#'lol there was this time i was just an absolute DICK to daffy. we have fun. well. i have fun'

[somecunttookmyurl]

when i was a kid i had a VHS my dad taped from the TV (which he then printed a plain white cover for) of The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie and I watched it over and over again and to this day I love it

it's free on Internet Archive and if you've never seen it, then do give it a watch

it's essentially a collection of (arguably some of the greatest) Looney Tunes shorts - including Duck Amuck - presented as "memories" of the storied life of Bugs Bunny and his friends as he gives an autobiographical interview from his Hollywood mansion

[ducktracy]

are you anti "sour-puss" daffy? that characterization of him is the primary one in my head. like duck amuck is epitome of daffy in my mind.

CRACKS KNUCKLES SO LOUDLY THEY EXPLODE. i’m giving my “HEADS UP THIS WILL LIKELY BE EXHAUSTIVE” warning now because i love love love love love love love love any chance to talk and analyze and pontificate about the duck. TLDR: YES AND NO

SO. i don’t consider myself “anti sour-puss” so much as i would consider my stance “if Daffy has to be more egocentric and miserly than he usually is then i prefer a very specific set of circumstances for this to be the case”. i have warmed up to the Jones and Freleng duck of the ‘50s onward CONSIDERABLY in recent years—there was a point where i just refused to touch any Daffy short made after a certain point because i knew it would make me frustrated and sad and mad and that’s, respectfully, ridiculous!

it took me watching the Speedy and Daffy cartoons to realize that Daffy in THOSE shorts is what i thought Daffy was in the Jones and Freleng shorts. it dwindles a bit over time (compare how he behaves in The Hunting Trilogy to something like Ali-Baba Bunny, which is a short i still have yet to come around to for that reason—i don’t like the “MINE MINE MINE GO GO GO DOWN DOWN DOWN” duck very much and my issue was that i thought he behaved that way in every single cartoon after a certain point which is thankfully incorrect!), but there’s still some nuance. by the time we’re getting to shorts where Daffy is saying “HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO STARVE ON MY PROPERTY” is when i fully throw in the towel lol

another thing that’s helped me warm up is the realization that Daffy’s personality change is not nearly as objective as it’s made out to be. he has always had an ego, he’s always been reckless, impulsive, and yes, this absolutely includes the ‘30s shorts! Chuck’s Duck is Chuck’s Duck from day one with the line “not bad for a guy that never took a lesson in his life!”.

Scalp Trouble has Daffy on an ego trip fancying himself as an army general (and there is a legitimate, honest to god small dick metaphor joke in that short because he has this huge giant sword sheath that is indiscreetly phallic in design, only to reveal a tiny little dagger), ordering people around and essentially LARPing in this role we immediately know is way too big for him. and when it comes time to battle, what does he do but spend the majority of his time cowering in a corner.

he’s always had these traits! maybe they’re a bit more primitive earlier on, some other traits are a greater priority. but Drip-Along Daffy is one of my favorite Chuck Jones shorts because it’s basically a sequel to The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. and you could argue the same with Duck Dodgers! all shorts have him fantasizing about a hero role that is clearly too big for him to fill, and he is absolutely getting the biggest kick out of assuming this role. Drip-Along is still early enough to also have this sort of innocence and unflappability (that may more accurately be described as delusion or ignorance): when Daffy gets no reception whatsoever in the bar, instead of screaming at everyone to look at him, he just marches to the next order of business and indulges in his next part of his fantasy. this NEVER would have happened had the short come out 5-10 years after when it did.

likewise, the Daffy of the ‘50s and ‘60s is still insane, it’s just a different manifestation of how that’s the case. earlier on, he’s a bit more visibly unhinged. his HOOHOOHOOing fits are a catharsis that you can just FEEL crawling up his throat and dying to get out, and in the really early shorts you can see this sort of half and half battle between cognizance and succumbing to insanity (The Daffy Doc and Porky’s Last Stand especially come to mind). it’s an insanity that relieves itself through sheer manic catharsis. as time goes on, he matures a bit, he knows how to keep better wraps on it; the manners in which he gratifies his impulses just shifts.

and also, Daffy can still very much be a sourpuss early on! Bob McKimson’s Daffy, whose interpretation is very integral in my sort of mental default of who Daffy is, can be very bitter and cynical in particular! or, again, early shorts like The Daffy Doc or Scalp Trouble where he’s more argumentative and his ego is clearly much more tender.

the seeds of what Daffy would become have all been planted, and so that’s allowed me to bristle a bit less and lower my haunches. and i am making more progress in coming around to the later shorts! i’ve been on a Chuck Jones kick recently and been watching lots of Chuck Jones Daffy shorts and enjoying them. i love Drip-Along, Duck Dodgers, Duck Amuck, Deduce You Say, Robin Hood Daffy—i’ve even come around to Rabbit Seasoning which is kind of NUTS to me because there was awhile where i was acting like Bugs and Daffy shorts killed my firstborn. “pronoun trouble” is an inside joke with my friend and dear lord i laugh every time at Daffy’s reactions to Elmer falling for Bugs’ drag act, and the ENDING!!!! omg. i love it. i’ve come around to Beanstalk Bunny as well! it’s a great short!! in getting to know the duck better and understanding how nuanced his development is, i’ve gone a bit softer which is good.

i was just chatting about this recently—i think most of the thorns in my side come from the Daffy and Bugs pair-ups. what i like best and get most out of each character, i get none of when they’re together. i’d rather see Bugs behaving and doing something else, and the same for Daffy. i’m not opposed to a sourpuss Daffy so much as i really don’t like seeing him suffer. i feel like the Bugs and Daffy shorts “punch down” a bit more on him, and i still haven’t found a way to really properly articulate this… i’ll just copy and paste what i was saying the other day here:

Daffy earlier on has all the traits above we talked about, but the difference is that he isn’t really shamed for them outright? of course we’re meant to laugh at his cowardice as he says “go… back… in again….” to the giant towering rat gangster he screamed at to confront him, we’re of course supposed to laugh at the asininity and selfishness of him dodging the draft and taking the Little Man From the Draft Board down with him by locking him in a safe and suffocating him. Daffy isn’t exactly meant to be a role model (but that still doesn’t stop me from finding his bombasm and exuberance and zest for life extremely empowering!), but there’s less narrative pushback against it. seeing Daffy be Daffy and have every action be interrupted by another character rolling their eyes going “oh brother” is where i have a problem, it just sucks the air out of the room for me. especially when Daffy is made to feel ashamed or beaten down for this as well. that’s why i enjoy shorts like Beanstalk Bunny or Drip-Along so much, ending with stuff like “it’s a living!” or being contented in his new position that is often very degrading and a direct consequence of his impulsiveness. a huge part of Daffy’s charm for me is his resilience (even if that equates to ignorance at times), if he wants something he will go to absolutely asinine lengths to get it! and i love that! his drive is so admirable! and i just feel like after awhile that resilience is lost. the issue isn’t that Daffy is a loser, as he’s lost quite a bit before that—moreso, he doesn’t have that good humor about being a loser anymore

I’M ALMOST DONE I PROMISE. but my tags in that video post, as i said in them, i watched The Million Hare the other day which is a short i very much dislike. and it’s not really out of anger or “UUUURGH NOT MY DAFFY”, but moreso it just makes me SO. DAMN. DEPRESSED.

this is the most soul sucking image i’ve ever seen. i get genuinely sad that the cartoons have devolved to starting with “characters watching TV because they’re too bored to do anything, and Bugs just joins him”. no part of this is the resilient, impulsive, manic, pleasure seeking duck that carried us through the past few decades. and this certainly doesn’t represent the wily, impish, inciting rabbit of the past few decades either! Bugs has a greater excuse since i know there’s the pattern of his domestication and Jones’ rule of Bugs minding his own business before being provoked, etc. but man. this image just represents all of my problems with the later shorts and dynamics. the characters are hollow and so are the stories and the directors are checked out or moving onto greater things, and i think all of that just coagulates and manifests in the characters.

I HAVE SO MUCH MORE I CAN SAY but i’m finally realizing i’ve gone on way way way too long and don’t even know if i answered the question all that well LOL. don’t even get me started on “modern”interpretations of Daffy… [starts ranting about how TLTS killed my family for the 80th time as i’m gently lured into the nursing home].

BUT! to answer your question! i’m not really opposed to a more cynical and conceited duck because those traits have always been there, just in varying degrees of intensity. my ideal duck is definitely one locked in the ‘40s—Frank Tashlin and Bob Clampett’s Daffy have always been my favorite, but i’ve sort of adopted a coagulation of Art Davis, Bob McKimson, Norm McCabe and Friz Freleng’s duck as my mental default. i am extremely protective and loving and fanatical of Daffy, i love him more than any cartoon character and i resonate with him more than any cartoon character! i bet he too would also spend an hour typing up a diatribe on his character evolution and how he’s been sorely misrepresented. maybe. Daffy is one of the most varied characters of all time, and it’s really hard to pin him down for this reason. i like a duck that best has a bit of a balance between his traits, and i get more chafed when he’s made more narrow and transparent and just “flanderized” (for lack of a better word) to one or two tropes that then speak louder than his character. i prefer shorts that are more sympathetic and celebratory of Daffy rather than admiring how funny he is as a loser. which, he is funny! but IUNNO. i like a more upbeat and resilient and charming duck, and he can be all of these things later on, but it unfortunately does get fleeting

[ducktracy]

The bread post about Daffy’s characterization is really interesting. That undercurrent of bitterness could serve as bridge for Screwball Daffy and the dreaded Greedy Daffy. I feel a Unifying Daffy Theory is hard to pin down because of his wide array of characterization, but a sliding scale of “hoo-hoo” vs “you think you’re better than me?!” might be part of the key?

*cracks my knuckles so hard they break* asking about daffy’s characterization is the worst thing you can do to me because i can, will, and HAVE blabbed about him for hours. LET’S SEE HERE

daffy is genuinely one of the most varied characters in animation history. not even talking about the slide from totally crazy to egomaniac--he changes every short. there are certainly eras that can be used as blankets: crazy daffy of the ‘30s, passionate daffy of the ‘40s, egomaniac of the ‘50s, bitter bastard of the ‘60s, etc, but even then, the daffy in a 1944 frank tashlin cartoon will vary wildly from the daffy in a 1944 chuck jones cartoon.

you’re absolutely right, he IS hard to pin down. he’s constantly moving and changing, and not just physically either. he’s constantly contradicting himself. maybe not on a large or noticeable scale, but enough to make me say “hey, daffy often tries to make friends with his enemies as we see here, but here he DOESN’T. these cartoons are directed by the same director and are only 2 years apart. what gives?” or “daffy is the only character who doesn’t break the fourth wall consistently as the punchline. oop, hold that thought, he just did it here as a joke. so inconsistent.” 

i’m being incredibly vague right now trying to answer this because i’ve spent so much time trying to dissect him and write about him that my brain doesn’t know where to start with this ask. it gives me too much joy. so SORRY FOR GOING IN CIRCLES i have a lot i want to say but don’t know how to articulate it.

i think, yeah, in the grand scheme of things, a sliding scale is the easiest way to go, but is frustrating at the same time because he contradicts himself so much. daffy was relatively sane as early as... hm, 1941-1942, and started calming down as early as 1938. he still whoops and hollers and bounces on his head, and would do so as far into the ‘60s cartoons, but he can very clearly think and act for himself and is at least aware of his role as a performer, but “screwball daffy” rolls off the tongue much easier than “passionate daffy who feels all of his emotions at once and is incredibly emotional rather than fully insane but he’s still a bit crazy at the same time”. he’s such a hard character to pin down because he has so many layers.

even in his screwball/passionate/whatever-you-wanna-call-em-days, he has a tendency to be bitter, even if he’s just playing around. like, for example here, he’s definitely putting up an act, but for a guy who rarely ever causes porky real harm and withstands all of his blows, even in moments where he SHOULD, mocking his stutter like that (which isn’t as often of an occurrence as one may think) is pretty cold. or you have this, with daffy ranting and raving about his integrity (or lack thereof) and instantly dropping everything to gleefully remark that the hotel manager looks like a dick tracy character. he’s so wildly inconsistent.

back in october, i challenged myself to delve into daffy’s character and dissect as much as i could to educate myself and others, and it was difficult because of how contradictory of a character he is! here’s some random blurbs that assert that. 

now i’m just slapping a ton of screenshots on here for the sake of doing so, but you get the gist. i’ve done my research LOL.

he’s just so HARD to mark down because he’s constantly changing and acting a certain way. yeah, he has overarching themes, but he constantly makes and breaks his own rules and it’s hard to judge. but, at the same time, i like how this lack of being defined makes him feel more humane and less of a stock character... which is saying something since he pioneered the whole genre of wacky cartoon characters.

i seriously could talk about this for hours but i know i’ve already derailed enough and got off track, but i agree with you SO much. daffy is such an interesting case and as frustrating as it is that he seems to be constantly at odds with himself, it makes him that much more interesting