Looney Tunes: February 2000
Cover
Daffy asks Bugs "Hey, Bugs! Wanna see my new puppy?. Bugs, standing in his hole, points nervously behind the duck and utters, "Er..." What Bugs sees that Daffy isn't aware of is that the puppy is now mostly in the mouth of Taz.
Credits
Synopsis
Bugs Bunny emerges from burrowing and finds himself not at Pismo Beach, but in the midst of rollerderby. As he's complaining about the difference he more than notices Queenie, a very fit lady bunny, rollerblade past. He quickly catches up to her but runs into a problem named Thud, who is Queenie's boyfriend.
Thud makes his point loudly, then smashingly, and sends Bugs flying. This of course is more than Bugs will allow and so he sets out to remove Thud from the game. First by bodycheck, but Bugs is out-massed by Thud. As he tries something more brutal, he's run over by others. Then the rabbit tries a dirty trick, which backfires.
Thud does go flying out of the place finally, by his own power and decision. A decision influenced by the announcer who has scared him. And then we see Queenie relaxing with the new announcer, who just happens to be Bugs.
Did You Notice...
Page 1: The guy in prison orange garb has the number 90210. This is a more accurate reference to the television show Beverly Hills 90210 than in the beginning sequence of Pinky and the Brain cartoons where, incredibly, the wrong number was used.- Page 1: Queenie's number seems to be her measurements: 36-21-36.
- Page 3: Queenie doesn't object to the word "doll" as Lola does.
- Page 5: Bugs borrows a line, about speaking and sticks, from Teddy Roosevelt.
- Page 5: The announcer is the Sheriff of Nottingham from "Rabbit Hood." (EC)
- Page 5: The odd guy in the third panel is Egghead, the predecessor of Elmer Fudd in a handful of Tex Avery cartoons. Egghead appears again in the final panel.(EC)
- Page 6: The oil is labelled 'Oily Kidstuff.' The term 'Greasy Kid's stuff' was used in advertising by a company selling hair products to describe their competitor's product. (Anyone recall which companies and products were involved in this? I don't recall and haven't been able to find out. -- PN)
Technical Nits
Page 2: Thud's shorts have a red stripe that isn't shown in the rest of the story.- Page 5: Bugs has the number 7 here, but not at any other time, even in the same outfit.
- Page 5: Number 9's shirt is solid green, when it ought to be patterned.
Credits
Synopsis
As Bugs reads a newspaper he's warned of Elmer's approach by a rattling. It seems the hunter got up early and had too much caffeine.
Did You Notice...
Technical Nits
Credits
Synopsis
In the boardroom of International Thingy Corporation older board member announces that the missing founder's son, Horace Thingy, has been found. As that is revealed, Taz enters, tearing up the place. Miss Clarinda, the youngest person there, who would otherwise inherit, first doubts he is the real Horace, but is quickly convinced. She vows to take control of the company from him.
Taz, after dining on a limo, makes an impression at the stockholders' meeting. The stockholders are quite taken with Taz's aggressive, selfish nature. The news spreads. Taz must be doing something right as not only is he featured in financial publications but he seems to have reversed the decline of International Thingy's profits.
As Taz is read the good news, Miss Clarinda bursts in with news of her working with Global Doodad to take over Thingy. Taz starts to attack but is trapped, at a rather inopportune time for him, by his desire to dine on fine automobiles. Clarinda tries to get him to sign over control to her, but just then the real Horace appears. While explaining that Taz is a vicious animal, Horace gets clobbered by the escaping Devil, as does Clarinda. Horace actually doesn't want anything to do with the company, which leaves Clarinda in control.
Clarinda first act is to fire Taz. Global Doodad offers him a job, but he's had enough of large corporations and sets out on his own. Taz does seminars to sell his method of getting rich, but his dining on woodwork has a result which drives his customers away.
Did You Notice...
- Page 3: One of the stockholders is doodling a Tic-Tac-Toe game.
- Page 3: One of the stockholders is not using a portable phone.
- Page 3: The publications shown are parodies of Forbes, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal. The Journal here is a magazine rather than a newspaper.
- It may seem odd but it is possible to have a company with stockholders, with stocks that can be bought out, and still have a single family largely control it. The shares outside of the family must be widely distributed, however. Also, Clarinda and Global Doodad must have acted very fast to surprise Thingy, as anytime a person or group acquires 10% or more of a corporation's stocks, they have only 10 days to file a document stating that is the case. (EC)
Technical Nits
- Page 5: The car has only a sliver of a side rear window here, while on the previous page the side rear window was nearly the size of the side front window.
- This story may seem somewhat familiar. In The Devil And Dr. Webster (Nov. 1998) Taz is also a victim of mistaken identity. (And that's a better story, too, I think. -- PN)
- Finally, while the references to Taz needing to use the bathroom is handled delicately enough, the ending seems to be merely a gratuitous gross-out, something that Looney Tunes has been refreshingly free of in a world where the current trend in cartoons seems to be forever lower and more base items in place of genuine humor. (I hope this is just a case where one poor decision was made, and is not indicative of a trend. -- PN)
Credits
Synopsis
Wile E. Coyote hosts a panel discussion show, with Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, and an out of place Bugs Bunny as panelists. The first issue brought up is the use of bombs with bunnies. Yosemite is for it, Elmer is unsure, and Sylvester changes the subject slightly. Bugs gives his answer about bomb usage. A rather less explosive subject is mentioned for the next week's topic.
Did You Notice...
- This is a very good sendup of The McLaughlin Group a political discussion show in which the discussions, by issue decided upon by McLaughlin, often get rather heated.
Technical Nits
Credits
Synopsis
Porky Pig is set to snack and relax in front of the TV when he's assaulted by a commercial hard-selling the 'Dechubbyizer 2000.' So forceful is the commercial that Porky ends up ordering before realizing what happened. A parcel arrives immediately, the delivery person loudly announcing what it is, to Porky's chagrin.
Upon opening the the parcel Porky is surprised by Daffy who claims to be his personal trainer. He intimidates Porky and confiscates his money before a trip to the gym. There Daffy manages to annoy a patron and her boyfriend, but Porky suffers for it. The trip home is also unusual. Rather than let the pig take the car, Daffy hitches him up to a carriage as if he were a horse and uses him for his taxi service.
The first passenger is both large and in a hurry, so Porky ends up straining hard. Another passenger leaps aboard, carrying a bomb, and demands that the taxi stay above 55 MPH or else. A fight between the passengers puts an end to the taxi service and nearly to Porky as well, yet Daffy escapes unscathed again.
Finally home, Daffy has Porky waiting on him hand and foot, but the pig hasn't eaten. Taking pictures off the wall as payment, the duck sells a meal plan which turns out to be very meager. This sets Porky off and, revealing that he's muscular and not flabby, he turns the table on the duck. Daffy ends up waiting on Porky as well as having to deal with some of the other folks he's annoyed.
Did You Notice...
- Page 2: That's probably the most honest before and after photo set ever for a weight loss system hawked by TV commercial, even though it tries to deceive.
- Page 3: Looney money really is loony, with bills having a face value of zero.
- Page 4: Crusher and Gruesome Gorilla, first panel, are lifting weights at the gym.
- Page 4: The weightlifter in the background of the second panel is quite impressive, isn't he?
- Page 5: The bit about a bomb and needing to go fast are of course from the 1994 film Speed in which a bus must not go below 50 MPH or a bomb on board will detonate.
- Page 5: The first passenger removing a mask to reveal her real self may refer to an episode of Muppets Tonight where a bomber threatened to blow up the place if their ratings drop below 50. The muppets act accordingly to keep ratings up and at the end of the show, they track down the bomber, who is in the building with them. The muppets pull off his mask, revealing Sandra Bullock (who was in Speed), who didn't really plant a bomb but just wanted them to keep their ratings up so they wouldn't get cancelled. (DAN)
- Page 6: Daffy is about to dine on a ham.
- Page 7: Porky's revenge: He asks for duck sauce.
Technical Nits
- Page 5: The bomber seems to have planned on an immediate detonation as the bomb is lit, with not much fuse left. So how does speed affect that? And what purpose is served by the remote control button when the bomb is of that type?
- Page 8: The yellow stripe on Daffy's shorts has gone missing.
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Last updated 24 April 2001