"The Bashful Buzzard" is a 1945 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett and starring Killer (later coined Beaky Buzzard). Serving as a follow-up to the previous short Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, the cartoon follows the exact same premise, with the omission of Bugs Bunny, with Killer trying and failing to capture prey for his unimpressed mother.
This was the final Warner Bros short with voice work provided by Kent Rogers, who died shortly after production.
"The Bashful Buzzard" provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Killer at one point earns the ire of a female sheep when he tears off her wool, leaving her in a nightgown and inciting her to beat him over the head with a brush.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Mama Buzzard annoyance with Killer's incompetence, she is worried sick when he doesn't come home.
- Big Little Man: "Shorty" at first seems to stand a little shorter than Killer, which is why he's so eager to engage with him in a fight. Unfortunately, the rocks he's peeking his head through hide the rest of his enormous body.
- Bullying a Dragon: Literally! The creature Killer calls Shorty initially seems small judging by the size of his head. An overconfident Killer hits Shorty in the head twice and challenges him to a fight. Then Killer attempts to abduct Shorty, only to find out that he is an enormous dragon. Shorty promptly attacks Killer, winds up winning the fight.
- Description Cut: After all the big prey his other sons bring home, Mama hopes that Killer brings something just as big. Cut to...Killer: [singing] I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee...
- Dogs Love Fire Hydrants: One scene has a buzzard carry along a dog yelping while clinging to a fire hydrant.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When the Dragon roars at Killer, Killer tells him to be quiet and says he might scare "Shorty" (the lizard he was trying to pull out of the rock)—he mumbles and looks around for a moment, realizing the giant dragon in front of him is Shorty, just in time for the Dragon to roar again and attack him.
- Funny Animal: The curvaceous sheep lady that Killer unwittingly tears the wool off of.
- Fur Is Clothing: The aforementioned sheep has her wool become a coat when Killer removes it and its removal leaves her in a nightgown.
- Graceful Loser: The dragon, "Shorty", after Killer defeats and drags him home, can't resist getting in a quip after he hears his mother chiding him for coming up empty handed:"Shorty": Well now, I wouldn't say that. *chuckles*
- Hammerspace: Beaky's mom is effortlessly able to fit all of the ridiculously large things her kids bring back into her rather small cooking pot.
- Last-Second Word Swap: As Killer tries to catch "Shorty", he calls him an "infinitesimal piece of sh... shoe leather!"
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: As in his first appearance in Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, Killer/Beaky is based on Edgar Bergen's dummy Mortimer Snerd.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Played for Laughs; despite his slow witted personality, Killer was somehow able to capture a bumblebee. And to say nothing of the fact that he somehow managed to defeat the dragon and haul it back to his nest.
- Oh, Crap!: Among the things Killer's brothers drag back to the nest is a cow, with a farmer still milking it without realizing he's way up in the sky. The farmer slowly realizes his situation, just in time to freak out as gravity kicks in.
- Also: "SHORTY?!?!?"
- Our Dragons Are Different: The dragon Killer encounters is huge and can fly, but it isn't of the fire breathing variety, and it has ridiculously tiny limbs and a head that barely looks dragon-like at all. It rather resembles a brontosaurus, in fact.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the elephants being carried back to the buzzard family's nest is trailing a sign that says "I am NOT Dumbo!"
- At the end, the dragon quips "Well now, I wouldn't say that!", a catchphrase said by Mr. Peavey from The Great Gildersleeve.
- Shut Up, Scary Thing!: The dragon roars right in Killer's face, but Killer merely clamps its mouth shut and shushes him.
- Standard Snippet: Killer's bumblebee song is set to Arkansas Traveler
- Stock Footage: The entire opening is reused from Clampett's previous short, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid.
- Super-Strength: Killer and his brothers are able to effortlessly lift things into the air far heavier than any bird of their size has any business carrying, including a parade of elephants! Killer himself is able to carry a truly massive dragon all the way back to his nest.
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: The dragon, which is why, after only seeing his head peeking through some rocks, Killer refers to him as "Shorty".
- Vile Vulture: Subverted with Killer, but played straight with his brothers and mother.
