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"Bugs is who we want to be. Daffy is who we are."

Daffy Duck is a Looney Tunes character created by Tex Avery (although Bob Clampett contributed to Daffy's personality) in 1937. He was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Porky Pig. Was originally The Screwball /Cloudcuckoolander, later developed by Chuck Jones (and Friz Freleng, even more so) into a Jerkass Small Name, Big Ego, most famously paired with Bugs Bunny as the Odd Couple, but is also frequently set up against Porky Pig, who works as The Comically Serious and Deadpan Snarker to Daffy's hijinks. In this incarnation, used either as a foil for Bugs or to parody action-adventure heroes. Meanwhile Robert McKimson combined the two interpretations and made Daffy into a Loveable Rogue. Later also joined Sylvester on the hunt for Speedy Gonzales. Debut: Porky's Duck Hunt (1937), Tex Avery.

Daffy has had the third largest amount of appearances in Looney Tunes history, next to Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny, starring in 129 theatrical cartoons. He, along with Speedy Gonzales, has the distinction of starring in the final classic theatrical Looney Tunes short, which was See Ya Later Gladiator.

Many of the cartoons in which Daffy has starred have been parodies of movies and radio serials, such as Duck Dodgers, Duck Twacy (in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery), and Robin Hood Daffy.

    Filmography 

1937

  • Porky's Duck Hunt (LT, Avery) - Daffy's first appearance, in a Porky Pig cartoon. Redrawn in color, 1967.

1938

1939

  • Daffy Duck And The Dinosaur (MM, Jones) - The first Chuck Jones short to use the character. We also start to see a hint of what Daffy would later become, as he is presented as more thoughtful and calculating than he usually was in his early appearances. Public Domain.
  • Scalp Trouble (LT, Clampett) - In a Porky Pig cartoon. Remade as "Slightly Daffy" in 1944; redrawn in color 1967.
  • Wise Quacks (LT, Clampett) - In a Porky Pig cartoon.
  • Naughty Neighbors (LT, Clampett) - In a Porky Pig cartoon, cameo. - Redrawn in color, 1967.

1940 (All cartoons co-star Porky Pig.)

1941 (All cartoons star Porky Pig.)

1942

  • Conrad the Sailor (MM, Jones) - Co-stars with Conrad the Cat.
  • Daffy's Southern Exposure (LT, McCabe) - Redrawn in color, 1967. Public Domain.
  • The Impatient Patient (LT, McCabe) - Redrawn in color, 1967. Public Domain.
  • The Daffy Duckaroo (LT, McCabe) - Redrawn in color, 1967. Public Domain.
  • My Favorite Duck (LT, Jones)- In a Porky Pig cartoon. Reissued as a Merrie Melodies film.

1943

  • To Duck or Not to Duck (LT, Jones) - First Daffy/Elmer pairing. Public Domain.
  • The Wise Quacking Duck (LT, Clampett)
  • Yankee Doodle Daffy (LT, Freleng)- In a Porky Pig cartoon. Public Domain.

1944

  • Tom Turk and Daffy (LT, Jones) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • Tick Tock Tuckered (LT, Clampett) - Starring Porky Pig. Remake of Porky's Badtime Story.
  • Duck Soup to Nuts (LT, Freleng) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • Slightly Daffy (MM, Freleng) - Starring Porky Pig. Remake of Scalp Trouble.
  • Plane Daffy (LT, Tashlin)
  • The Stupid Cupid (LT, Tashlin) - Starring Elmer Fudd.

1945

1946

1947

  • Birth of a Notion (LT, McKimson) - Re-issued as a Merrie Melodies film.
  • Along Came Daffy (LT, Freleng) - Starring Yosemite Sam. Re-issued as a Merrie Melodies film.
  • A Pest in the House (LT, Jones) - Starring Elmer Fudd.
  • Mexican Joyride (LT, Davis)

1948

1949

  • Wise Quackers (LT, Freleng) - Starring Elmer Fudd.
  • Holiday for Drumsticks (MM, Davis)
  • Daffy Duck Hunt (LT, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.

1950

1951

  • Rabbit Fire (LT, Jones) - Starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd.
  • Drip-Along Daffy (MM, Jones) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • The Prize Pest (LT, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.

1952

  • Thumb Fun (MM, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • Cracked Quack (MM, Freleng) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • Rabbit Seasoning (MM, Jones) - Starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd.
  • The Super Snooper (LT, McKimson)
  • Fool Coverage (LT, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.

1953

1954

  • Design for Leaving (LT, McKimson) - Starring Elmer Fudd.
  • Quack Shot (MM, McKimson) - Starring Elmer Fudd.
  • My Little Duckaroo (LT, Jones) - Starring Porky Pig.

1955

  • Beanstalk Bunny (MM, Jones) - Starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd.
  • Stork Naked (MM, Freleng)
  • This Is a Life? (MM, Freleng) - Starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Granny.
  • Dime to Retire (LT, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • Sahara Hare (LT, Freleng) - In a Bugs Bunny cartoon, cameo

1956

  • The High and the Flighty (MM, McKimson) - Starring Foghorn Leghorn.
  • Rocket Squad (LT, Jones) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • Stupor Duck (LT, McKimson)
  • A Star Is Bored (LT, Freleng) - Starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam.
  • Deduce, You Say! (LT, Jones) - Starring Porky Pig.

1957

1958

  • Don't Axe Me (MM, McKimson) - Starring Elmer Fudd.
  • Robin Hood Daffy (MM, Jones) - Starring Porky Pig.

1959

  • China Jones (LT, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.
  • People Are Bunny (MM, McKimson) - Starring Bugs Bunny.
  • Apes of Wrath (MM, Freleng) - In a Bugs Bunny cartoon, cameo

1960

1961

  • The Abominable Snow Rabbit (LT, Jones; co-dir: Noble) - Starring Bugs Bunny.
  • Daffy's Inn Trouble (LT, McKimson) - Starring Porky Pig.

1962

  • Quackodile Tears (MM, Davis)
  • Good Noose (LT, McKimson)

1963

  • Fast Buck Duck (MM, McKimson; co-dir.: Bonnicksen)
  • The Million Hare (LT, McKimson) - Starring Bugs Bunny
  • Aqua Duck (MM, McKimson)

1964

  • The Iceman Ducketh (LT, Monroe) - Starring Bugs Bunny. Last appearance with Bugs in the original theatrical cartoons.

1965

  • It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House (LT, Pratt) - Starring Sylvester, Granny, Speedy. First pairing of Daffy and Speedy.
  • Moby Duck (LT, McKimson) - Starring Speedy.
  • Assault and Peppered (MM, McKimson) - Starring Speedy.
  • Well Worn Daffy (LT, McKimson) - Starring Speedy.
  • Suppressed Duck (LT, McKimson)
  • Corn On The Cop (MM, Spector) - Starring Granny, Porky Pig. Final pairing of Daffy and Porky.
  • Tease for Two (LT, McKimson) - Starring the Goofy Gophers.
  • Chili Corn Corny (LT, McKimson) - Starring Speedy.
  • Go Go Amigo (MM, McKimson) - Starring Speedy.

1966 (All cartoons co-star Daffy and Speedy.)

  • The Astroduck (or Astro Duck) (LT, McKimson)
  • Mucho Locos (MM, McKimson) - Clips from "Deduce, You Say!," "Robin Hood Daffy" and "China Jones" used.
  • Mexican Mousepiece (MM, McKimson)
  • Daffy Rents (LT, McKimson)
  • A-Haunting We Will Go (LT, McKimson) - Starring Witch Hazel. Clips from "Bewitched Bunny" incorporated.
  • Snow Excuse (MM, McKimson)
  • A Squeak in the Deep (LT, McKimson)
  • Feather Finger (MM, McKimson)
  • Swing Ding Amigo (LT, McKimson)
  • A Taste of Catnip (MM, McKimson)

1967 (All cartoons co-star Daffy and Speedy.)

  • Daffy's Diner (MM, McKimson)
  • Quacker Tracker (LT, McKimson)
  • The Music Mice-Tro (MM, McKimson)
  • The Spy Swatter (LT, Larriva)
  • Speedy Ghost to Town (MM, Lovy)
  • Rodent to Stardom (LT, Lovy)
  • Go Away Stowaway (MM, Lovy)
  • Fiesta Fiasco (LT, Lovy) Birthday Episode made to mark Daffy's 30th anniversary.

1968 (All cartoons co-star Daffy and Speedy.)

  • Skyscraper Caper (LT, Lovy)
  • See Ya Later Gladiator (LT, Lovy) - Final theatrical Daffy Duck cartoon until 1980.(LT)

1972

1976

  • "Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals"(Jones) Aired on CBS. Co-starring Bugs Bunny, cameo by Porky Pig. Based on "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns.

1980

  • The Yolk's on You (originally part of Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-Citement)
  • The Chocolate Chase (originally part of Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-Citement)
  • Daffy Flies North (originally part of Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-Citement)
  • Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century - First theatrical "Daffy Duck" cartoon since 1968.

1983

1987

  • The Duxorcist (MM, Ford/Lennnon)

1988

1990

1991

1992

1993

1995

  • Carrotblanca - voiced by Joe Alaskey

1996

1998

  • The Drew Carey Show - Daffy made a guest appearance in the season finale "My Best Friend's Wedding", voiced by Joe Alaskey
  • Histeria! - Makes several cameos, voiced by Billy West

2001

2002

2003

2004

  • Daffy Duck for President -voiced by Joe Alaskey
  • Wile E Coyote Ugly - voiced by Joe Alaskey

2005

2006

  • Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, voiced by Joe Alaskey

2011

2012

  • Daffy's Rhapsody, a completely musical short using Mel Blanc's earlier recording. Coincidentally was released two months before Daffy's 75th anniversary.

2015

2020

2021

2022

2023


"Anyone for tropes?":

  • Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: His white collar, revealed to be his grandmother's pearl necklace in The Looney Tunes Show. He claims it's for medical reasons.
  • Achievements in Ignorance: Some applied Toon Physics in "Porky and Daffy":
    Daffy: "I'm so crazy, I don't know that this is impossible!"
  • Acme Products: Daffy has been known to use these a few times.
  • Alliterative Name: Daffy Duck
  • Always Second Best:
  • Ambiguously Jewish: In the subtitles of Hitler's rant in Scrap Happy Daffy, he refers to Daffy as a "Non Aryan Duck". This fits in with filmmaker Greg Ford's account that actor Mel Blanc confided that Daffy is supposed to sound "Jewish" as opposed to Sylvester's "Gentile" voice.
  • Anti-Hero: Sways between Unscrupulous Hero and Nominal Hero depending on the cartoon in question.
  • Anti-Villain: Unlike most of his appearances with Speedy, his motive in "Mexican Mousepiece" for sending mice away is to feed foreign cats who are starving to death.
  • Arch-Enemy: He eventually replaces Sylvester as Speedy's main enemy and spends most of his other appearances in the 1960s fighting the rodent.
  • Ash Face: Most infamously in the short Rabbit Fire.
  • At Least I Admit It: Daffy confesses on more than one occasion to be a coward and/or greedy.
    • He particularly confesses to both in "Ducking the Devil". He confesses cowardice when he first sees the Tasmanian Devil and runs for his life ("I am a coward, a craven, little, scared-to-death coward!"). And when he hears of a $5,000 reward for the capture of the Tasmanian Devil, he happily accepts the challenge of bringing the beast in and getting paid for it because "I may be a craven, little coward, but I'm a greeeedy, craven, little coward."
    • His very first line in "Porky's Duck Hunt" has him owning up to being "a crazy darn-fool duck".
  • Attention Whore: While the motivation of this trait has changed over the years, this has always been a consistent aspect of the character.
  • Ax-Crazy: While his over-the-top insanity was usually fairly harmless, he certainly had his moments in which it becomes violent. It's especially when he tries to saw a kidnapped Porky open in The Daffy Doc.
  • Bad Boss: Anyone unlucky enough to work under him in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas will get treated like dirt. For instance, he demotes Porky for politely suggesting he could see a speech specialist about his lisp. He seems to have gotten over this later, however.
    Daffy: [to Sylvester] Wait a minute, this is some kind of trick. Who put you up to this? Was it the rabbit? Or did my subordinates hire you to scare me into treating them with some dignity?
  • Badly Battered Babysitter
    • The Up-Standing Sitter
    • Any time he has to watch his own kids (Wise Quacks) or his eggs (Quackodile Tears).
  • Bait-and-Switch Compassion: Daffy Duck's reaction when he sees a dog making sad faces at him through a window. Currently the trope's page image.
    Daffy: Aw, shucks. I can't stand to see a dumb animal suffer. So... [Closes the window blinds. Walks away.]
  • Beastly Bloodsports: In "Mexican Joyride", Daffy goes to a bullfight ring to observe the spectacle. When Daffy jeers at the bull, the horned beast removes the clothes from the human matador and puts them on Daffy as a challenge to the duck to fight the bull in the ring.
  • Berserk Button: Do not ever steal money from Daffy, EVER! Especially money that he actually earned. The Tasmanian Devil learned this the hard way.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: In his screwball depictions, he's exaggeratedly goofy and zany. However, these characteristics do not mean he's a pushover.
  • Big Eater: Not so much in the cartoons, aside from "BBQ Bandit" which shows us he can eat loads of barbecue. However, in the licensed Dell comics, this became a big part of his character. In the comics, Daffy was always hungry and many of his schemes revolved around tricking people into giving him free food. Elmer was his favorite target, to the point where Elmer could barely go grocery shopping or picnicking without Daffy showing up and trying to mooch off him.
    Daffy: [to a boy] I'm going to be your new pet duck! [...] And all you have to do is feed me, keep me warm, feed me, feed me, and give me a snack from time to time!
  • Birthday Episode: Fiesta Fiasco, in which Daffy attempts to crash Speedy's party, only to find out it's for him (Daffy, somewhat uncharacteristically, forgot his own birthday). The short was made to mark the 30th anniversary of "Porky's Duck Hunt".
  • BFS: Subverted in "Scalp Trouble". General Daffy carries a ridiculously large sheath with him when he first appears, but it turns out it only contains a dagger.
  • Breakout Character: Intended as a one-shot foil for Porky in Avery's "Porky's Duck Hunt". Audiences became fascinated by the character's wacky, abrasive personality, leading WB to place him in more shorts. These days he stands as the most prominent Looney Tunes star outside or even equal to fellow Breakout Character Bugs Bunny.
  • Bullet Seed: In Muscle Tussle Daffy faces a rival for his gal's affections. At one point his rival bites a chain, chews, and spits out a bunch of nails. Not to be outdone Daffy bites a chain, chews, and spits out his teeth.
  • Butt-Monkey: Most later interpretations, especially Chuck Jones' version, to the point of playing the Straw Loser in the series. It gets Deconstructed however, in Back in Action.
  • Captain Ersatz: The Walter Lantz cartoon star Woody Woodpecker was, shall we way, "inspired" by Daffy's early screwball incarnation. He was even voiced by Mel Blanc in his first few appearances, and his debut cartoon "Knock Knock" ended in the exact same way as Daffy Duck and Egghead.
  • Card-Carrying Jerkass: Much like his counterpart Bugs Bunny, Daffy started off as a rather extreme hyperactive Cloud Cuckoolander with a cruel streak. While his obnoxiousness and cruelty were likewise toned down over time, unlike Bugs, he never completely lost his tendency towards being selfish and mean; in fact, today he's most famous for being Bugs's openly conniving (if generally ineffective) Foil. In one of the licensed Dell comics, he even shamelessly calls himself a "scoundrel" while tricking Elmer.
  • Carnivore Confusion: The Warner Bros. standard. This gets really bizarre in later cartoons like "Duck Soup to Nuts" and "Daffy Duck Hunt", where Daffy is almost as anthropomorphized as Porky.
  • Catchphrase Insult: It's Played for Laughs, though one of his ways of showing contempt for someone (especially in his jerkish portrayals) is also one of his catchphrases, namely "You're desthpicable!"
  • Character Catchphrase: He has several catchphrases unique to him.
    • "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century!"
    • "It'sh MINE, understand? MINE!"
    • "I'm rich! I'm wealthy! Yahoo!! I'm comfortably well-off." However, in Ali Baba Bunny, a variation of this catchphrase was shown (i.e. "I'm rich! I'm wealthy! I'm independent! I'm socially secure!").
    • "Sufferin' succotash!" (pronounced "Thufferin' thuccotash!") quite often in earlier shorts. However, it later was given to the similarly-voiced Sylvester the cat.
    • "Mother!" (when something really bad is about to happen to him)
    • "What a revolting development this is!"
    • "Anyone for tennis?"
    • "It's not the principle of the thing, it's the money!" (when he eagerly accepts a task that involves a huge monetary reward)
    • "You're CORRECT! Absolutely CORRECT!" (usually followed by Daffy biting a character's nose), mostly in the early shorts.
    • "It isn't as though [X], goodness knows."
  • Characterization Marches On: One of the most notable examples in the franchise (if not the animated scene as a whole), evolving from a bombastic Cloudcuckoolander to a luckless and conniving Small Name, Big Ego. Starting with Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production, his original personality of being a mischievous Cloudcuckoolander is reintroduced.
  • The Chew Toy: Especially in stories co-starring Bugs Bunny. The earlier, more Screwball Squirrel-like Daffy was less of a Chew Toy; it seems that Chuck Jones' recasting Daffy as a foil to Bugs' Heroic Trickster spurred the move. He also tends to be this in stories co-starring Speedy Gonzales, especially “Moby Duck”, as it’s very hard to feel sorry for his difficulty in opening canned food when he refused to give Speedy some of the food in exchange for the can opener.
  • Chick Magnet:
    • Not an aspect that is always stressed but Daffy has had plenty of women fall for him. The gorgeous red headed duck Femme Fatale from "The Super Snooper" fell for him at first sight, lavished him with kisses and wanted to marry him right away. Another female in "The Duxorcist" allowed him to kiss her only moments after they met. Even the blonde bombshell German Femme Fatale Spy pigeon Hatta Mari in Plane Daffy, who attempted to seduce him got turned on the second time they kissed. The Martian Queen Ty'ranee in Duck Dodgers loved him as well. The Looney Tunes Show pairs him with Tina. Not only that but there have been many times Daffy has been shown to be married to different female ducks with lots of kids. He is easily the most sexually active character out of the entire Looney Tunes crew.
    • Possibly lampshaded in an old Gold Key comic story ("The Charming Chump") after he gets a talkative Abhorrent Admirer in the form of Debbie Duck:
    Daffy: "Why am I so irresistible?"
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: There's a fairly long list of characters that Daffy has betrayed. He turns traitor on Bugs in several shorts and attempts to backstab Speedy in "See Ya Later Gladiator". He throws Sylvester under the bus in "The Yolk's on You" and does the same to Porky in "The Float". Not only does be betray Granny in "Toon Marooned", he starts an alliance with several other characters then reveals to the audience he'll eventually backstab them. Moreover, he even later eliminates several of them. In "Mallard Practice", he agrees to be Elmer's lawyer and win his case for him. He then frames him and accuses him of several crimes so he'd be sentenced to death. In one episode, Yosemite Sam even calls him "double-crossing".
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Most notably in his wackier personality, even though the later more ambitious versions aren't all that stable at times either. However, according to Daffy in his earlier shorts: "I'm not crazy, I just don't give a darn!"
  • Comically Cross-Eyed: In his screwball persona, Daffy would occasionally gain cross eyes as gags.
  • Consolation Backfire: At the end of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters Daffy is completely bankrupt and can't pay his rent, and a repo crew come in to take all his stuff. Daffy then says "One thing's for sure, I've got nowhere else to go but up!", then a wrecking ball crashes in his office.
  • Crazy Survivalist: In the "Hunting Trilogy".
    Daffy: "Survival of the fittest. And besides, it's fun!"
    "Awfully unsporting of me, I know, but what the hey, I gotta have some fun!"
    "I am a duck bent on self-preservation."
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
    • His attempts to prove his superiority over Bugs and look like a suave hero nearly always fall flat, but when a true push comes to a shove, he can prove rather cunning and formidable. Even excluding earlier shorts, this is the same guy that beat the crap out of the Tazmanian Devil for stealing one dollar from him, oh and he has beaten Bugs at least once...
    • As Duck Dodgers, he certainly has his moments.
  • Cuckoosnarker: Some adaptations combine his goofy, hyperactive personality from Bob Clampett's era and his heavy sarcasm from Chuck Jones's era, resulting in this trope. Examples are the first Space Jam, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and even his brief appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Under Jones' retooling, Daffy's shtick was to arrogantly go up against opponents he was hopelessly outclassed by, most prominently Bugs, though even Elmer ran rings around him at times.
  • Curb-Stomp Cushion:
    • Oddly enough, he was slightly more formidable against Speedy. He even won a couple odd times.
    • While he never defeated Bugs, Daffy was able to actually get in some hits at him from time to time, which is rare for a Bugs Bunny antagonist.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: The reason why Daffy is rude, greedy & selfish, because when he was a duckling, he didn't spend time with his family for every Christmas, which was revealed in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Not so much in his early Cloudcuckoolander days, but he has quite a sarcastic streak in later cartoons.
  • Depending on the Writer: One of the most notable examples in the series, nearly every director had a unique take on Daffy, some bearing little resemblance to others (though this is partially due to the character's Flanderization). Nowadays, his portrayal tends to swing around between either his Cloudcuckoolander persona and the more lucid, pompous Butt-Monkey one depending on the work.
  • Determinator: Like most Looney Tunes characters he'll do whatever it takes to upstage his rival.
  • Deuteragonist: Of the Looney Tunes franchise.
  • Did Not Think This Through: In the 2004 short "Daffy Duck for President", the titular duck discovers that the courts have the power to interpret new U.S. laws, so he tells Bugs Bunny that their Duck Season, Rabbit Season feud is going to the steps of the Supreme Court (and also states he'll try to make the court rule in his favor)...except, according to Bugs, that would be a violation of the fourth amendment to the Constitution, which protects people from illegal searches and seizures.
  • Dirty Coward:
    • Daffy is a self-confessed "craven little coward". Though he will occasionally defy his fears, if promises of fame and fortune are brought into the situation.
      Daffy: Like I said, I'm a coward, but I'm a greeeedy little coward.
    • When he gets the Abominable Snowman to focus on Bugs instead of him, giving him time to sneak away...
    • In Ali Baba Bunny, he abuses Bugs at the drop of a hat for supposedly trying to steal "his" treasure, and then just as quickly runs to his "pal" for protection as soon as the Sultan's guard comes after him.
      Bugs: What's with you, anyway?
      Daffy: I can't help it! I'm a greedy slob! It's my hobby! SAVE ME!
  • The Ditz: In The Looney Tunes Show, he's pretty much Peter Griffin and Joey Tribbiani in terms of intelligence, and not in a good way. Averted in many other productions, where he was just egotistical and, even earlier, crazy.
  • Downer Ending: Even in his pre-Butt-Monkey days, Daffy very commonly suffered for his hubris and mischief by the end of the cartoon. Both his compilation movies "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" and "Daffy Duck's Movie Fantastic Island" end with him having the short end of the stick. Every now and then however, Daffy would get thrown a bone.
  • Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Co-Trope Namer. Interestingly, while this was used against Daffy in the Trope Namer "Rabbit Fire", Daffy's used this against Porky in "Duck Soup to Nuts" and a bull in "Mexican Joyride".
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Daffy was originally a mindless heckler who went about his antics for no clear motivation, and was adorned with a pudgy, tiny design. Clampett began fleshing out Daffy's character later on, before Jones, Freleng and McKimson settled into their own interpretations of the waterfowl.
  • Egg-Laying Male: In "Golden Yeggs", a gold egg is laid at Porky's farm, and he asks who did it. The one who did it is a goose with a male voice, but since she doesn't want to end up dead like in the story of the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, she pins it on Daffy Duck instead. Mobster Rocky kidnaps Daffy and orders him to lay a gold egg, but after trying to escape, he is shot at and the shock somehow makes him actually lay a gold egg. Never in the cartoon is it questioned whether male birds should be expected to lay eggs, let alone gold ones, but nonetheless, Daffy tries to leave after (seemingly) making good on Rocky's demand ... only to have a gun shoved in his face and be escored to a warehouse full of egg cartons – possibly tens or hundreds of thousands, if not multiple millions – and ordered to "Fill 'em up!" ... to which Daffy faints dead away.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: Daffy's had several middle names, though none of them official.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: "Idiot Eyes" in the "Planet of the Taz" trilogy, judged by his "stupid look".
  • Enemy Mine: With Bugs in "Rabbit Fire", and Speedy in "See Ya Later Gladiator".
  • Entitled Bastard: Several instances have him be cruel to another character, which doesn't stop him from expecting whoever he wronged to help him when his actions backfire on him. For instance, he clearly expects Speedy to give him a can opener to open the stash of canned food he found in "Moby Duck". Before this however, he made it no secret he's going to keep it all for himself and he threw several rocks at the mouse. It's even more egregious considering the two are on a deserted island.
  • Era-Specific Personality
    • Avery and Clampett developed the "screwball" version of the early period. Jones' version is usually considered the contemporary rendition, a Composite Character is used on occasion however usually in the shorts by Bob McKimson and Frank Tashlin. The adaptations from The '80s until the mid-2010s usually showcased the Jones Daffy with only a touch of Screwball Daffy. Starting with Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production, though, his screwball persona is reintroduced.
    • This even got a Lampshade Hanging in "Pronoun Trouble", a Looney Tunes comic book story by animation historian Earl Kress:
      Daffy: I'm not a bad sort. Why does this keep happening to me? Oh, sure, I was kind of goofy when I was younger and then went through an egotistical, greedy phase, but I don't deserve this...
  • Even Evil Has Standards: "Nasty Quacks" (1945) has Daffy planning to kill a baby duck that had replaced him as his owner's pet but can't bring himself to do that to an infant. He gets around that moral hang up by feeding the baby duck growth pills. Of course, he drops the idea once it turns out the duckling is female— and pretty hot as an adult!
  • Everyone Has Standards: In "His Bitter Half." Daffy may be greedy, but after marrying a shrewish woman and suffering torment from his bratty stepson Wentworth, Daddy decides that no amount of money is worth being a Henpecked Husband and walks out on the family without looking back.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Occasionally goes into full-blown Pepé Le Pew mode ("A Coy Decoy", "Duck Soup to Nuts", "The Prize Pest"). He invokes the trope in "The Duxorcist":
    Daffy: "And I thought French was a romantic language!"
  • Evil Laugh: He makes an evil-sounding laugh during his scheme in "The Ducksters".
  • Exact Words: In one story, the Mayor of a Western town promises to pay Daffy fifteen dollars a week if Daffy catches Speedy Gonzales. After Daffy upholds his side of the agreement, the Mayor pays him for the time it takes Daffy to do so (not enough to complete one dollar) and tells Daffy to leave.
  • Expy
    • Not long after his conception, director Ben "Bugs" Hardaway took the character of Daffy and made him into a rabbit character called Bugs' Bunny (note the possessive term). This character was ultimately a failure, however, as he was even more obnoxious than Daffy ever was, to the point where the audience was rooting more for the victims rather than the rabbit.
    • Following this "Bugs' Bunny" would supposedly provide inspiration for Bugs Bunny, who maintained a similar (if somewhat toned down) abrasiveness as Daffy. In this case the Expy would become an even bigger hit than Daffy himself and continues being one of the most notable cartoon characters to date.
  • Face Doodling: "Daffy Doodles", where he plays the role of a vandal who paints mustaches on billboards.
  • Failure Hero: With the odd spaced exception.
  • Fast Tunnelling: Perhaps he learned it from Bugs. In at least one episode he was shown to be tunneling someplace by himself.
  • Fatal Flaw:
    • In his Jerkass persona, Daffy's temper is this. He will mouth off and antagonize others that he has no chance against just because of a stray word from them that may not even be directed at him. Best shown any time he's antagonistic towards Bugs, where Daffy could easily walk away none the worse but will resort to spiteful malice in an effort to see the rabbit suffer for once.
    • Greed is his other, most notably in Ali Baba Bunny. He lampshades it himself in "Superior Duck".
      Tiny Daffy: (clutching a pearl) I'm rich! I'm a happy miser!
    • His attempts at Stealing the Credit for being The Hero oftentimes has him exaggeratedly claiming he deserves credit for everything that transpired, which has him taken away by authorities under the assumption that he was confessing for starting the mess to begin with.
      Daffy: I did this! It was me! I masterminded this entire operation! It was me!!
  • Feather Fingers: And interestingly enough, he can actually fly with them, though he doesn't always remember to do so.
  • Feedback Rule: In the 1938 short "Daffy Duck in Hollywood", Daffy purposefully whistles loudly into a microphone on a movie soundstage and causes ear-splitting pain to a headphone-wearing technician on the receiving end.
  • Femme Fatale Spy: Hatta Mari of Plane Daffy and the unnamed duck suspect in The Super Snooper are both parodies of the type. It turns out that the latter hasn't actually done anything wrong, but she still acts the part.
  • Foil: To Bugs Bunny.
  • Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Even after Chuck Jones recreated Daffy as a pompous loser, there were a fair few references to his crazy trickster persona. This is particularly evident in Robert McKimson's work, who even after giving Daffy his later more lucid personality, had him snap back to his heckler persona on several occasions. Even some modern works such as Space Jam or Daffy Duck's Rhapsody blatantly hark back to the original Daffy.
  • Forgot I Could Fly: A running gag for Daffy, the earliest occurrence being the short "The Million Hare".
  • Foul Waterfowl: Daffy is portrayed as a greedy and narcissistic duck who relishes in messing with the likes of Elmer Fudd or Bugs Bunny for the hell of it, or to get something he wants, though Porky Pig was a more frequent target of his shenanigans. However, as he is the one that usually starts the cartoon's conflict, he often had some sort of karma handed to him by the end. His vices were especially brought to the forefront from "Rabbit Fire" onward, emphasizing his callous vanity to make him a better foil to Bugs, not returning to his earlier screwball personality until Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: Like all of the Funny Animal members of the Looney Tunes cast.
  • Freudian Excuse:
    • According to Daffy's Rhapsody, the reason Daffy is so daffy and self-preservative is because he's been driven insane by years of being brutally hunted by game hunters like Elmer Fudd. After years of being shot at and attacked in all sorts of ways, he eventually snapped.
    • Bah, Humduck! shows that the reason for his greed, selfishness, and cruelty is due to growing up as an orphan, never being adopted and having no friends or family while he grew up. Thus, he decided that being nice was for chumps, and that if generosity and kindness couldn’t help him, than selfishness and greed would. Lampshaded by Tweety.
    • The Looney Tunes Show has his many, many personality flaws be the result of a terrible childhood, having grown up in a Dysfunctional Family and been subject to constant bullying. The trauma from this was so bad that he’s implied to have repressed several of his memories.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: According to a direct-to-video film, Daffy's worst traits are the result of a Dark and Troubled Past; he grew up without any family in an orphanage and thus could never celebrate the holidays with anyone, with it also being suggested he never had any friends. While this explains why he hates the holidays and believes he needs to be as selfish as possible to survive, it doesn't justify his mistreatment of others. Granny calls him out on this.
  • Funny Animal: He's a Looney Tunes character, what do you expect?
  • Fur Is Clothing: In "The Wise-Quacking Duck", confronted with the oven, he distracts his antagonist by performing a strip-tease routine with his feathers.
  • Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: He has fallen onto both sides of this trope;
    • In the earlier shorts, where he's paired with Porky Pig, he's the gleeful screwball who always laughs, while Porky is the Nervous Wreck who has to put up with him.
    • In the later shorts, where he's paired with Bugs Bunny, he's a bitterly sarcastic and frustrated loser who hates Bugs, a carefree and easygoing trickster.
  • Graceful Loser: For as much smugness, dog-kicking and villainy that he's capable of, a few times Daffy does take his defeats well. In "The Chocolate Chase", for instance, all his attempts to thwart Speedy fail and the village he conned laughs at him. He also shows no signs of a Villainous Breakdown, is clearly happy, and decides to join in on the festivities. Speedy speculates he only became nicer due to being dipped in chocolate, though.
  • G-Rated Mental Illness: Early on. In The Looney Tunes Show, this gets upgraded to ambiguous disorder status.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: The counterintuitive form in "A Star Is Bored."
  • Greed: Becomes one of his defining traits later on, often to the extent that Greed Makes You Dumb, getting owned when he challenges much stronger beings for their baubles. Daffy desires material wealth as much as he desires the cheering and worshipping of others. Whenever he sees something shiny he goes completely, hysterically ballistic and doesn't pay any attention to whether the other person in the same vicinity has noticed it or cares about it, for him it is taken for granted that they 'll want to claim his gold. In "Superior Duck", he even lampshades it.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: One of Daffy's major failings is his tendency to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation.
  • Handy Feet: One of the Dell comics shows he can use his feet to open a banana.
  • Hard Mode Mooks: The Game Boy version of Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions has a special series of hard levels that you can play though if you beat the first screen on a Speed Run. These levels feature a few enemies that don't appear in a normal playthrough.
  • Harmless Villain: In most of his antagonist moments with Bugs and Speedy.
  • Hates Baths: Played for Laughs. Despite being a waterfowl, at least in "Bathy Daffy", he hates bathing because a bath stole his lunch money and beat him up when he was a duckling.
  • Headless Horseman: One appears in the audience of Daffy's nightclub act in The Night of the Living Duck.
  • Helium Speech: Downplayed example. Word of God stated Mel Blanc's voice for Daffy was basically just Sylvester pitch shifted slightly.
  • Henpecked Husband
    • In The Henpecked Duck and His Bitter Half.
    • He also refers to himself as "a henpecked duck!" in "The Stupid Cupid", probably in reference to the aforementioned cartoon. Pretty much any time he's shown married, he's this. In "The Super Snooper", he actively refuses to get involved with the gorgeous Femme Fatale, even after she proves her innocence, for fear of letting it happen again: "She's got that ol' ball-and-chain look in her eyes!"
  • Heroic Second Wind: "Scrap Happy Daffy."
  • Heroic Wannabe: As Duck Twacy, Drip-Along Daffy, The Masked Avenger, Duck Drake, Stupor Duck, China Jones, Boston Quackie, Joe Monday, Doorlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Duck Dodgers, etc.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: From a victim of being hunted to, in several DePatie-Freleng shorts, a hunter himself. It's most egregious in "The Iceman Ducketh" because his attempts to hunt Bugs (a rabbit) for his fur count as poaching since it isn't rabbit season.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: After his shift to a more directly Jerkass characterization, this became the primary source of Daffy's humor - his tendency to get himself injured through acts of impulsiveness, ego or straight-up stupidity. One perfect example is "The Super Snooper", where he repeatedly gets himself injured forcing the Femme Fatale to re-enact what he thinks she did to bump off her husband... only to finally give her a chance at the episode's end to tell him both that she's unmarried and that this is the wrong address.
  • Hypocrite: He says under his breath in "Moby Duck" that Speedy is "such a selfish mouse", which he says while trying to keep tons of canned food to himself on a deserted island.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Really hates working with his Disney counterpart Donald Duck. The reason? His annoying speech impediment.note 
  • "I Am" Song: Several.
  • Idiot Houdini: "A Pest In The House". As the Golden Collection commentary notes, Daffy for once isn't actively malicious in this short, and is even trying to do his job as bellhop with diligence, his looney nature still manages to be the constant bane of the hotel guest however, who constantly punts Elmer for being disturbed. Notably this is the only Chuck Jones short aside from "Rabbit Fire" where Daffy comes out the victor.
  • I Have a Family: Used twice as a ploy to get away from Porky. In "Duck Soup to Nuts" he calls out his sobbing "family" to say goodbye to him before Porky shoots him; Porky feels guilty and lets him off the hook, at which point the wife and kids remove their disguises and reveal themselves to be a few of Daffy's duck friends who were paid to get him out of trouble (a furious Porky overhears and opens fire on all of them). In "Riff Raffy Daffy", he uses a pair of wind-up toys as his "children". (In the cartoons where he actually did have a family, he only used the trope in "The Stupid Cupid, in order to stop the rooster from beating him up".)
  • Image Song: "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody", performed by Mel Blanc; later turned into a 3D short film.
  • Incoming Ham: "It's me again!"
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Took this role more later on.
  • In-Series Nickname: Idiot Eyes, from the 2001 miniseries of Planet of the Taz webtoons.
  • Insufferable Imbecile: Especially in The Looney Tunes Show, where he Took a Level in Dumbass, fitting literally the word "imbecile", and he tends to be sociopathic at times. However, this was averted in some of the aforementioned show's episodes (Semper Lie, anyone?).
  • Iron Butt Monkey: More-so in his greedy heydays, especially his rivalry with Bugs, in which it's a miracle the slapstick he sustains doesn't cripple him.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: Happens at least twice.
    • First in the 1948 short Daffy Duck Slept Here.
    Porky Pig: T-T-That does it! You web-footed, n-n-no good, two-timing, d-d-double-crossing, d-d-double-dealing, unsanitary old snake in the grass!
    Daffy: Unsanitary!?
    • Second, in the 1953 short Muscle Tussle, after Daffy's girlfriend dumps him for a bodybuilder.
      Daffy's girlfriend: Goodbye, you scrawny little nine-pound weakling.
      Daffy: How do you like that? Calling me a scrawny little nine-pound weakling, when it's perfectly obvious I'm a scrawny little ten-pound weakling. Hmph.
  • It's All About Me: "I'm not like other people. I can't stand pain. It hurts me."
  • It's the Principle of the Thing: Daffy inverts this phrase in "My Little Duckaroo" and "The Million-Hare", when he learns of a huge amount of money to be paid and, being the greedy character that he is, decides to claim it.
    "After all, it isn't the principle of the thing, it's the money."
  • It Amused Me: Rather consistently in his earlier Screwball Squirrel-esque years. He became more ambitious and "self prethervational" in his callousness in later shorts (though that doesn't mean he doesn't still enjoy it).
    Daffy: Survival of the fittest—and besides, it's fun.
  • It Works Better with Bullets: In "Daffy Duck Hunting", Daffy empties the buckshot out of Porky Pig's shotgun shells, then allows Porky to blast away at him to no effect.
  • "I Want" Song:
    • "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody" was partially this:
      Daffy: I would read the latest book
      Go swimming in the babbling brook
      I'd like to fly the seven seas
      Play hide and seek among the trees
      I'd play hop scotch and double dutch
      And this and that and things and such...
    • The song he sings in "You Ought to Be in Pictures".
  • Jerkass: More and more so as time progressed, Chuck Jones actually revolved his interpretation around the term "selfish".
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Depending on the portrayal. In his later shorts he's portrayed as a greedy jerk, but most adaptations show his Hidden Heart of Gold while still keeping his usual jerkish traits.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After he takes a level in jerkass, he has a couple moments in which he seems like he's going to Pet the Dog. However, he soon reveals that isn't the case.
    • He seems sad to see Rover left out in the cold and miserable in "Cracked Quack". However, when he seems like he's preparing to open the window to let him back inside, he pulls down the roller shades and walks away happily. Granted, it is Played for Laughs and Rover is a threat to his ruse.
    • In "Snow Excuse", at least to Speedy (who's freezing to death), Daffy seems like he's leaving out some wood for him. However, not only is it revealed to be part of a trick, it's also revealed that the wood is actually chocolate-covered ice.
  • Jingle the Coins: "Robin Hood Daffy" has a wealthy nobleman ride his tiny burro along a road, with his coin pouch a-jingling the whole way. So inept is Robin Hood that the nobleman goes completely unaware of the many attempts to rob him of his coin purse.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • Limey Louie in "China Jones" receives no comeuppance for being an established hardened criminal and the antagonist of the short; Daffy attempts to get Porky Pig to arrest him, but he's more interested in Daffy's unpaid laundry bills...
    Porky Pig: Better to press shirt than to press luck.
    • Daffy fails spectacularly to bring in outlaw Nasty Canasta in "My Little Duckaroo" and earns a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for his troubles.
    • Daffy himself had moments of this, while his most malicious screwy antics were usually met with a comeuppance, there were times Daffy managed to squirm out of it.
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey:
    • How much Daffy suffers is often tied directly to how mean he's been acting during the cartoon. Best shown in his feuds with Bugs, where he could come out on top by simply walking away but suffers to the point of mental breakdowns because he goes out of his way to set the rabbit up for pain and misery for no other reason than his own amusement.
    • He even got it as far back as his early days. Unlike Bugs, who was usually genuinely acting in defense against aggressors (after early shorts where he was an equally unprovoked jerkass heckler), Daffy was a screwball who would antagonize anyone that had the bad luck of stumbling into him and would either wind up losing or still stuck in the exact same mess by the end. Daffy would win if he was acting more altruistically, though, like in genuine self-defense or while helping others.
  • Keet: Bob Clampett's Daffy is especially famous for being a hyperactive Large Ham. Even after his character becomes more bitter and snarky, he still retains quite a bit of his energetic nature, particularly when he's happy.
  • Kick the Dog: His specialty in several 1960s cartoons. In "Well Worn Daffy", for instance, he takes a shower in a mostly barren desert to spite Speedy and his friends who were dying of thirst.
  • Kindness Ball: He's an egocentric, dog-kicking villain during much of the 1960s... aside from "Skyscraper Caper" in which he is not up to anything mean-spirited. Moreover, he's genuinely nice to Speedy instead of being openly antagonistic to him like usual.
  • Lack of Empathy: Particularly during most of the shorts in which he faces off with Speedy. For starters, he once whipped some impoverished mice for starving on his property.
  • The Lancer: Usually to Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig, for various Odd Couple combinations (obviously in later cartoons Porky becomes this to him).
  • Large Ham: Part of what made Daffy so distinct from his partners was just how over-the-top he was, compared to the relatively down-to-earth Bugs and Porky.
  • Laughing Mad: He breaks into laughter as part of his Sanity Slippage in "Speedy Ghost to Town".
  • Limited Animation: The Daffy/Speedy shorts produced from 1965-1968 at De Patie Freleng Enterprises and WB-Seven Arts (especially the latter) suffer from this due to very low budgets. In particular, the three shorts subcontracted to Format Films ("Quacker Tracker", "The Spy Swatter", "Music Mice-tro") fit this to a T; because that company normally worked on made-for-TV cartoons, they're hardly above a typical Hanna Barbera TV series of the time.
  • Lovable Coward: Even before the Chuck Jones' retooling, Daffy became one of these starting with Draftee Daffy.
  • Loser Protagonist: While in his best known roles he played the Straw Loser antagonist to Bugs Bunny, he's every bit as much of a loser in many shorts featuring him as the protagonist.
  • Loveable Rogue: In a lot of his "transitional" shorts, Robert McKimson played this role with Daffy for the majority of his original run (he could on occasion lean into not-so-lovable Schemer territory though).
  • Mad Hatter: Especially early on, when he'd frequently lampshade the fact that he was crazy. His name was Daffy, after all.
  • Madness Mantra
    • The Daffy Doc: "Where's a patient? Where's a patient? I gotta find a patient. I gotta find a patient."
    • The Henpecked Duck: "Yes, m'love. Yes, m'love. YES, M'LOVE. YEEEEESSSSS, M'LOVE!"
  • Mean Boss: Along with being abusive to his employees in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, Daffy has no issue yelling at them or otherwise being rude to them. He even lampshades this himself when Sylvester tries to convince him to change his ways. Granted, he gets better later.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • In his early years, he definitely was Daffy and a playful trickster. This aspect of him was either toned down or dropped altogether in later cartoons, making his name a Non-Indicative Name instead.
    • In The Looney Tunes Show, after becoming a victim of Daffy's antics, Bugs responds with something to the effect of "no wonder your name is Daffy". When asked what that means, Bugs tells him to look it up. Which he does.
  • Metaphoric Metamorphosis: In "The Million Hare" from 1963, Bugs and Daffy are watching a TV game show called "Beat Your Buddy" in which the host challenges two random friends to race to the TV studio, with the first one winning "a million bucks". Hilarity Ensues as Bugs and Daffy proceed to do so, with Daffy just pipping Bugs, the two of them having acquired Amusing Injuries along the way. The host then reveals that the prize is "a million box": a giant box containing a million smaller boxes. Deciding it's worthless, Daffy says he will give the prize to Bugs. The host comments that this is kind of him, since each of the smaller boxes contains a dollar bill. Daffy and Bugs' expressions don't change, but Daffy's head turns into that of a donkey and he brays mournfully.
  • Money Fetish: Would do just about anything to get money.
  • Moral Myopia:
    • It's shown in "The Yolk's on You" that, in his mind, it's fine if he steals from you. However, if you do the same to him, then you are a Jerkass who committed a crime.
    • "Box Office Bunny" shows that, if you sneak into a theater, then you're a criminal in Daffy's book (or at least if your name is Bugs Bunny). Nevertheless, if he does the same thing, then it's perfectly fine.
  • Motive Decay: Whenever he's pitted against Elmer and Bugs during Elmer's hunting trips. Within only a few minutes of the short, he goes from just steering Elmer towards Bugs out of self-preservation to actively trying to see Bugs get blasted.
  • Muscle Angst: Happens to Daffy in Muscle Tussle, when he takes his girlfriend to the beach and she immediately falls for a musclebound hunk.
  • Negative Continuity: Like all the other Looney Tunes, Daffy's cartoons have absolutely no continuity between them. It says a lot that he can star in both a cartoon where he's willingly fighting on the front lines of war in Daffy the Commando (1943), and then is depicted as a patriot-turned-draft dodging coward in "Draftee Daffy" (1945).
  • Never Bare Necked: Has always kept his pearl necklace on except for in "Quackodile Tears", a few moments on "The Bugs Bunny Show", the episode "Black Widow", and Baby Looney Tunes.
  • Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: His reaction to Speedy calling him a "chicken" for not chasing him? Saying something like thisnote  then running after him.
  • Noisy Duck: He could be considered the Trope Codifier along with Donald Duck. He is a hyperactive screwball as well as a selfish jerk, and he is also very loud (especially with his speech impediment).He isn't above hamming it up in a library, for instance.
  • Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Most notably Duck Amuck.
  • No-Respect Guy: Depending on the short. Sometimes he's an incompetent Jerkass who deserves to be a Butt-Monkey, but at least once he becomes this trope when he's picked on just because he's not Bugs Bunny. In Show Biz Bugs specifically, he's shown to be as talented as Bugs but the audience ignores him, while Bugs is the only one who gets all the cheering and applause. Which is changed for the inclusion of the short in The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie which has Daffy go out of his way to heckle and offend nearly every member of the audience, making the whole concept of respect seem out of place.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: Half the humor of The Super Snooper is how Daffy refuses to pay attention to the Femme Fatale and her blatant flirting with him, up until she reveals he's at the wrong address. The other half of the humor is how he keeps getting himself injured.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: He could strive to be semi competent against Speedy at times.
  • Obfuscating Insanity: Faked a bad case of Funny Schizophrenia to get the best of Porky in "The Prize Pest".
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Pretends to be a clueless, pushy salesdrake in "The Stupor Salesman" in order to rid the bandit of his hideout.
  • Official Couple: He has a girlfriend named Melissa Duck.
  • Old-Timey Bathing Suit: In "Muscle Tussle", Daffy is shown up at the beach by a Speedo-wearing muscle-builder duck. As the designated nine-pound weakling, Daffy wears an old-timey striped suit and straw boater hat—-made out to be Impossibly Tacky Clothes, although when Bugs wears the same kind of bathing suit, it's fine.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: In "The Duxorcist":
    Daffy: "Oh brother! Not another schizophrenic dame!"
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Daffy uses this to his advantage in "What Makes Daffy Duck?" by pitting two of his antagonists (Elmer Fudd and a fox) against each other.
  • Pet the Dog: After his jerkish personality takes root, he has a few nicer moments to show he has a heart deep down.
    • Daffy becomes openly angry with Elmer for shooting a smaller duck in "Quack Shot". After covering the bird in bandages, he angrily threatens Elmer he'll "be in trouble" if he shoots another duck.
    • He's sad in "Mexican Mousepiece" when he learns many overseas cats are starving to death. He also lets one of the mice he plans on sending away do something before sending him off, though it's unclear exactly what it was.
    • Towards the end of "Fiesta Fiasco", he's grateful upon learning Speedy and other Mexican mice set up a surprise birthday party for him.
    • Yes and no in "Dux's Tux's" when he saves Porky and Petunia's wedding via using an X-ray to reveal Porky did have the wedding ring and giving him a thumbs up. However, it's all but stated he's going to charge Porky since Petunia broke said X-ray machine. Granted, he implies it was expensive.
  • Phrase Catcher: In the older shorts, someone would always have to lampshade "that duck's" insanity in some way, at which point Daffy would pop up and tell them that they were right.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain:
    • At least in the 1960s. Not only is he evil enough to try to destroy a well in an otherwise barren desert, he also shows shades of being racist. During a disagreement with Speedy (who is Mexican) in "Go Go Amigo", he makes fun of his accent. Moreover, in "Moby Duck", he insults him via saying he "can't even speak good English". In "Tease for Two", he even mocks Mac and Tosh's British accents. Unfortunately, these shorts were produced in an era notorious for racism.
    • It's mentioned and soon outright shown in "Assault and Peppered" that Daffy does not like poor people. After finding some impoverished mice on his plantation, he is openly angry at them for "starving on [his] property" and commands them to stop. Also, his wording heavily implies this isn't the first time this has happened. He even whips several of them and only stopped because Speedy interrupted him. He told the mice that they "force[d]" him to "declare war on poverty".
  • Pooled Funds: Any time he got his hands on some cash.
  • The Prima Donna: A self-centered Animated Actor who is always trying to upstage his co-star Bugs Bunny.
  • Pronoun Trouble: Trope Namer; this trope was named after a gag in the Daffy/Bugs/Elmer short Rabbit Seasoning. Also doubles as an Unbuilt Trope.
  • Punch-Clock Hero: This is one duck whose life purpose is the search for money and glory. Therefore it should come as no surprise that he is willing to (at least try to) be the hero a number of times with a dubious amount of success. When Daffy goes to Hollywood in the Sega Genesis game he doesn't literally bring the house down unlike the similarly named cartoon, but as a detective trying to find Yosemite Sam's priceless films that have been stolen.
  • Quacking Up: He started out as a wacky and hyperactive screwball but later became a selfish and greedy jerk, especially when paired up with Bugs Bunny.
  • Rage Against the Author
    • Duck Amuck
    • The end of A Star Is Bored, where he stars in his own movie, in which he finds out the hard way where all the hunters are — right around him with their guns which they all promptly unloaded on him.
    Daffy: I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO WROTE THIS SCRIPT!!!
    Bugs: I'd like to tell him, but, uh... (chuckles coyly) modesty forbids.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Bugs's and Porky's blue.
  • The Resenter: Whenever paired with Bugs Bunny in a short, Daffy becomes this. It does make sense, considering Bugs turned up three years after his debut and pretty much stole his act.
  • Rhetorical Question Blunder: In Hollywood Daffy, Daffy impersonating a studio director fooling the oh-so-fay Joe Besser-type gate cop into thinking he'll make him a star. Daffy examines him and asks "What's Errol Flynn got that you haven't got?" before quickly interjecting, "Don't answer that!"
  • Roger Rabbit Effect
  • Sanity Slippage: Doubles as a Villainous Breakdown in "Speedy Ghost to Town", though it's Played for Laughs. Upon learning his efforts to find gold were all for naught, he loses it and starts acting like his screwball self, complete with him Laughing Mad.
  • Screwball Squirrel: Pre-Flanderization Daffy, though he still retains it as another part of his personality, also an Ur-Example of the entire trope. It's especially prominent in Daffy Duck and Egghead.
  • The Scrooge: Plays a modern variant in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas Carol.
  • Seen-It-All Suicide: The Scarlet Pumpernickel
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Porky's Sensitive Guy.
  • Serial Spouse: Daffy has been married to seven different female ducks throughout his various shorts, although of course Negative Continuity is used to justify this. In this field, he's hands-down beaten his rival Bugs, who has never been shown as wed.
    • Three different nameless female ducks in the shorts Nasty Quacks, The Stupid Cupid and His Bitter Half.
    • Mrs. Daffy in Wise Quacks.
    • A female duck known only as "Muh Love" in The Henpecked Duck.
    • Daphne in Stork Naked.
    • Honey Bunch in Quackodile Tears.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: For all his efforts in "Speedy Ghost to Town" to steal Speedy's treasure map so he could find gold... the treasure was actually cheese.
  • She's a Man in Japan: The earliest German dubs made Daffy into a female character named "Elvira Ente". This was corrected in future dubs.
  • Shoe Shine, Mister?: He runs a shoeshine stand in "Shoe Shine-nanigans", though the only customer we see him tend to is Elmer.
  • Show Some Leg: Both Hatta Mari and the Femme Fatale in The Super Snooper try this, although the former is more successful.
  • Shotgun Wedding: In "The Stupid Cupid" Daffy's previous marriage was literally one of these. Daffy shows cupid Elmer a photo album of the results of being shot last year. One photo has an overbearing female duck in a bridal gown clutching Daffy by the neck as her father holds a shotgun to his head.
  • Signature Laugh: His unique laugh is "Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!". Especially in his screwball persona, he also does it while bouncing around.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Especially in his jerkish portrayals, in which he thinks he's a competent genius. However, it's made clear he's not as smart or competent as he believes he is.
  • Smarter Than You Look: Despite constantly losing against pretty much any foe he fights it must be noted that Daffy is not stupid. He is notable for being among the few characters that can actually see through Bugs' Guile Hero actions and has proven extremely competent against Speedy. Most of his losses come from his being greedy, petty and spiteful rather than being outwitted by his opponents. This is averted in The Looney Tunes Show though, where he is actually very stupid.
  • Smug Snake: While he's fairly smart and manipulative, he's also prone to overconfidence and isn't as cunning or brilliant as he thinks he is, which has bitten him in the tail.
  • Snake Charmer: Parodied in "Plumber's Quack" when he plays a wrench like a flute to control his "camera-snake" while trying to fix Elmer's leaking sink.
  • Sore Loser: He can't stand losing to Bugs, at certain points even willing to kill the rabbit just to dispose of the competition.
  • Species Surname: All three of the iconic Looney Tunes stars share this trait; Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Porky Pig.
  • Speech Impediment: His trademark lisp ("You're dethpicable!"), though it was not nearly as pronounced in the early years. In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Daffy rather hypocritically complains about Donald Duck. "This is the latht time I work with thomebody with a thpeech impediment!"
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy:
    • His usual dynamic with Porky Pig in all their shorts together, with Porky being an unassuming Straight Man to Daffy's kookier Wise Guy antics.
    • Bugs Bunny, of all people, will occasionally play the Straight Man to Daffy's Wise Guy, (especially in The Looney Tunes Show); while the latter lets his inner demons get the best of him and gets himself into hot water almost all the time, Bugs keeps his cool and just tries to relax or get to somewhere he can relax until Daffy's antics become his problem.
  • Straw Loser: Chuck Jones's version, lost miserably to villains Bugs usually defeated without trying and had Porky Pig of all people as his Hyper-Competent Sidekick. Other directors portrayed Daffy as a Butt-Monkey at this point, though it depended on the scenario whether he was quite as pathetic as the others.
  • Strictly Formula: Defied at first. Being an ever unpredictable Cloud Cuckoo Lander, for most of The '40s Daffy was the one Looney Tunes star who would be billed in almost any role without feeling out-of-character. While he often adhered to heckler or Karmic Trickster cartoons like Bugs Bunny, he was never exclusive to them. After Jones began to redefine Daffy into an antagonistic fall-guy however, his shorts from [1] tended to follow a more uniform structure. There were still several shorts that broke the trend or called back to his earlier self (especially ones directly by Robert Mckimson).
  • Stupid Evil: A lot of his antagonistic bouts against Speedy seemed to lean into this. Most of his constant abuse is self-inflicted rather than performed by Speedy. It could usually be prevented if he wasn't so insistent on spiting the little rodent, who offers a truce nearly every minute or so.
  • Team Rocket Wins: Even following his Flanderization into a Butt-Monkey, Daffy seemed to score more victories than most other fall-guys in the series, knocking out Taz in a Curbstomp Battle in Ducking the Devil, being the first foe to defeat Speedy Gonzales in Mucho Locos to name a few. Counting an obscure Tang endorsement from ''The Bugs Bunny Show'' and Cartoon Network's Big Game from 2001, he has also defeated Bugs twice as well, and even in shorts where he didn't defeat Bugs, he was able to get an occasional hit on the rabbit. Also, perhaps due to being created by fans of the shorts and the character, some later features tend to throw Daffy a bone a few times as well, including the very end of Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
  • The Cameo: Daffy's head can be seen on a building in the movie Cool World.
  • This Loser Is You: Chuck Jones described Bugs Bunny as the person we all aspire to be, and Daffy as the person most of us actually are.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: In episode 15 of The Bugs Bunny Show, he finally gets the limelight all to himself as Bugs Bunny shows only cartoons starring the original crazy darnfool duck.
  • Throw the Pin: Speedy Ghost to Town
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: Modern adaptations like Duck Dodgers and The Looney Tunes Show tend to portray him as a total idiot, instead of just a bitter (and occasionally gullible) loser who is often defeated due to his impatience and selfishness.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Took a Level in Kindness:
    • The De Patie-Freleng era takes Daffy's malicious habits so far outright that the only way to go was up. Compared to his persistent hatred for Speedy in the earlier cartoons, he becomes more of a Friendly Enemy by the time the studio switches to Seven Arts, needing motivation such as money or Speedy clutching the Idiot Ball to set him onto the latter. In their final pairing by the original creative team Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island, they are Vitriolic Best Buds.
    • In Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas in accordance with nearly all variations of the story. Also in Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court, despite taking the role of a greedy king, Daffy is noticeably tamer and bored with his role, passively helping Bugs and even willingly giving him his crown by the end of the film.
    Daffy: Who ever heard of a duck being king anyway?
  • Toothy Bird: Sometimes, although Chuck Jones joked in a few of his "dental" art prints about Daffy being toothless:
    Bugs: But, sir, how can you have a toothache—when you haven't any teeth?
    Daffy: Just lucky, I guess.
    • Oddly invoked in "The Prize Pest" (1951) where he bullies Porky by claiming he turns into a monster when upset— he messes up his headfeathers and wears false fangy teeth.
  • Tough Room: The endless victim to one. His complex tap dance in Show Biz Bugs earns him nothing but cricket chirps.
    Daffy: Ingrates!
  • Traveling Salesman: In several shorts.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: His reaction when Porky gives him a gift in "Daffy's Inn Trouble"? Dismissing it and walking out on him. Granted, it's at least slightly justified since the gift was a... broom.
  • Uniformity Exception: A couple of cartoons start with Daffy along with a flock of ducks migrating or paddling in a lake. All the other ducks look more or less realistic, whereas Daffy looks like Daffy.
    "Kind of stick out in a crowd, don't I?"
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Has his moments because he is very selfish, greedy, and manipulative. He's also one of the franchise's main characters and, especially in his jerkish persona, bad luck is often on his tailfeathers.
  • Viler New Villain: In later Speedy shorts, Daffy took over from Sylvester as his new main antagonist, and without a natural reason to pursue the rodent, Daffy was made more outwardly nasty and vindictive to set off feuds, and was often conveyed as relatively less pathetic and outclassed against Speedy compared to Sylvester.
  • Villain Ball:
    • During the Duck Season-Rabbit Season trilogy. From the very beginning of each short, Daffy has already succeeded in escaping Elmer, with him believing it is Rabbit Season and Bugs being more than willing to start his usual back and forth with the hunter. Nevertheless, he still breaks from his hiding spot, attempting to coach Elmer for not getting the job done. It's not enough for Daffy to have escaped getting his head blown off; Bugs has to get blasted by Elmer in his place, and Daffy has to see it happen with his own eyes. Needless to say, it always blows up in Daffy's face... literally.
    • He clutched onto this near perpetually in his bouts with Speedy. No matter how much of his abuse could be avoided otherwise, Daffy could never resist going out of his way to spite the little rodent. He loses both his water well in Well Worn Daffy and his stash of canned goods in Moby Duck as a direct result of this.
    • In People Are Bunny, Daffy forces Bugs to come with him to a television studio after hearing that a hunting show is offering $5,000 to whoever brings in the first rabbit. However, when he sees the various prizes offered on the studios game shows, Daffy locks Bugs into a telephone booth so he can go on the game shows and win the prizes. Considering the fact that the show will give cash money to whoever brings in the first rabbit, locking Bugs in there not only allows time that he could escape but also the possibility that somebody could bring in a rabbit before Daffy does. Bugs ends up tricking Daffy into wearing a rabbit disguise so that Daffy would be the first rabbit and Bugs, in disguise, gets the money instead, so technically nobody beat them to the punch, though when Daffy reveals that he's not a rabbit, the hunting season immediately switches from rabbit to duck.
  • Villain Protagonist
    • While Daffy was on the receiving end of trouble in Porky's Duck Hunt and Daffy Duck and Egghead, Tex Avery's third and last Daffy Duck, Daffy Duck in Hollywood, puts him into a heckler role where he knowingly sabotages a Hollywood movie production just for the heck of it, much to the chagrin of the films director.
    • In The Daffy Doc, he kidnaps Porky Pig just so he can have a patient and even tries to saw him open! Of course, he's completely bonkers in the cartoon, so he really doesn't know any better.
    • After having Took a Level in Jerkass, he arguably leaned even further into this trope. In some of his bouts against Speedy and Bugs, he is an outright genuine villain (in comparison to the more playful Screwball Squirrel he usually was in the above examples), but still usually the primary focus.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Porky, and Bugs, and Speedy... Usually the very people Daffy is trying to victimize in some manner are actually the closest he has to actual friends.
  • Wild Card: A self proclaimed self preservationist, and a tall order Screwball Squirrel on top, Daffy has no allegiance but his own.
  • William Telling: Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938) has Daffy placing an apple on his head so Egghead can shoot it. But he misses each time, no matter how close Daffy gets to him. Daffy chucks the apple, gives Eggead a tin cup of pencils, a pair of sunglasses and a "Blind" sign around his neck.
  • With Friends Like These...: Again with all of the aforementioned three.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: You'd have a screw loose too if you spent many years getting hunted in various ways by numerous hunters.
  • Word Salad Lyrics: His Talkative Loon version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" in Boobs in the Woods. (It's basically a rewrite of a similar song sung by the Bugs Bunny prototype character in Hare-Um Scare-Um.)
    Daffy: Oh, when they say I'm nutsy, it sure gives me a pain!
    Please pass the ketchup, I think it's going to rain!
    Oh, you can't bounce a meatball, though try with all your might,
    Turn on the radio, I want to fly a kite!
  • Word, Schmord!: "Consequences, schmonsequencesas long as I'm rich."
  • Work Off the Debt: China Jones ends with Daffy being threatened by Porky Pig into working off his debt at a Chinese laundry.
    Daffy: Well, Confucius says "Can't squeeze blood from turnip."
    Porky: (produces heavy club) Confucius also says "Is better to press shirts than press luck."
  • Worthy Opponent: Subverted against Bugs, where he was even more Harmless than Elmer. Oddly enough played more straight against Speedy, though still bumbling, existing as the sole villain to actually defeat, or even so much as invoke fear into the rodent. Even plays the trope's traditional chemistry, with Daffy, in almost a rare case of continuity, gaining a softer spot for Speedy in later shorts.
  • Women Prefer Strong Men: In the short Muscle Tussle, Daffy's girlfriend is swept off her feet by a muscular beach hunk.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • The Impatient Patient ends with Daffy turning the villain into a baby. When the baby makes it clear he's still dangerous, Daffy takes the kid off-screen to give him his "punishment".
    *Wham* "OOOH! Oh, You bwoke my widdle head! Oh, You bwoke my widdle spine! OOOH!"
  • Wrong Insult Offence: In Muscle Tussle, Daffy takes offense at his girlfriend calling him a "scrawny little nine pound weakling", because he's "obviously a scrawny little ten pound weakling."
  • X Must Not Win: The "Hunting Trilogy" generally conveys him as this towards Bugs. While touting himself as a self preservationist, Daffy takes increasingly stubborn lengths to make sure Bugs gets shot by Elmer instead of him, to the point of even berating and directing Elmer, the very guy he's trying to avoid, to shoot Bugs (which always end up backfiring onto him). In both Rabbit Seasoning and Duck Rabbit Duck Daffy's downfall stems from coming out of his hiding place at the start of the cartoon when Bugs is already outsmarting Elmer, not satisfied with coming out safe but Bugs not getting shot.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: In cases where he does win over Bugs or others as the Villain Protagonist, it's almost always a Pyrrhic Victory at best and turned around him to be All for Nothing at worst. Like the time he raced the rabbit for "a million bucks" and cleared the finish line, only to realize he had mis-heard the phrase and it was a million little boxes. He ends up trying to do a slight politeness and give them to Bugs to seem better than he really is — only for the game show host to reveal a dollar bill is inside every single box, meaning Daffy just sunk his own victory altogether.
  • Yet Another Christmas Carol: Filled the Scrooge role in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.
  • You Don't Look Like You: A minor one but during a small selection of cartoonsnote  Clampett redesigned Daffy's colour scheme slightly with light coloured rings around his eyes. It didn't take.
  • You're Insane!: Sorta. Speedy calls him "loconote  duck" during the era in which he's at the height of his villainy.
  • Your Little Dismissive Diminutive:
    • He pejoratively calls Leopold's owner a "little monster" when he learns he needs a duck's wishbone in "Birth of a Notion".
    • In "Moby Duck", he insults Speedy via calling him a "little thief" and "you dirty little rodent".

"You're DESPICABLE."

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Daffy's nervous breakdown

After having been shot by Elmer one too many times in the face, Daffy loses his temper and yells at Elmer to shoot him again by acting like and elk and a fiddler crab, exclaiming that it's those respective seasons.

How well does it match the trope?

4.9 (30 votes)

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Main / AmusingInjuries

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