High Diving Hare

Friz Freleng's 'High Diving Hare' is one of the director's best and best loved cartoons. A master class in how to put a different spin on the same gag over and over again, 'High Diving Hare' quickly sets up its premise and then has tons of fun with it. When high-diving daredevil Fearless Freep cancels his appearance at a carnival, Yosemite Sam will stop at nothing to see the diving act he's been promised. Holding Bugs Bunny at gunpoint, he attempts to force him into performing the act himself. Needless to say, it is Sam who ends up plunging into the water tank again and again and again. Much like when Lucy convinces Charlie Brown that she won't pull away the football when he tries to kick it, 'High Diving Hare' derives its humour from the numerous different ways in which Bugs convinces Sam to take the plunge himself. By the end of the cartoon, Freleng doesn't even need to show us this, such is the inevitability of the situation. Instead he resorts to an inspired shot of Sam running up the ladder, a couple of seconds silence and then him plunging downwards. The inevitability of this conclusion has become the gag itself. 'High Diving Hare' takes a minimalist concept and milks it dry. The repetitiveness of the short is where its charm lies. It remains a skilfully executed and extremely funny film.