People Are Bunny

People Are Bunny
Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck series
Lobby card
Directed by	Robert McKimson
Produced by	John W. Burton, Sr.
Story by	Tedd Pierce
Voices by	Mel Blanc Daws Butler (uncredited)
Music by	Milt Franklyn
Animation by	Ted Bonnicksen Warren Batchelder Tom Ray George Grandpre
Layouts by	Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds by	William Butler
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date(s)	December 19, 1959 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	6:10
Language	English

People Are Bunny is a 1959 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson, starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, along with an appearance by a caricature of Art Linkletter named "Art Lamplighter". "People Are Bunny" is a takeoff of the Art Linkletter show People Are Funny where people performed different "stunts" to win money. That was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon released in the 1950s. That is one of the very short cartoons where Daws Butler stars, but however, is uncredited.

Plot

Watching TV, Daffy Duck is excited by a hunting show called the QTTV Sportsman Hour that offers $1,000.00 for the first viewer to bring a rabbit to Station QTTV. Attempting to convince Bugs Bunny to come to the station, Daffy first tries a ruse with TV show tickets, but Bugs immediately suspects Daffy is up to no good and declines. Daffy then grabs a gun from Bugs' fireplace and tells Bugs to oblige or be shot.

At the scene of Station QTTV [whose exterior bears more than a passing resemblance to CBS Television City in Hollywood and housed Station KTTV], Daffy has Bugs at gunpoint when they see a parade of prizes coming out of a studio (car, boat, fur coat, refrigerator, "Key to Fort Knox", etc.), and they see people going into the show "People Are Phoney" starring Art Lamplighter (voiced not by Blanc but by Butler). With dollar signs in his eyes, Daffy locks Bugs in a telephone booth and runs into the studio. Bugs receives a call in the telephone booth from an announcer who tells Bugs if he correctly answers a question, he will win a jackpot. Bugs answers the math question and the jackpot dispenses through the coin return slot. The announcer then asks Bugs how he knew the answer so quickly. Bugs says: "One thing we rabbits know how to do is multiply."

Meanwhile, Daffy appears as a contestant on "People Are Phoney", where his task is to help a little old lady across the street while on camera. Things backfire in a hurry when the old lady (obviously one of Art's stooges) starts belting Daffy with her umbrella, belligerently declaring she doesn't need help crossing the street. Daffy staggers, is missed by a speeding truck ("Nyaah, ya' missed me", he gloats, sticking out his tongue), then gets hit by a motorcycle. Art Lamplighter tells the hysterical audience that Daffy didn't quite make it, and it goes to show that "People Are Phoney".

Sorely mad, Daffy comes back to the telephone booth where Bugs is counting the jackpot. Bugs says he got a call in the phone booth, which Daffy doesn't believe. Bugs says at any time now an announcer might call again. Bugs makes the sound of a ringing phone and cons Daffy into thinking they want another contestant. Daffy pushes Bugs out of the booth, telling Bugs to let him have it. Daffy grabs the "receiver" - now a stick of dynamite - and it explodes as Bugs walks away. He shrug: "So I let him have it." {Bugs pulls the same phone/dynamite gag on Blacque Jacque Shellac in Bonanza Bunny}

Looking for Bugs, Daffy asks a studio usher (actually Bugs in disguise) if he saw a rabbit. Bugs points him to a door, and Daffy is sent to the show "Were You There" (a takeoff of the show You Are There) which happens to be depicting "Indian Massacre At Burton's Bend". Daffy then comes out with his head scalped {"All right, where's the wise guy?" he mutters, slapping his scalp back onto his head}.

At the end, Bugs is disguised as a producer and he tells Daffy that he's suddenly wanted for "Costume Party" (a reference to the real Masquerade Party), tricking him into donning a rabbit costume. The show he is sent to is the QTTV Sportsman Hour to which Daffy intended to bring Bugs, and Bugs collects the fee Daffy wanted for himself. When Daffy protests that he is no rabbit but a duck, the host declares it is now duck season, and a bunch of hunters shoot at Daffy. Bugs shrugs off Daffy's plight, noting: "Eh, they always shoot blanks on TV," Daffy, his beak full of bullet holes, mutters: "'Blanks', he says." Emptying a stack of buckshot from his mouth, he offers them to Bugs: "Have a handful of blanks! Sheesh!"

Availability

"People Are Bunny" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Superstars DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen.

Censorship

• On the FOX version of "The Merrie Melodies Show," the part where Daffy walks up to Bugs after getting blasted by the hunters, spits out a handful of buckshots, and groans: "Blanks, he says! Have a handful of blanks" was cut with a fake iris-out after Bugs says: "Eh, they [the hunters] always use blanks on TV."
• The syndicated version of The Merrie Melodies Show leaves in the ending, but replaces Daffy getting shot by the hunters with a still shot of Bugs.

External links

• People Are Bunny at Internet Movie Database