"High Diving Hare" is a 1949 Looney Tunes animated short directed by Friz Freleng. In this cartoon, Yosemite Sam is eager to see vaudeville daredevil Fearless Freep's high-diving act. But when the diver can't make it due to weather, he forces emcee Bugs Bunny to dive instead. Or at least, tries to.
"Forgot to fill the tropes with water":
- Achievements in Ignorance: How Bugs explains the final gag. See Beyond the Impossible below.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Sam goes off the board the second time, Bugs realizes he forgot to fill the tank with water. He pours some down Sam's path and it makes it into the tank, but instead, Sam lands right next to the tank and through the stage floor.
- Beyond the Impossible: At the end of the short, Sam ties up Bugs at the edge of the diving board and saws it off to guarantee that he'll dive this time. Instead, Sam, plus the platform and ladder goes down, leaving Bugs standing on a plank in mid-air, whereupon he utters the now-immortal line...Bugs: I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law!
- Bowdlerization: ABC made two different edits, one on the old Bugs Bunny Show in the 1960s and the other on the much later Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show:
- The Bugs Bunny Show partially edited Bugs' carnival barking and later, after Sam sees a door on the platform and knocks on it, demanding it be open, his turning to the camera and saying, "Ya notice I didn't say a-Richard?"
- The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show censored the scene of Bugs on the platform disguised as an Indian, telling Sam, "Him go that-a-way! You take-um shortcut! Head him off at pass! Ugh!", as well as scenes of Sam strangling Bugs, Bugs refusing to dive because he gets "goosebumps on [his] goosebumps", and Sam trying to force Bugs to dive by shooting at his feet.
- Bullying a Dragon: Sam tries to force Bugs Bunny off the high-diving board. It goes as well as you'd expect.
- Butt-Monkey: Yosemite Sam suffers humiliation after humiliation as Bugs busts out all his tricks to make his pint-sized nemesis suffer many a dive.
- Empty Swimming Pool Dive: Double Subverted. Bugs manages to fill the tank just in time, but Sam misses the tank altogether.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Sam never succeeds in making Bugs dive and by the time he's got the rabbit where he wants him, the laws of physics outright rewrite themselves to ensure Sam loses in the end.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Gravity doesn't give Sam any favors.
- High-Dive Hijinks: This cartoon is all about the many ways you can trick somebody off the high dive.
- Humiliation Conga: The whole point of the short, as is tradition. Sam pays the price for trying to goad Bugs off the diving board by falling off of it himself at least a half-dozen times in rapid succession.
- Mind Screw: "I'm not upside-down, doc. You are!"
- Noodle Incident: Near the end, we see Sam go up the ladder and falling down thrice without knowing what tricks Bugs pulled on him.
- "No Peeking!" Request: Yosemite Sam forces Bugs Bunny to do a high-diving act, and Bugs asks him to look away so he can put on his bathing suit. However, this was actually so he can flip the diving board around and trick Sam into thinking he's diving, leading Sam to walk off the board and into the water.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Bugs says an exasperated version of this when Sam forces Bugs up the ladder again.
- Running Gag: Bugs tricking Sam into going off the diving board.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: When Bugs fakes his dive, he does a Bomb Whistle followed by yelling "Splash!"
- Sudden Anatomy: The first time Sam tries to get Bugs off the diving board, he saves himself by grasping the board with his toe claws, this being the only time we ever see them.
- Tonto Talk: Bugs does this when he poses as an Indian to lure Sam off the diving board. "Quick! Him go thataway! You take-um shortcut! Head 'im off at pass! Ugg!"
- Waxing Lyrical: Defied. When Bugs puts up a door on the diving board, Sam shouts "Open up that door!", then tells the audience, "Ya notice I didn't say a-Richard?" This references "Open the Door, Richard",
a hit song of the time.
