Daffy Duck might be the greatest character actor to ever grace celluloid. His early zany work made him the most popular cartoon character of the time, only to be eclipsed by Bugs Bunny years later. But with true versatility, he evolves from zany to a self-serving, greedy preservationist, who holds his own on the same screen as Bugs. And yet his dissatisfaction playing second fiddle drove him to star in his own films, spoofing some of the most popular genres of 40 years of film history. Duck Dodgers alone remains firmly entrenched in the public consciousness, but his range included gritty detective movies, classic westerns, space epics, and grand medieval adventures. Every such film had Daffy playing the hero, and though he fell on his face quite often, he never fell short of a great performance.

 

Drip Along Daffy 1.2
1951 directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Nasty Canasta

This cartoon was produced as a parody of the Westerns widely popular at the time of its release, and features Daffy Duck as a Western-Type Hero, who, with his trusty Comedy Relief (Porky Pig) hopes to clean up a violence-filled one-horse town. In a tongue-in-cheek nod to The Lone Ranger, Daffy's horse is named Tinfoil. The cartoon includes an original song (sung by Porky) The Flower of Gower Gulch, a parody of sentimental cowboy-style love songs, Gower Gulch being an intersection in Hollywood known as a gathering spot for would-be actors in early Westerns.

Trivia

• The title is a reference to Hop Along Cassidy, a popular cowboy hero from turn of the century novels.

Earworms

• Lucky for him it is a one horse town
• I WOULD LIKE...I would like? I would like a trip to Europe…I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE MYSELF…
  

 

Deduce You Say 1.2
1956 directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and the Shropshire Slasher

Daffy Duck is the dim-witted detective Dorlock Homes (a parody of Sherlock Holmes) and Porky Pig as his sidekick Watkins (based on Dr. Watson), as they attempt to locate and apprehend the dangerous Shropshire Slasher.

Earworms

• Yourname? Shropshire Slasher. Occupation? Shropshire Slasher.

 

 

Rocket Squad 3.3
1956 directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are futuristic space cops who patrol the Milky Way Galaxy, parodying the cop/detective shows airing on television at the time particularly Dragnet and Racket Squad. Daffy Duck is Sgt. Joe Monday and narrator of the story. He and his partner, Det. Schmoe Tuesday (Porky Pig), are returning from a routine investigation in the Big Dipper area, when they are asked to pursue the Flying Saucer Bandit.

Trivia

• The title is a reference to the TV show Racket Squad.
• Daffy and Porky's characters first names put together are 'Joe Schmoe' (Sgt. Joe Monday and Det. Schmoe Tuesday ("He always follows me," declares Joe.)
• Much of the imagery, particularly entering the police station, is reused from Jones' previous short, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
• Among the names appearing on the buttons of the Criminal Detecto Set are John Burton Jr., Tedd Pierce, C.M. Jones, Mel Blanc, Norman Moray and Eddie Selzer, all of whom had a hand in the making of the cartoon.
• Porky and Daffy losing the Flying Saucer Bandit in a smog bank over Los Angeles is in reference to Los Angeles being considered the Smog Bank Capital of the world in the early to late 1950's.
  

 

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery 2.3
1946 directed by Bob Clampett
Featuring Daffy Duck

Awards

• #16 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time as chosen by members of the animation field.

Daffy imagines himself to be Duck Twacy, the famous detec-a-tive. Ignoring a piggy bank theft crime wave, he goes into action when he learns that his own bank has also been stolen from his secure safe. Daffy's search leads him to a tram with Porky as the driver leading to the gangsters' hideout, where he faces off against all the dangerous criminals in town.

Trivia

• The title is a reference to the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery
• Note the use of Powerhouse (1937), an instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, probably best known today as the iconic assembly line music in Warner Bros. cartoons.
• When Daffy eradicates the gangsters trapped in a closet with sustained fire from a Thompson submachine gun it echoes the climactic scene from Warner's film The Big Sleep, released the same year.
• Daffy's early line about Dick Tracy, "I love that man!" and the pig's closing line, "I love that duck!" are references to a popular catch-phrase of the time, "Love dat man!", said by the character Beulah on Fibber McGee and Molly.
• When Duck Twacy takes a streetcar to the gangsters' hideout, the conductor is a thinly-disguised Porky Pig dressed in a driver's uniform and a handlebar mustache.
• Daffy says "sufferin' succotash" while waiting for his Dick Tracy comic. This line would eventually become the catchphrase of Sylvester, who also has a lisp in his voice.
• In the scene in which Daffy is seen through a door in silhouette as Duck Twacy, his shadow briefly morphs into Dick Tracy's trademark profile.
  

 

The Super Snooper 5.1
1952 directed by Robert McKimson
Featuring Daffy Duck

In this parody of film noir trench-coat detective films, Daffy Duck is Duck Drake, a Private Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat who receives a telephone call summoning him to the J. Cleaver Axe-Handle Estate, where a murder has supposedly taken place. Drake suspects its occupant, Femme Fatale (aka The Body), an amorous lady duck. As the lady duck showers him with affection, Drake attempts to reenact the crime.

Trivia – Walk this Way

• The Walk This Way gag was a staple of vaudeville comedy that found its way into film as early as 1936 in a film called After the Thin Man.
• Ten years later it would be used in a Bugs Bunny short called The Big Snooze, then again in this short in 1956.
• In the 70s and 80s it was used a variety of times by Mel Brooks, most notably in Young Frankenstein.
• In 1975 Aerosmith, having written the music for a song but having difficulty coming up with lyrics for it, decided to take a break and see Young Frankenstein, where the gag inspired the lyrics to the song Walk this Way.
  

 

My Little Duckaro 6.1
1954 directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Nasty Canasta

This cartoon in many ways resembles the 1951 short directed by Chuck Jones entitled Drip-Along Daffy. It parodies the widely popular Westerns of the time period. Daffy sees a wanted poster with a reward of $10,000.00 for the dead or alive capture of Nasty Canasta and sets out alongside his companion Porky to retrieve the villain and collect on the money. What follows is the humiliation of Daffy again and again.

Trivia

• The title is a reference to the popular country song My Little Buckaroo, by M.K. Jerome.
• The Wanted Posters in both of these shorts include a reference to square dancing. This is a inside joke to the square dancing that use to take place between the workers of the Looney Tunes animation shorts.
• At one point, Canasta is reading a book called Gravediggers Joke Book by Burke and Hare. This is a reference to the real life William Burke and William Hare, who would rob graves in order to supply cadavers for research at Edinburgh Medical School.
• The unique wallpaper in Canasta's hideout appears to consist of pages from the New Yorker.

Earworms

• It isn’t the principle of it, it’s the money.
  

 

Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century 1.2
1952 directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Marvin Martian

Awards

• #4 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time as chosen by members of the animation field.
• Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (retrospectively)

Duck Dodgers' searches for the rare element Illudium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom. Dodgers is about to claim Planet X in the name of the Earth when Marvin the Martian lands on the same planet and claims it in the name of Mars. The stage is set for a battle of wits (or lack thereof) between the two cartoon stars. Porky Pig, playing the role of the Eager Young Space Cadet, plays the role of the straight man, getting the job done and foiling the villain while Daffy Duck blusters and repeatedly gets himself blown to smithereens.

Considering the period in which the cartoon was produced (the Red Scare was in full swing during the 1950s era), some scholars have used the cartoon to parallel the futility of the Cold War and the arms race. They note that by the end of the cartoon, the planet that Duck Dodgers and Marvin the Martian are fighting over has been destroyed, and the remaining area claimed by Daffy at the end is barely large enough for him to stand upon.

Trivia

• The title and character name are references to Buck Rodgers, a popular sci-fi character found in comics, radio, TV, and books.
• Note the use of Powerhouse (1937), an instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, probably best known today as the iconic assembly line music in Warner Bros. cartoons.

Earworms

• Ah-ha! Now I've got the bead on you with MY disintegrating pistol! And brother, when it disintegrates, it disintegrates!...Heh, what do you know... It disintegrated.