Muscle Tussle

Muscle Tussle is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released in 1953 and reissued in 1961 as a Blue Ribbon, directed by Robert McKimson and featuring Daffy Duck.

Synopsis

Daffy goes to the beach with his girlfriend Melissa (voiced by an uncredited Gladys Holland, an actress heard in United Productions of America's adaptation of Madeline, 1952), and wants to take her picture. While posing she sees a muscle-bound duck and turns her attention toward him. Daffy gets upset and tells the muscle-bound duck (a soft-spoken yet still arrogant fellow) to get lost who replies that he'll bob Daffy so hard he'll have to open his vest to eat if he says one more word. Not intimidated Daffy challenges him to do so who replies by hitting Daffy that his head sinks into his stomach and in a daze orders "One cheeseburger, hold the onions". Melissa goes off with the muscle-bound duck saying goodbye to Daffy calling him a "scrawny little nine pound weakling" which offends Daffy as he's a "scrawny little ten pound weakling." Daffy tries to win back his girl and takes some muscle tonic, bought from a glad-handed traveling salesman who happens to be nearby, which he thinks has made him as strong as the muscle-bound duck. Daffy repeatedly falls short in his attempts to demonstrate his strength, but through a fluke (and one of the salesman's props, a "five thousand-pound" barbell), manages to get rid of his rival in the end. The muscle bound duck lifts the "barbell" and gets rocketed thousands of feet in air. When plummets back to Earth, He's squatted down and tells the couple "You all can call me shorty!" To which he waddles off.

Edited version

• The ABC version of this cartoon cuts the part where the big, muscular duck pounds Daffy's head into his shirt.

External links

• Muscle Tussle on IMDb