High Diving Hare

This is a classic Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon and one of the all time greats of the Warner Brothers shorts collection. The plot is this: Yosemite Sam is eager to see the star of the high-diving act, Fearless Freep. When Freep fails to show, he forces the fast-talking usher, Bugs Bunny, to perform the act instead of Fearless Freep. Bugs is extremely reluctant, but Yosemite Sam leaves him with no choice.

He and Sam chase hilariously chase each other around stage, up and down the tall high-diving ladder, and through various classic, anvil-dropping, TNT-exploding Warner Brothers gags, Bugs eventually, as always, comes out on top.

"Due to an unfortunate delay," announces the barker, Bugs Bunny, "Fearless Freep will be unable to perform his high-diving act today." But Yosemite Sam had bought out the house just to see Freep. If Freep isn't going to dive, someone else will just have to. And that someone is going to be Bugs Bunny. Bugs is no high diver; but at gunpoint, he'll have to take his first-ever 500-ft. jump into a tank of water. Or will he? Yosemite Sam will find himself tricked into doing the dive himself—many times—before realizing that no matter what he does, Bugs's blissful ignorance of physics will always save him.

Friz Freleng said he took a big chance on this one-joke idea. It paid off big time. You've got to love this parody of human nature, as represented by Sam. The little bully doesn't get his way, so he takes it out on the closest person at hand. And of course—of course!—he gets outraged when his victim refuses to be bullied. Bugs's own heroic brand of stubbornness only inspires Sam to redouble and requadruple his efforts. Oh, and don't you love what Sam does the first time he tries to force Bugs off the diving board—and thinks he's succeeded? He feels sorry!

But not for long. If the bullies of the world are Yosemite Sams, why can't the rest of us be Bugs Bunnys?

This short is available on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1.

I love it how it starts out with Bugs at that old opry house annoucing the events of the evening. Then when Sam hears about Fearless Freep he goes crazy wanting tickets. Then it is wild that just right after Bugs gets done annoucing that the Freep's act is the first one to come up he gets a telegram saying that the Freep is not able to make it due to a train or something running late. Then it all gets so funny when Sam forces Bugs to climb that ladder and do the dive then Sam keeps on falling off instead. Also a while back when they did a Looney Tunes Sportsman of the year contest and it got to the high diving it showed that Sam was the top high diver because of what he did when he went to see the Fearless Freep's act!

Classic Bugs Bunny short directed by Friz Freleng with a story by Tedd Pierce. This is one of the Bugs cartoons I saw most as a little kid because it was on a compilation video that my teacher would play on rainy days when we couldn't go out for recess. It's brilliantly simple as it's basically one gag done over and over but, trust me, it never stops being funny. The premise is that Bugs is working as a barker for a show where there's a high diving act. When the diver doesn't show up for the performance, angry audience member Yosemite Sam tries to force Bugs at gunpoint to perform the act himself. What follows is Bugs repeatedly outsmarting Sam, resulting in Sam being the one to do the dive. Like I said, it's one gag but it's done a little different each time and never gets old. The animation is gorgeous. I especially love the colors. Excellent voice work from the great Mel Blanc. Carl Stalling's music is exciting and fun. It's a hilarious cartoon that every Looney Tunes fan should see. For my money it's one of the best Bugs and Sam shorts ever made.

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.