Mississippi Hare is a 1949 Chuck Jones directed Looney Tunes short, staring Bugs Bunny.
Bugs is lounging in a Southern cotton patch, when a crew of cotton pickers accidentally mistake his tail for a ball of cotton and pick him out. He's thrown with the rest of the cotton into a riverboat. But, rather than begging to get off the boat (after seeing a hobo get mercilessly thrown overboard for not having a ticket), he disguises himself as a Southern gentleman, charms the ticket conductor enough to be let in, and decides to enjoy the free ride instead. (He pays his fare in passing, anyway.) He soon crosses paths with a temperamental river gambler named Colonel Shuffle, who angrily tries to kill Bugs after losing all of his money to the rabbit in a game of Poker.
After being horribly censored in 1990s television airings due to prominent racial stereotyping (and your typical cartoon gun violence and beatings in the ABC version), the cartoon was finally banned in 2001 when Cartoon Network tried to air it during that year's June Bugs marathon, but it was banned for outdated racial stereotypes. It is, however, available uncut on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4, with an optional audio commentary by Eric Goldberg.
Colonel Shuffle would re-appear one year later in the Charlie Dog cartoon Dog-Gone South. In that cartoon, he mostly loses his Yosemite Sam-like temper and is, instead, a generic Southern Gentleman with a tricky/sneaky side.
Tropes:
- Accidental Passenger: Bugs falls asleep in a cotton field. A very distracted worker mistakes his tail for a ball of cotton and picks him. Bugs wakes up among the real cotton and inside a riverboat going down the Mississipi River.
- Ash Face / (Blackface): Colonel Shuffle after Bugs gives him an Exploding Cigar. Bugs then hands him a banjo and the two break into a Minstrel Show number to the tune of "Camptown Races."
- Bowdlerization:
- When this cartoon aired on ABC in the late 1980s into the 1990s, the scene of Bugs rewarding Colonel Shuffle with a cigar that explodes, and Bugs giving him a banjo and the two perform "Camptown Races" was cut, with the scene where the Colonel re-emerges onto the ship being moved to after he walks off the ship. Also cut on ABC was the part where Colonel holds a gun to Bugs' face after falling off the boat (in the "Uncle Tom's Cabinet" scene) and Bugs warns him that the gun is filled with water and Colonel Shuffle ends up supposedly getting shot in the face and the scene where Bugs Bunny (dressed as a Southern belle) whacks Colonel Shuffle with an umbrella was shortened.
- On the now-defunct WB channel, the beginning with the black sharecroppers singing "Dixie" and picking cotton (and Bugs) was cut as was the part where Colonel Shuffle supposedly shoots himself in the face after Bugs tells him the gun is filled with water that was edited on ABC.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Colonel Shuffle, voiced by Billy Bletcher, who also voiced Pete in Disney cartoons from the 1930s to the 1950s.
- Five-Aces Cheater: Colonel Shuffle holds five aces - and Bugs beats him with a hand of six aces.
- For Dry Pistol, Break Glass: The one Shuffle was carrying after his first trip into the drink was full of water.
- Politeness Judo: As Colonel Shuffle chases Bugs, Bugs opens the door to him, and now Bugs is chasing him. Then the Colonel opens the door for Bugs, and Bugs opens the next door for the Colonel... which happens to lead into the ship's boiler.
- Rump Roast: Colonel Shuffle after being tricked by Bugs into running into the ship's engine.
- Running Gag: Colonel Shuffle being tricked into falling overboard and then coming back aboard on the paddlewheel.
- Sore Loser: Colonel Shuffle. He chases a boat passenger out of his casino, after losing to him at Poker. And he chases Bugs with all guns blazing, after he loses all his money to the rabbit in the same game.
- Southern Gentleman:
- Bugs dresses as Southern nobility to stay on the riverboat. His disguise works perfectly.
- Colonel Shuffle, bizarrely, alternates between bouts of Yosemite Sam-like rage and Southern gentlemanly behavior.
- The other Southern gentleman, who is approached by Bugs disguised as a Damsel in Distress, tosses Colonel Shuffle off the boat, later to jump off the boat himself when he sees Bugs's tail.
- Ten Paces and Turn: The duel overseen by another character. Bugs moves backwards in lockstep with Colonel Shuffle, under the assumption he'll breach the terms of the duel (which, unlike Yosemite Sam, he does not). "And the gentleman wins a cigar!"
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Bugs dresses as a Southern belle at the end and fools a guard into thinking "she's" being molested by Colonel Shuffle. The guard tosses the colonel overboard and then tries to seduce Bugs. Unfortunately, an opening in Bugs's dress reveals his furry back, legs and tail. The shocked guard gags and then throws himself overboard, and Bugs quips:Oh well, we almost had a romantic ending.
- Wingding Pupils: If you look carefully as Colonel Shuffle looks at his cards, you can see his pupils turn into A's for a split second.
- Written Sound Effect: As Bugs tricks Colonel Shuffle into running inside the ship's engine, the smoke coming out of the stacks spells out "YIPE!"
