History ParodyDisplacement / LooneyTunes

* WesternAnimation/PepeLePew is based on (then) well-known French actor named Creator/JeanGabin, who starred in ''Pépé le Moko'' (remaid in English as ''Film/{{Algiers}}''), with a little bit of Creator/MauriceChevalier thrown in. Even if you've heard of these sources, they are less familiar than the amorous skunk is.

''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' features a high amount of ParodyDisplacement. [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Caricatures of celebrities]], fragments of dialog from then-contemporary movies, [[CatchPhrase catchphrases]] from old-time radio shows, parodies of once-popular songs; all sailed right over your head if you were a kid watching on Saturday morning[[note]]Or weekday morning or afternoon[[/note]] decades later. The cartoons were intended to be consumed in the time in which they were made, when their audiences would have been fully familiar with all the references they threw in. None of their creators would have expected they would still be popular fifty years later, long after nearly everyone had forgotten the original references.

* The character of WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn was closely modeled on a radio character named Senator Beauregard Claghorn. A staple on Fred Allen's show in the '30s and '40s, Claghorn[[note]]in his earliest sketches he was named "Senator Bloat"[[/note]] was a ridiculous Southerner who offered wry commentary on current events, along with puns and impenetrable analogies (example: "Your tongue's waggin' like a blind dog's tail at a meat market"). In his day, Claghorn was popular enough to inspire a film version of his routine entitled ''It's a Joke Son'', along with an {{Expy}} on Radio/TheJackBennyProgram voiced by Phil Harris. {{Catch phrase}}s such as "That's a joke, son" and "I say", associated exclusively with the loudmouthed rooster[[note]]"'loudmouthed', that is"[[/note]], were appropriated wholesale from the Senator, who today is all but forgotten. Ironically, actor Kenny Delmar, who voiced Claghorn on Fred Allen's show, could do nothing about it because he hadn't copyrighted the character -- copyright was not automatic at the time in the United States. But Warner Brothers ''did'' copyright Foghorn Leghorn, meaning Delmar had to get permission from WB to use his own character! Even more ironically, Creator/JonStewart has referred to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) as "Senator Foghorn Leghorn".

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' themselves (and their sibling Warner cartoons, ''Merrie Melodies'') were originally named such as a [[DuelingWorks parody/response]] to Disney's ''WesternAnimation/SillySymphonies''. Nowadays, ''Looney Tunes'' are considered the de facto AlternateCompanyEquivalent to them, and it's ''very'' rare that you'll find someone who's heard of ''Silly Symphonies'' but not ''Looney Tunes'' or ''Merrie Melodies'', while the converse is quite likely.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDoverBoys'' is well known as the cartoon where Chuck Jones [[GrowingTheBeard found his voice]] with stylized off-the-wall slapstick. Hardly anyone remembers the ''Literature/TheRoverBoys'' books it spoofed.

* Creator/MelBlanc's impression of Creator/PeterLorre in particular really took on a life of its own. The real Lorre's voice wasn't nearly as raspy as Blanc's imitation, but that imitation has inspired so many others that people raised on them might not even recognize Lorre in any of his films.

* Daffy is also responsible for ''permanently changing the pronunciation of an English word.'' The word "despicable" is actually supposed to be pronounced [[http://books.google.com/books?id=7iocw3kK9BIC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=despicable+pronunciation+Daffy&source=bl&ots=3SUHKU-6Cj&sig=PFHsSpuNC0ss1vx4J44kSlvRIZU&hl=en&ei=jckuTeTpGMaAlAfP2uzmCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage with the accent on the first syllable]]: "DES-picable". Mispronouncing it was part of Daffy's {{Malaproper}} schtick. However, since the cartoons reached so many kids who were too young to have the ''real'' pronunciation in their vocabularies yet, Daffy's "You're de-SPICK-able" was the pronunciation they all learned. And it holds true still today: That Steve Carrell movie isn't called ''[[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe DES-picable Me]]''. On the other hand, few people nowadays say "FORM-idable" or "LAM-entable" either, and that can hardly be blamed on Daffy.

* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny steals entire blocks of shtick from Red Skelton, [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] and old-time comedian Joe Besser.

* From [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]:
-->Bugs’ nonchalant carrot-chewing stance, as explained many years later by Creator/ChuckJones, and again by Creator/FrizFreleng and Creator/BobClampett, comes from the movie ''Film/ItHappenedOneNight'', from a scene where the Creator/ClarkGable character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Bugs would later often do), giving instructions with his mouth full to the Creator/ClaudetteColbert character, during the hitch-hiking sequence. This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately got the connection.

* ''WesternAnimation/ILoveToSinga'' was a parody of the film ''Film/TheJazzSinger''. Now not a lot of people remember the later one and the titular song is only known either for ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' or ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''.

* From [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]:

* ''WesternAnimation/ILoveToSinga'' was a parody of the film ''Film/TheJazzSinger''. Now not a lot of people remember the later one and the titular song is only known either for ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' or for the time when [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Cartman got an anal probe]].

* The character of WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn was closely modeled on a radio character named Senator Beauregard Claghorn. A staple on Fred Allen's show in the '30s and '40s, Claghorn[[note]]in his earliest sketches he was named "Senator Bloat"[[/note]] was a long-winded Southerner who offered wry commentary on current events, along with puns and impenetrable analogies (example: "Your tongue's waggin' like a blind dog's tail at a meat market"). In his day, Claghorn was popular enough to inspire a film version of his routine entitled ''It's a Joke Son'', along with an {{Expy}} on Radio/TheJackBennyProgram voiced by Phil Harris. {{Catch phrase}}s such as "That's a joke, son" and "I say", associated exclusively with the loudmouthed rooster[[note]]"'loudmouthed', that is"[[/note]], were appropriated wholesale from the Senator, who today is all but forgotten. Ironically, actor Kenny Delmar, who voiced Claghorn on Fred Allen's show, could do nothing about it because he hadn't copyrighted the character -- copyright was not automatic at the time in the United States. But Warner Brothers ''did'' copyright Foghorn Leghorn, meaning Delmar had to get permission from WB to use his own character! Even more ironically, Creator/JonStewart has referred to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) as "Senator Foghorn Leghorn".

** In fact, it's gotten to the point that most people who now study the Bible will assume that the name Nimrod is a case of unintentional irony.

* ''WesternAnimation/ILoveToSinga'' was a parody of the film ''Film/TheJazzSinger''. Now nobody remembers the later one and the titular song is only known either for ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' or for the time when [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Cartman got an anal probe]].

* WesternAnimation/PepeLePew is based on Creator/CharlesBoyer's character Pépé le Moko (from the film ''Film/{{Algiers}}''), with a little bit of Creator/MauriceChevalier thrown in. Even if you've heard of these sources, they are less familiar than the amorous skunk is.
** Not quite. He is actually a parody of a (then) well known French actor named Creator/JeanGabin who stared in "Pépé le Moko" which was re-made in English as "Algiers", making this a potential IAmNotShazam.

''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' contains perhaps the most WeirdAlEffect of any Western cartoon. [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Caricatures of celebrities]], fragments of dialog from then-contemporary movies, [[CatchPhrase catchphrases]] from old-time radio shows, parodies of once-popular songs; all sailed right over your head if you were a kid watching on Saturday morning[[note]]Or weekday morning or afternoon[[/note]] decades later. The cartoons were intended to be consumed in the time in which they were made, when their audiences would have been fully familiar with all the references they threw in. None of their creators would have expected they would still be popular fifty years later, long after nearly everyone had forgotten the original references.