Daffy Duck (character)
- This article is about the character. For other uses, see Daffy Duck (disambiguation).
Daffy Duck is an anthropomorphic duck and a main character of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical shorts, in which he is usually depicted as a foil for either Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig or Speedy Gonzales. Created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, he was the first of the new "screwball" type characters that emerged in the later part of the 30s to replace traditional everyman characters who were more popular earlier in the decade. His voice was originated by Mel Blanc.
Daffy starred in 130 shorts in the golden age of American animation, making him the third-most frequent character in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, behind Bugs's 167 appearances and Porky's 153 appearances. Daffy's personality and roles varied with virtually every Warner Bros. cartoon director; Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones notably made extensive use of two different versions of the character, depicting him as either a wild, lunatic vigilante or a greedy, fame-seeking foil, respectively.
Daffy has a space hero persona called Duck Dodgers, and his protégé in Tiny Toon Adventures is Plucky Duck.
Character description
Appearances
TV series
Movies
TV Specials
Original Specials
- Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals
- Bugs Bunny in King Arthur`s Court
- Daffy Duck's Easter EGG-citement
Specials with Reused Footages
- Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies
- Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special
- How Bugs Bunny Won the West
- Bugs Bunny's Baby Boomers
- Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television
- Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving Special (with the exception of an all new short, "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century")
- Bugs vs. Daffy: Battle of the Music Video Stars
- Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports
- Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster
- Bugs Bunny's Creature Features
- Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes
Shorts
- Main article: List of Daffy Duck shorts
Comics
Video games
Theme parks
Podcasts
Biography
The Porky Days
Duck Season Now Fire!
Duck Dodgers of the 24th and a Half Century!
We're All a Little Looney
Come On and Slam! and Welcome to the Jam!
Daffy Gets Modern
In The Looney Tunes Show, he is Bugs Bunny's freeloading roommate and best friend.
Going Down the Rabbit Hole
It's Hard Hat Time
Daffy Sells Out
Development
Daffy first appeared in Porky's Duck Hunt, released on April 17, 1937.[1] The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett. Porky's Duck Hunt contained a standard hunter/prey pairing, but Daffy (barely more than an unnamed bit player in this short) was something of a new concept to moviegoers: an assertive, completely unrestrained, combative protagonist. Clampett later recalled:
- "At that time, audiences weren't accustomed to seeing a cartoon character do these things. And so, when it hit the theaters it was an explosion. People would leave the theaters talking about this daffy duck."[2]
This early Daffy is less anthropomorphic and resembles a normal black duck. In fact, the only aspects of the character that have remained consistent through the years are his voice characterization by Mel Blanc; and his black feathers with a white neck ring.
Gallery
- Main article: Daffy Duck/Gallery
Toys and merchandise
Behind the scenes
- The origin of Daffy's voice, specifically his lateral lisp, is a matter of some debate. One oft-repeated story was that it was modeled on producer Leon Schlesinger's tendency to lisp. In Mel Blanc's autobiography That's Not All Folks!, he contradicts that conventional belief, writing, "It seemed to me that such an extended mandible would hinder his speech, particularly on words containing an s sound. Thus 'despicable' became 'desth-picable.'"[3]
- In Baby Looney Tunes, Daffy is credited as "Baby Daffy."
- Since Teen Titans Go! To the Movies in 2018, the Warner Bros. Animation logo has Daffy coming out of the logo, going crazy, messing with the logo and running around while laughing before hitting the screen and being pulled away by Porky.
- For Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge instead of Porky pulling him away, it's Scorpion. The original idea was to have Daffy be stabbed in the head by Scorpion's Kunai, which was shot down by Warner Bros.
In popular culture
- Daffy famously appeared alongside Donald Duck in the 1988 Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where he is seen challenging Donald to piano duel at the bar.
- In the 1989 film UHF, starring Weird Al Yankovic, there is a poster of Bugs and Daffy in his character's apartment.
- In the July 7th, 1994 episode of Top of the Pops, a teenage girl wears a Daffy t-shirt while dancing to Aswad's "Shine."
- In the Family Guy episode "The Story on Page One", After Meg is blown up by a bomb, she suddenly has a beak, which is turned upside down just like Daffy's in "Rabbit Fire".
- Daffy, as Duck Dodgers, appears on the NASA Mars Rover Exploration patch.
- In the 2023 film The Flash, the alternate 2013 version of Barry Allen has a Looney Tunes background screen on his computer, which includes Daffy, Sylvester, Bugs, Road Runner, Wile E., and Tweety.
Robot Chicken
- Main article: Robot Chicken
- "Rodiggiti:" During "8 Carrot", Daffy is the host of Bugs and Elmer's Rap Battle.
- "Immortal:" In the skit "Porky's", Bugs and Daffy mistake a strip club called Porky's for a place that Porky Pig owns, only to be proven wrong. Although they were appalled by what they saw in the strip club, they immediately go back in.
References
- ↑ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 55. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- ↑ Schneider. "That's All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation": 150.
- ↑ Blanc, Mel; Bashe, Philip (1989). That's Not All, Folks!. Clayton South, VIC, Australia: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-51244-3.