YMMV / Daffy Duck

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In Wise Quackers, is Daffy really an incompetent slave to Elmer Fudd, or is he really just Obfuscating Stupidity in hopes that he's screw up so badly that Elmer will release him from being his slave (even though his screw-ups keep getting him very close to being killed instead)?
• Broken Base: It's debatable as to which version of Daffy Duck is better. Is it the crazy one created by Bob Clampett and Tex Avery? Or the more lucid, pompous Butt-Monkey created by Chuck Jones? Or the "transitional" Daffy from the late 40's-early 50's?
• Cargo Ship: With the titular object in "A Coy Decoy". At the end of the cartoon, it's revealed that they somehow had clockwork children together.
• Character Rerailment:
  • Some Looney Tunes revivals have been twisting in and out with the original interpretations of Daffy (in Space Jam and Who Framed Roger Rabbit in particular, while still maintaining a lot of wit from Chuck Jones' era, he is back to his goofy prankster persona). At the very least he's been dialed back for the better since his more ruthless De Patie Freleng period.
  • Daffy's original screwball personality returns in full force in plenty of the later works such as Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production and Looney Tunes Cartoons for examples.
• Crazy Is Cool: His no-holds-barred insanity got him noticed, defeated his foes and won him his fans. As he gradually evolved into a more deliberate, motivated character, he began to fail more and more. The Looney Tunes Show deconstructs this trope by bringing back his insanity, but forcing him to suffer more realistic consequences for it (he can't hold down a job, he gets thrown in prison for contempt of court, etc.), ensuring that he remains a Straw Loser. Nonetheless, his craziness has made him one of the most popular characters among fans of the show.
• Designated Villain: During the 1950-60's, despite being a selfish and jealous egomaniac, there are cartoons where Daffy has yet to do anything wrong and he will get mistreated or blamed for something he didn't do.
• Fandom Rivalry: Unlike Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, who despite being from rival companies are shown to actually get along in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Daffy doesn't get along with Donald Duck at all.
  • Though in an earlier draft of the screenplay, their intense battle on the piano proves to be only a stage act, and the two Ducks are revealed as quite good buddies off-stage.
    • An even earlier draft written by Chuck Jones involved a "Show Biz Bugs" type scenario with Daffy and Donald battling for audience appeal, while Donald is met with applause and roses, Daffy is met with the usual cricket chirps. Daffy was apparently such a Straw Loser he made even Disney's biggest Chew Toy and Unpopular Popular Character look like a winner.
  • This was parodied in Bugs Bunny's 50th birthday special from 1990, where we see a crowd of pro-Daffy protesters shouting against Bugs. It turns out that Daffy himself paid those guys to support him, because no one could possibly love Daffy more than Bugs.
    • Except for Frank of The Groovie Goolies apparently.
    • And again in "Bugs And Daffy's Carnival Of Animals"; the reason Daffy gets no applause? The entire audience is made of rabbits!
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In "Assault and Peppered", Daffy is shown to be a rich Jerkass who hates poor people, whips starving mice, and declares "war on poverty". Now fast-forward to 2011 with the "Occupy" protests and malicious police activity.
  • In Daffy's Rhapsody, Elmer pulls out a gun in a theater… Does this need further explanation?
• Heartwarming Moments: During his guest appearance on "The Pat Paulsen Half-a-Comedy Hour", Daffy, as usual in Animated Actor mode per guest role, not only gets standing ovation upon entering, but is later asked what kind of guy Porky Pig is like to work with:
  Daffy: Oh he's one of my best friends. He's just a terrific p-p-p-pig!
  • Before the performance of "The Carnival Of The Animals", Daffy is arguing with Bugs over the pronunciation of Camille Saint-Saens, while being hilariously wrong as usual, his intentions were pure. He was afraid that Bugs was going to go out and make a fool out of himself, so he tried to help him out so that wouldn't happen, not for any type of selfish motivation but because he wanted to protect Bugs from making a foolish mistake in front of a big audience. When Daffy is shown that Bugs is right, he's merely bemused at the way the French pronounce things.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Generally accepted to have invented YouTube Poop.
  • His line in Porky Pig's Feat, which is delivered completely straight and without sarcasm:
    "Yeah, Bugs Bunny, my hero!"
  • In the original Duck Dodgers short, he mentions 'Kerbal miles'.
  • In the cartoon "Fool Coverage", Daffy was an insurance salesman trying to sell a policy to Porky. All that was missing was for him to say "Aflec!"
• Jerkass Woobie: Sure that Daffy is a self professed cowardly and greedy egomaniac, and has a plenty moments of assholery, but he's also a HUGE Butt-Monkey and knows no better, making him one of the most pathetic characters in the Looney Tunes Universe.
• More Popular Replacement: Name anyone outside Looney Tunes historians who have ever heard of Gabby Goat, Porky's original co-star before replacing him with Daffy.
• My Real Daddy: Daffy has an even more complicated history and inheritance than the other Looney Tunes regulars. He was originally made by Tex Avery, though he himself only directed three appearances of the character. Bob Clampett took in making Daffy a recurring star and foil for Porky Pig, while Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones are often credited for creating a frequently-used rendition of the character; the jealous egomaniacal Butt-Monkey rival to Bugs Bunny, with many other directors (especially Robert Mckimson) credited for establishing loads of other nuances in-between that still made him feel like one same character all throughout.
• Older Than They Think: Though Chuck Jones is usually credited with (or blamed for) retooling Daffy's personality in the 1950s, many aspects of his later persona pop up in earlier cartoons.
  • "You Ought to Be in Pictures" (1940) has Daffy as a fame-hungry Jerkass trying to displace Porky as the flagship star of the studio, much as he would later do with Bugs Bunny.
  • Bob Clampett, often considered My Real Daddy for Daffy's crazier attitude, began moving away from that characterization in his last years at the studio, making him a Dirty Coward and Butt-Monkey in "Draftee Daffy."
• Once Original, Now Common: Daffy's catchphrase "You're despicable!" was meant to be funny in part because he mispronounces it - originally, the word "despicable" was pronounced only with stress on the first syllable, and the vowel in that syllable more strongly pronounced. Daffy's use of the word was so influential that his pronunciation has more or less become the standard, and some of the humor of his delivery is lost.
• Rooting for the Empire: Whenever paired with Bugs, most of the audience wants him to win, despite knowing that he never will.
• Spiritual Successor: Daffy's behavior toned down when his personality was given to Do Do Bird from Wackyland.
• Strawman Has a Point: Daffy's feud with Bugs can fall into this at times. While most of the time Bugs' actions are Laser-Guided Karma for Daffy acting out of spiteful envy there are moments where he sets Daffy up for trouble even when the duck isn't actively antagonizing him. The "Duck, Rabbit, Duck" trilogy of shorts are a good example of this as even when Daffy has taken a break from bothering him or is even working with him Bugs still incites trouble for the duck. While Daffy will usually start up trouble for petty reasons he's sometimes vindicated in continuing hostilities just because Bugs takes things too far in retaliation.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Believe it or not, he could occasionally be this in his pairings with Speedy Gonzales. For example, in "Daffy's Diner," he's just trying to protect himself from a vicious bandito cat named El Supremo who threatens to blow his brains out if he can't produce an authentic mouse burger. Even though Daffy did try to cheat him with a fake mouse, he didn't deserve THAT. And even though El Supremo is probably the real villain of the cartoon, it's Daffy who gets the short end of the stick at the end. Meanwhile, in "Feather Finger", Daffy's a homeless street rat who gets conned into chasing Speedy by the conniving Mayor Katt — and yet, the little black duck winds up being the loser of this cartoon as well.
  • He's also this in "Attack of the Drones". He did nothing wrong in this short aside from acting like an arrogant idiot and made the drones in order to stop an alien menace. He didn't count on them going on a rampage and he certainly didn't deserve to get blasted in half, be impaled by a lightsaber, and have his front half eroded. And he STILL winds up being the loser in the end!
• Unpopular Popular Character: One of the most iconic to date.

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