"Hare Remover" is a 1946 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. It is the second Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin (the other being "The Unruly Hare"), and his last cartoon for Warner Bros. to date.
Elmer Fudd is a Mad Scientist trying to create a formula that will transform someone into a "Deviwish Fiend". Having run out of experimental animals, however, he is forced to go out into the woods and capture Bugs Bunny. Once back in the lab, the experiments are complicated by the rabbit's rascally behavior and the sudden appearance of a grizzly bear.
"Hare Remover" provides examples of:
- Ate the Spoon: Happens when Bugs mixes some formula for the bear, thinking it's Elmer.
- Bears Are Bad News: A bear show up midway through the cartoon, and proves to have a bit of a temper due to its reaction to the taste of the formula, along with a bit of humor as shown at the end of the cartoon.
- Box-and-Stick Trap: Elmer sets one up to trap a rabbit to test his formula. Bugs sees it and recognizes what it is ("My grandfather told me about them, but I never thought I'd see one."), but decides to get himself trapped since Elmer went to all the trouble to make one.
- Brick Joke: When Elmer gives his formula to his dog, the dog runs outside to eat grass. Later on, after inadvertently drinking the formula, Elmer runs outside as well. Not only is the dog still eating grass, but Elmer eats grass alongside him in the same manner.
- Mad Scientist: Elmer's role in the short. Unfortunately, his Psycho Serum experiment doesn't work out as he wanted.
- Mistaken Identity: After Elmer takes the formula and runs outside, he bumps into a bear and drops his hat. Bugs sees the bear with Elmer's hat and thinks the formula turned Elmer into the bear. He tries to make an antidote, but the bear dislikes it and eats one of Bugs' carrots to get rid of the bad taste. That's when the real Elmer comes in and mistakes the bear for a transformed Bugs.
- Mistaken for Transformed: Elmer Fudd creates a potion to transform a friendly little animal into a "DEVIWISH FIEND!" After capturing Bugs, he and Elmer are visited by a bear, who happens to run into Bugs after he's learned about the potion and Elmer has left him alone briefly... whereupon Bugs mistakes the bear for a transformed Elmer, and tries to "cure" him by feeding him an ineffective antidote. When it doesn't work, Bugs legs it - and then Elmer finds the bear, and assumes it's a transformed Bugs. He tries to cure it as well, but this time the bear is not in the mood.
- Oh, Crap!: Elmer's reaction when he sees Bugs in the window and realizes that he's facing a real bear.
- Playing Possum: On Bugs' suggestion, Elmer plays dead so the bear won't hurt him. It works, but Elmer has to keep up the charade when he thinks the bear is coming back, with it actually being Bugs.
- Psycho Serum: This is what Elmer is trying to make, but it doesn't quite work. Bugs at first appears to transform after drinking it, but he was just faking it. ("No soap, Doc.")
- Shout-Out: Watching Elmer's reaction to the formula, Bugs tells the audience "I think Spencer Tracy did it better, don't you, folks?" Tracy starred in the 1941 film version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- Talking with Signs: As Elmer goes through histrionics after taking his own formula, Bugs comments on the situation by holding up a series of signs with Visual Puns, such as a screw and ball, a cracked pot, a dripping faucet, and a belfry with bats flying around it. In the end, as Bugs pretends to be a bear, the real bear is the one holding up the signs.
- Technicolor Science: The formula turns various colors as Elmer mixes it, including peppermint stripes. Whoever drinks it then turns the same sequence of colors.
- Visual Pun: As stated above, the Talking with Signs were gags for the phrases screwball, crackpot, big drip, and bats in the belfry.
