50 Fun Facts About Bugs Bunny

What is Bugs Bunny's most famous catchphrase?

Tex Avery wrote it for A Wild Hare and said it was just a common expression back in Texas.

Who was Bugs Bunny's original voice actor?

He voiced the rabbit for 52 years, from 1938 until his death in 1989.

Which 1940 Tex Avery short is considered Bugs's official debut?

It was the first with the standard voice, the catchphrase and an Oscar nomination.

In which 1938 cartoon did a prototype of Bugs first appear?

It recycled the plot of Porky's Duck Hunt, which had introduced Daffy Duck a year earlier.

What color was the prototype rabbit in the 1938 short?

He did not turn gray until Hare-um Scare-um in 1939.

Which director's nickname gave Bugs his name, via a model sheet labelled "Bugs's Bunny"?

Animator Charles Thorson drew the sheet for Ben "Bugs" Hardaway.

Which 1939 short was the first to draw Bugs as a gray rabbit instead of a white one?

It was also his first singing role.

In Prest-O Change-O (1939), Bugs is the pet of which unseen character?

Two dogs fleeing the dogcatcher hide in the magician's house and get harassed by the rabbit.

Which artist redesigned Bugs and Elmer for the 1940 official debut?

His rabbit looked like an adolescent where Thorson's had looked like an infant.

In which 1940 Chuck Jones short did the rabbit first meet his future hunter nemesis?

The rabbit looked close to modern Bugs but still had the primitive voice.

Which 1941 short was the first to put Bugs's name on a title card?

Bugs had yellow gloves, no buck teeth and a thuggish personality that was quickly dropped.

Which 1958 Friz Freleng short is the only Oscar winner in the rabbit's filmography?

A medieval Bugs battles Yosemite Sam and a fire-breathing dragon that has a cold.

Whose opera cycle does What's Opera, Doc? (1957) parody?

In 1992 it became the first cartoon short chosen for the National Film Registry.

Which three Chuck Jones shorts form the hunting-season trilogy that began the Bugs–Daffy rivalry?

They were the origin of the Bugs–Daffy rivalry.

In Duck Amuck (1953), who is revealed as the unseen animator tormenting Daffy?

He closes with his other catchphrase, "Ain't I a stinker?"

Which 1934 film's fast-talking Oscar Shapely helped inspire Bugs's speech pattern?

Clark Gable also eats a carrot while talking in it, which the directors credited for Bugs's habit.

Which actor's carrot-eating scene did Freleng, Jones and Clampett cite as Bugs's inspiration?

His character Peter Warne is addressed as Doc in the same film.

Why did Mel Blanc spit carrot bits into a spittoon while recording?

He flatly denied the carrot-allergy legend in a 1984 interview.

Mel Blanc described Bugs's voice as a blend of which two New York accents?

Tex Avery said he had asked for a voice like actor Frank McHugh's.

In the 1941 follow-up to his debut, Blanc briefly gave Bugs a voice resembling which actor?

The directors decided the A Wild Hare voice was better and switched back.

What honorary rank did the US Marine Corps give Bugs after Super-Rabbit (1943)?

He appears at the end of the short in Marine dress blues.

Which 1945 short introduced Bugs's running joke about a wrong turn at Albuquerque?

He ends up in the Black Forest of "Joimany" instead of Las Vegas and meets Göring and Hitler.

Which 1944 short was pulled from distribution over its depiction of Japanese soldiers?

Warner, like Disney and Famous Studios, pitted its stars against the Axis.

Bugs was the wartime mascot of an Army airfield in which Arizona town?

Thousands of aerial gunners trained there, including Clark Gable and Charles Bronson.

In a 1944 Paramount Puppetoons cameo, Bugs pops out of his hole and says what?

The short was Jasper Goes Hunting; he realized the orchestra was playing the wrong theme.

What was the rabbit's first film in the Looney Tunes series proper, in 1944?

It was also the last Warner cartoon to credit Leon Schlesinger, who had retired.

Which 1964 short was Bugs's last Golden Age cartoon?

He did not return to theaters in a new short until 1991.

On which network did The Bugs Bunny Show debut in prime time in 1960?

After two seasons it moved to Saturday mornings, where it stayed for 40 years in various forms.

In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs had to share every frame equally with which character?

Warner insisted its biggest star get equal screen time with Disney's.

Who was the first person other than Mel Blanc to voice Bugs, in 1990?

It was for the drug-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.

In Tiny Toon Adventures, what job does Bugs hold?

He mentors Babs and Buster Bunny.

Which 1991 short was Bugs's first theatrical cartoon since 1964?

It marked his 50th anniversary; (Blooper) Bunny was shelved until Cartoon Network aired it in 1997.

Which NBA star did Bugs team up with in Space Jam (1996)?

The film grossed over $230 million and introduced Lola Bunny.

Which character was introduced in Space Jam as Bugs's love interest?

Nike later made an Air Jordan Mid 1 Lola to go with the Bugs version.

In what year did Bugs become the first cartoon character on a US postage stamp?

He beat Mickey Mouse to the honor; the sheet was the USPS's first self-adhesive souvenir sheet.

On what date did Bugs get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

He was the second cartoon character after Mickey Mouse to receive one.

Where did Bugs rank on TV Guide's 2002 list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters?

The editor called him the best example of the smart-aleck American comic.

What nickname did Bugs use in his Nike sneaker commercials of the early 1990s?

The ads for the Air Jordan VII and VIII were precursors to Space Jam.

What color was Bugs's fur in the first season of The Looney Tunes Show (2011)?

Jessica Borutski's redesign was switched back to gray in season two.

In The Looney Tunes Show, Bugs treats which character as a pet dog?

He shares a house with Daffy, Taz and Speedy on a dead-end street.

Who has voiced Bugs on Looney Tunes Cartoons since 2020?

He also voices Daffy and Tweety and played Big Chungus in Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Which NBA star headlined the 2021 sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy?

A year later Bugs got a preschool series, Bugs Bunny Builders.

Which comic publisher printed Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics #1 in 1941?

Western Publishing went on to issue 245 Bugs Bunny comic books between 1952 and 1984.

For roughly how many years did the Bugs Bunny newspaper strip run?

It ran from January 10, 1943 to December 30, 1990, adding a daily strip in 1948.

Which Disney character designed by Charles Thorson influenced the early Bugs model sheet?

Thorson had drawn Max Hare for Toby Tortoise Returns in 1936.

Who actually called Elmer Fudd "my little nimrod" in a 1948 short, a line often credited to Bugs?

The short was What Makes Daffy Duck; the OED records earlier negative uses of nimrod anyway.

Bugs's future descendant Ace Bunny leads the team in which 2000s series?

Ace inherited the Brooklyn accent and the rapier wit.

What did Bugs say instead of Porky's sign-off when he closed Hare Tonic and Baseball Bugs?

He burst through the drum munching a carrot, just as Porky did.

Roughly how many theatrical shorts did Bugs star in between 1940 and 1964?

Most were directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and Chuck Jones.

Which 1940 Bob Clampett short has Bugs announcing that 750 rabbits have been born?

It used the A Wild Hare design but the goofier pre-Wild Hare voice.