Baseball Bugs

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Baseball Bugs
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series

The title card of Baseball Bugs.
Directed by I. Freleng
Produced by Edward Selzer
Story by Michael Maltese
Voices by Mel Blanc
Tedd Pierce (unc.)
Bea Benaderet (unc.)
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manuel Perez
Ken Champin
Virgil Ross
Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by Paul Julian
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s) February 2, 1946
Color process Technicolor
Running time 7 minutes
Language English
Preceded by Hare Tonic
Followed by Hare Remover

Baseball Bugs is a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released on February 2, 1946, starring Bugs Bunny.

Overview

Baseball Bugs was directed by Friz Freleng and written by Michael Maltese. Voice characterizations were performed by Mel Blanc, with additional uncredited performances by Bea Benaderet as Lady Liberty and the screaming baseball, and Tedd Pierce as the stadium announcer and several of the Gas-House Gorillas.

The cartoon's title is a double play on words. "Bugs" was then a common nickname for someone who was considered to be crazy, erratic, or fanatical. In addition to its adjective form being the indirect inspiration for the Bunny's name, the noun form was sometimes applied to sports fans.

Plot

A baseball game is going on in New York City, at the Polo Grounds (although the rooftop facade is more suggestive of Yankee Stadium), between the visiting "Gas-House Gorillas" and the home team, the "Tea Totallers". The game is not going well for the Tea Totallers, as the Gorillas, a bunch of oversized, roughneck players, are not only dominating the Tea Totallers, made up of old men, but intimidating the umpire by knocking him into the ground like a tent peg after an unpopular judgment. The Gorillas' home runs go screaming out of the ballpark (literally) and the batters form a conga line, with each hitter knocking a ball out.

Bugs distracts the catcher on his way to home plate

Deep in the outfield, a lone fan of the Tea Totallers is heard above the roar of the crowd. From his rabbit hole, wearing a straw hat and eating a carrot on a hot dog bun, Bugs talks trash against the Gorillas, claiming that he could win the game single-handed with an endless barrage of home runs. He loses a bit of his bravado when he suddenly finds himself surrounded by the Gorillas. His challenge is forced on him by the Gorillas and, as a result, Bugs now has to play all the positions on the opposing team, including speeding from the mound to behind the plate to catch his own pitches. Furthermore, he must pick up where the Tea Totallers left off: scoreless and down by about 95 runs.

Bugs (as pitcher) first throws his fastball so hard that it zips by the opposing batter but also knocks Bugs (who has outraced the ball to home plate to be catcher as well as pitcher) off-screen and into the backstop with a loud crash as he catches it. In the course of his dual role, Bugs shouts encouraging words to the "pitcher" before rushing back to the pitcher's mound to make the next pitch, then returning to home plate to catch it.

Bugs then "perplexes" the Gorillas with his slow ball, accompanied by a sputtering engine sound, a gravity-defying pitch so slow that the players can't seem to connect with it. Three batters standing in line wail at it in vain, as the umpire counts "1, 2, 3 strikes, you're out" against each of the three in quick succession (the third one inexplicably wearing a Derby hat), finally ending the inning.

Bugs takes his first at-bat, and selects a bat from the stack brought out by the "batboy" who literally has bat wings. Bugs starts smacking the ball as promised. On the first pitch, he makes a long hit, dashing around the bases while also showing off for the crowd, only to find a grinning Gorilla holding the ball just ahead of the plate. Bugs then pulls out a pin-up poster, distracting the player and allowing Bugs to score his first run. The scoreboard now shows the Gorillas as the home team, still with 95 runs, and with Bugs batting in the top of the fifth with one run so far.

Bugs hits another one deep, and while rounding the bases, a Gorilla ambushes the plate umpire and puts on his uniform. Bugs slides into home, obviously safe, but the fake umpire calls him out. Bugs gets in his face and argues the call, pulling his time-honored word-switching gag, resulting in the umpire declaring, "I say you're safe! And if you don't like it, you can go to the showers!" Bugs gives in, but the faux-umpire gets wise too late as the board flashes another run.

Bugs knocks the next pitch deep. A Gorilla comes running in, yelling, "I got it! I got it! I got it!" The ball hits him so hard in the face that it drives him under the ground, and a tombstone pops up with the epitaph "He got it." Another run appears on the board for Bugs.

Bugs lines another one deep. This outfielder, who is smoking a cigar while playing the field, also takes it in the face, smashing the cigar and driving the fielder up against the fence, in front of a billboard that reads "Does your tobacco taste different lately?" (This was an actual ad slogan at the time for the "Sir Walter Raleigh" pipe tobacco manufactured by the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company.) Another run on the board for Bugs.

Bugs hammers the next pitch on a line drive that bounces off each Gorilla with a ping sound as with a pinball game. The scoreboard then blinks a random series of numbers and the word "Tilted."

Bugs is now pitching again and delivers a fastball at the Gorilla. He hits Bugs' pitch and it seems that he just scored another run. But Bugs just appears at home base with a ball in his hand. He tags the Gorilla so hard that he is knocked out and the umpire yells "Yerrr OUT!" As the Gorilla is hallucinating, Bugs holds up a sign that says "Was this trip really necessary?"

Jump ahead to the final inning, announced by a radio-style jingle (What's the score, boys, what did Bugs Bunny do, what's with the Carrot League baseball today?), with Bugs leading 96-95, the Gorillas having lost a run somewhere along the way. The radio booth has also lost its original play-by-play announcer and Blanc's voice is now heard as the announcer. With two outs in the last of the ninth, a Gorilla is on base and another is up at bat, having just fashioned a bat out of a large tree and swinging it menacingly.

Unintimidated, Bugs asks the audience to "watch me paste this pathetic palooka with a powerful, paralyzing, poifect, pachydoimous, percussion pitch." He proceeds with a tremendous wind-up and lets the pitch go, but the ball is crushed and rockets out of the ballfield. Startled, Bugs goes chasing after it desperately, clear out of the stadium, is almost led astray by a Gorilla driving a taxi, jumps out and catches a bus (where he spends the trip casually reading a newspaper and checking on the flight of the ball), goes to the top of the "Umpire State Building", climbs a flagpole, throws his glove in the air and manages to catch it. The Gorilla batter arrives by stairs just as the umpire (apparently no longer intimidated) climbs over the ledge and yells, "Yerrr OUT!" The Gorilla yells back, "I'm OUT?!" to which the Statue of Liberty (voiced by an uncredited Bea Benaderet) comes to life, saying "That's what the man said, you heard what he said, he said that!" (a popular line from a radio show) with Bugs echoing her words as the iris closes around Bugs.

Billboards

  • The outfield wall ad for "Mike Maltese, Ace Detective" refers to writer Michael Maltese.
  • The outfield wall ad for "Filboid Studge" refers to a fictional breakfast cereal mentioned in a short story by Saki.
  • The ad next to "Filboid Studge" is for "Culvert Gin", a take-off on "Calvert Gin."
  • The wall ads on the third base side are for "Manza Champagne", "Lausbub's Bread" and "Ross. Co. Finer Footwear for the Brats" named for animator Virgil Ross.
  • The ads on the left field wall are for Camuel's (a reference to Camel Cigarettes) and "Urbo."
  • Another outfield reading "Daltol" refers to animator Cal Dalton. A product named "Chi-Chi" is on a sign to the left.

Availability

See also

References

    External links

    Preceded by
    Hare Tonic    		 Bugs Bunny Cartoons
    1946     		Succeeded by
    Hare Remover
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