"Knighty Knight Bugs" is a 1958 Looney Tunes short starring Bugs Bunny. Directed by Friz Freleng, it won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1959, being the final Warner Bros. cartoon and the only Bugs cartoon to do so.
In the court of King Arthur, the King asks for one of his Knights of the Round Table to retrieve the Singing Sword from the clutches of the Black Knight (played by Yosemite Sam), but none of them dare to face the Black Knight and his fierce fire-breathing dragon. An ill-timed crack from Bugs, playing the Court Jester, about how "only a fool would go after the singing sword" sees him sent out on the dangerous mission.
"Yah, trope, yah!":
- Anti-Armor: The Black Knight tries to climb up a rope to enter the castle, but Bugs fends him off by hitting him so hard with a mallet that it knocks him out of his armor.
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: When Bugs barricades himself in the Black Knight's castle:Black Knight: Open that drawbridge, varmint! Open it, I say!
[the drawbridge comes down on top of him]
[muffled voice] Close it! Close it! Close it up again! - Anti-Sneeze Finger: The Black Knight tries this (in vain) to stop the dragon from sneezing in a tower full of explosives.
- Black Knight: Erm, Sam. His armor is literally black.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Sam clearly didn't know that one of the towers in his own castle was full of explosives, and that he just brought his frequently-sneezing dragon in there... (of course, being Sam, it's just as likely he did know, but was so angry and intent on catching Bugs that he didn't pay attention to where he was going, and Bugs naturally took advantage of it.)
- Bowdlerization: On CBS' The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, the sequence where Black Knight Sam climbs a rope to enter the castle to get Bugs was edited to remove Bugs hitting Sam with the mallet.
- Catapult to Glory: After Bugs locks him out of his own castle, the Black Knight tries to catapult himself back in. He just misses the window where Bugs is standing.Black Knight: You'll pay for this, varmint!
- Cry Laughing: Bugs has an outburst of this after he gets shanghaied into retrieving the Singing Sword.
- Dirty Coward: Downplayed with all of King Arthur's knights. None of them are willing to face the Black Knight, and when the king asks if they've all gone chicken, they start clucking loudly.
- Goofy Print Underwear: The Black Knight, malleted out of his armor, is shown to be wearing blue boxers with pink polka-dots under his armor.
- Got Volunteered: King Arthur gets Bugs to retrieve the Singing Sword after joking that "only a fool would go after the Singing Sword" threatening him with execution if he doesn't.
- Groin Attack: On the run from it, Bugs gets a good blaze of the dragon's fire right in his nethers.
- I Warned You: Apparently, the Black Knight told his dragon not to let its fire get low. It didn't listen.Black Knight: Now you've caught cold!
- I Was Just Joking: King Arthur tires of his jester making light of his inability to find willing agents, especially since he was already annoyed at the cowardice of his knights, and decides to take Bugs at his word.
- Literal Metaphor:
- "Have the Knights of the Round Table turned chicken?" [Cue off-screen clucking and a flurry of feathers]
- Also, the Black Knight and his dragon are literally blown to the moon when the dragon sneezes in a gunpowder storage, causing the tower they were in to take off like a rocket.
- Match in a Bomb Shack: At the end, the Black Knight and his dragon (who has a cold, and as a result has been sneezing flames throughout the cartoon) chase Bugs into a tower in the Knight's castle. Bugs then runs back outside, and closes and bars the door, leaving the Knight and the dragon in a tower full of explosives. No points for predicting what happens next...
- "Miss X" Pun: Two of King Arthur's knights are Sir Osis of Liver and Sir Loin of Beef.
- Not Hyperbole: When the Black Knight tries to stop his dragon from sneezing in the gunpowder storage room, he tells it if it does, it'll blow them to the moon. Sure enough, when the dragon sneezes, the gunpowder sends the tower into the air like a rocket to the moon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Black Knight's dragon is a big, green, buck-toothed, ridged lizard without wings, and it spits fire whenever it sneezes.
- Punny Name: The knights of the Round Table include a chunky fellow named "Sir Loin of Beef" and a somewhat jaundiced-looking chap called "Sir Osis of Liver".
- Rapid-Fire "But!": King Arthur tells his Knights of the Round Table that they must recover the Singing Sword from the Black Knight, but they protest against this, with one of them, Sir Loin of Beef, saying, "But-But-But-But... the Black Knight is invincib-b-b-b-ble!"
- Recycled Premise: Much of the second half of the short, Sam attempting to get into a fortress that Bugs is hiding in, is reused from Sahara Hare. It even begins with the same gag: Sam asking the rabbit to open the door, but when the door opens on him, he asks him to close it up again.
- Singing Weapon: Bugs finds out that the Singing Sword is called that because it can magically vibrate, making it sound like it's singing. In the final scene, it actually does sing. "Aloha Oe," to be exact.
- Sneeze of Doom: The dragon's fiery sneezes cause a lot of trouble for him and his master, which eventually leads to their defeat when Bugs traps them in a tower full of explosives.Black Knight: [trying to cover his dragon's nose] No, no! Don't sneeze, you stupid dragon, or you'll blow us to the moon!
- Spit Take: When King Arthur asks for a volunteer to retrieve the Singing Sword, Sir Osis of Liver drops his martini glass, spits out the swallow he just took, and counters, "The Black Knight has a fire-breathing dragon!".
- Squashed Flat: Happens to the Black Knight when Bugs drops a drawbridge on him. He also gets his front half flattened when he catapults himself into a wall.Black Knight: [muffled] You'll pay for this, varmint!
- Surrounded by Idiots: The dragon is fierce, but he definitely isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. He repeatedly ruins the Knight's attempts to get the Singing Sword back, and ends up blowing himself and his master to the moon by sneezing in a tower full of explosives.Black Knight: Dragons is so stupid!
- Tempting Fate:
- "Only a fool would go after the Singing Sword!"
- When Bugs finds the sword inside a chest, he wonders out loud why they call it the Singing Sword. The sword immediately gives a demonstration, waking Sam up from his sleep.
- As he walks away from the Black Knight's castle with the sword in hand, Bugs happily says "That was simple". Cue the Black Knight chasing him on dragonback.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: King Arthur warns Bugs "Unless you bring back the Singing Sword, you will be put to the rack, burned at the stake, and be-headed!"
- This Means War!: After Bugs squashes Sam with the drawbridge, Sam says, "Okay varmint, you forced me to use force."
- Who Will Bell the Cat?: Because the Black Knight has a dragon and is allegedly invincible, none of the King's knights dare go against him. Bugs was forced to do it under penalty of death because he mocked their cowardice.
