What's Cookin, Doc? is a 1944 Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett and starring Bugs Bunny. It is centered on a cocksure Bugs Bunny attending an Academy Award ceremony, believing he'll be the winner. When he loses to actor James Cagney, he attempts to win over the audience by showing them one of his cartoons.
Strangely, this cartoon has intermittently been shelved by Cartoon Network for content issues even though there's nothing really offensive about it, save the minor issues of the racial stereotype of the hunter in the clips from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, the implied sex joke in the "Stag Reel" gag, and the Camp Gay way the phony Oscar acts at the end. It was one of 12 cartoons not shown in the "June Bugs" CN marathon in 2001, which was ostensibly supposed to include every single Bugs short ever made. But the next year it aired in the scaled down version of "June Bugs" they did, plus on The Bob Clampett Show. It has also aired on their other anthology shows Bugs and Daffy note and The Looney Tunes Show note .
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: As the narrator asks who will win the Oscar, the camera cuts to Bugs smugly bragging that he's a shoo-in to win.
- Camp Gay: Bugs' Booby Prize, which comes to life as a flamboyant impersonation of actor Bert Gordon and kisses Bugs affectionately.
- Clip Show: More than half of the cartoon consists of pre-made footage from the 1937 film A Star Is Born (1937) and a previous Bugs cartoon, Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt.
- Medal of Dishonor: Bugs gets a "Booby Prize" Oscar, although he fails to notice since he's too happy about finally getting an award.
- Medium Blending: The film uses a mix of animation and live action elements, but the two don't interact or overlap on screen with each other.
- Oh, Crap!: Bugs is very quick to cover up the Stag Reel film and call it off just when it starts playing.
- Produce Pelting: After Bugs makes his case for the Oscar, the crowd decide to "give it to him" and bury him in an avalanche of vegetables. He emerges looking like Carmen Miranda with a hat of produce on his head.
- Shout-Out:
- Throughout the cartoon, Bugs impersonates Jerry Colonna, Bing Crosby, Cecil B. DeMille, Katharine Hepburn, Edward G. Robinson, Boris Karloff (by proxy of the Frankenstein's Monster role), Charles Boyer and Carmen Miranda.
- Bugs loses the Oscar to actor James Cagney.
- When Bugs throws some film reels to a projectionist, he says "Okay Smokey, roll 'em!", an in-joke referring to Looney Tunes cameraman and projectionist Henry "Smokey" Garner.
- Bugs' Booby Prize comes to life and references radio actor Bert Gordon in the end.
- The Spanish dub of the cartoon has the announcer call out "Bam-bee!" when Bugs' Stag Reel starts playing.
- Show Within a Show: Bugs shows one of his own cartoons to the audience.
- Sore Loser: Bugs gets quite upset at the idea of not winning an Oscar.
- Standard Snippet: "The Streets of Cairo" plays when the projectionist accidentally plays a Stag Reel for Bugs.
- Visual Pun:
- The Stag (Porn) Reel, which has a literal (cartoon) stag headlining it.
- The new ending card of Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt has Bugs mooning the audience with the words The End.
