"Rabbit Transit" is a 1947 Looney Tunes short, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Bugs Bunny, as the final short of the "Cecil Turtle trilogy" (after Tortoise Beats Hare in 1941 and Tortoise Wins by a Hare in 1943).
While taking a steam bath, Bugs reads Aesop's Fables and is infuriated at the way The Tortoise and the Hare ends — namely, that the hare loses to the tortoise in a race. Bugs doesn't believe that such a scenario could actually happen for real, but Cecil, who's steam-bathing next to Bugs, disagrees, and so the two of them decide to have a race to settle the matter.
"Rabbit Transit" provides examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Granted, Bugs isn't really a "good guy" in this short, and he does ultimately win the race against Cecil. However, the cartoon ends with Cecil having the last laugh by tricking Bugs into having himself arrested for speeding. Ironically, despite being the only cartoon where Bugs actually wins the race against Cecil, it actually ends even worse for him than his previous two encounters with the turtle did.
- Delayed Reaction: It takes Bugs a moment for the way The Tortoise and the Hare ends to sink in with him, and he's NOT happy about it at all once it does.And during the progress for the race with the tortoise, the hare, confident that he had the race won, lay down and took a nap, *laughs* with the result that the tortoise beat the hare. It was soon after this that the— [flips back the pages, now incensed] "the tortoise beat the hare"?!
- Deliberately Jumping the Gun: Bugs and Cecil both do this in this short, though Bugs does it more than Cecil.Bugs: One for the money... [tiptoes ahead of the line] two for the show... [Cecil tiptoes ahead of Bugs] three to make ready... [tiptoes further ahead of Cecil] and four to— [runs off; telegram delivery guy hands Cecil a telegram from Bugs with "GO!" in it]
- Engineered Public Confession: After Bugs actually manages to beat Cecil in the race, Cecil tricks Bugs into loudly claiming to have been "doing 100 [mph], easy", within earshot of two New York highway patrol officers, who promptly arrest Bugs for over-speeding.Cecil: Er, ain't I a... er, stinker?
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before Bugs passes him and reaches the finish line first, Cecil cuts his shell's engine and runs at his normal pace, a hint that there's a speed limit, which Bugs inadvertently breaks.
- Jerkass: Both Bugs and Cecil, really. Bugs, in particular, is portrayed as a massive hothead - which, by 1947, was pretty out of character for the rabbit.
- Not So Invincible After All: In his previous two appearances, Cecil was consistently one step ahead of Bugs, while here Bugs actually gets the upper hand a few times, at one point even causing the turtle to severely lose his cool. This culminates in Bugs actually managing to win the race, though Cecil still happily settles for a moral victory as Bugs is arrested for speeding.
- Painted Tunnel, Real Train: Bugs tries to misdirect Cecil in the race by painting a tunnel onto a tree. Cecil runs through it, but it doesn't work for Bugs.
- Pyrrhic Victory: While Bugs actually manages to win the race against Cecil this time, Cecil tricks him into getting himself arrested for over-speeding via an Engineered Public Confession, so Bugs gets no joy in winning the race in the end.
