Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid
series = Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny

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caption = Title card of "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid".
director = Robert Clampett
story_artist =
animator = Rod Scribner
Robert McKimson
Virgil Ross
voice_actor = Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny
Kent Rogers (Beaky Buzzard)
Sara Berner (Mama Buzzard)
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Leon Schlesinger Productions
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = July 11, 1942
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 mins
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0034554

"Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid" is a 1942 "Merrie Melodies" cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres by Warner Bros. Pictures. It marks the first appearance of Beaky Buzzard in a Warner Bros. short.

The title is a Brooklynese way of saying "gets the bird", which can refer to an obscene gesture, or (in those days at least) as simply the "Bronx cheer"; in this case, it is also used metaphorically, as Bugs "gets" the bird (a buzzard) by playing a trick.

Plot

The cartoon begins with a mother buzzard instructing her children to go out and catch something for dinner (horse, steer, moose, and cow, respectively). Three out of four agree to their mom's food choices and take off right away. Then Mother notices one of her kids remaining with his back turned. This is where we meet Beaky (called "Killer" in this short, presumably as an ironic pet name or nickname), as he is painfully shy and a little on the slow side (with Blanc doing a fair imitation of Mortimer Snerd and also anticipating Cecil Turtle's voice). Against his will, his mother kicks him out of the nest with instructions to at least catch a rabbit. Beaky spots Bugs Bunny and soars down to catch him. Bugs makes like an air-traffic controller and "guides" Beaky to the ground with a crash. Upon getting up, he is greeted with the familiar "Eh, what's up Doc?"

A chase ensues ending with Bugs crashing into the ground underneath the skeleton of a dead animal. He cries because he thinks he's dead, breaking the fourth wall momentarily with a Jerry Colonna-like comment straight to the audience, "Gruesome, "isn't" it!" He then laughs it off when he realizes otherwise, and breaks the fourth wall again, telling the audience that he knew it all the time. Beaky ends up the same way, and just as he begins to call for his mother in panic, she shows up. At first the mother buzzard thinks Bugs did something to her son. Bugs pulls Beaky out of the ground. Upon the realization that Killer is okay, the mother proclaims that Bugs is her hero; at which time the mother buzzard kisses Bugs, causing him to blush, form a faux beak, and say "nope, nope, nope" just like Beaky.

Cultural references

* The part where Bugs and Killer are temporarily fooled into thinking that the bones are theirs is a reference to a Harold Lloyd film, "The Freshman".
* At one point in the cartoon, Bugs Bunny half-mutters the then-popular song, "Blues in the Night", changing the lyrics to, "My mamma done told me, a buzzard is two face..."

External links

*imdb title|0034554