's vacuumed up Bugs, Wile E. instead finds a rabbit-shaped decoy made of explosives.Wile E.: Well, well, the boy has talent.
- Wet Cement Gag: Wile E. tries to encase Bugs in wet cement by dumping a wheelbarrow of said cement into the latter's hole, but as he tiptoes off laughing about it ("What a wonderful way to cement a friendship!"), Bugs pushes the now-hardened cement, which is shaped like a cylinder, above another hole, causing Wile E. to smack into it. He then slides down and the cement falls over with him still on it.Bugs Bunny: (chuckles) Well, now he has concrete evidence that I'm a good neighbor.
