Duck! Rabbit, Duck!

It is Duck season and Daffy Duck is burning all the signs. He is pointing the arrow right to Bugs Bunny's home and Elmer Fudd is following it. Bugs claims to be a fricasseeing rabbit and Elmer does not have a fricasseeing rabbit license. Daffy writes up a license for Elmer, but it's not quite right.

This is the last of the "Hunting Trilogy". This is not the best in the trio, but it is still plenty good. I love that they keep repeating fricasseeing. I actually don't know what that is other than some cooking terminology. It just sounds funny. Some words are simply fun to say. This cartoon is fun.

...lies a 10/10 classic. Do you recall watching shorts like this? I still do, and so do most of you. This is basically in the woods where Elmer is hunting and threatens Bugs with his "elephant gun" until Daffy comes along and Elmer is too dazed to decide who to shoot and come home with. Simple but effective.

"Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" is the best of the "Hunter Trilogy." From the ubiquitous sign gags that only get funnier (Daffy: You dirty dog... Bugs: And YOU'RE a dirty skunk! Daffy: I'm a dirty skunk? I'M a dirty skunk!? Sign: Dirty Skunk Season Elmer: Blam!) to the wonderful ending where poor Elmer gets driven mad, this short is a laugh a second, and one of the prime examples why Chuck Jones will be missed.

With duck season in full swing, Daffy has no choice but to turn attention from himself by pretending that it is actually rabbit season. With Elmer Fudd on the hunting trail, Daffy points him onto where Bugs is living, but he finds that Elmer is easily turned back onto Daffy by Bugs.

I'm not usually a fan of Daffy where he is greedy and manipulative, as I prefer his manic period much more. However here is one of his best cartoons that I have seen where he is partnered with Bugs in the role of greedy, selfish and untrustworthy sidekick. True to form, Daffy has told Elmer that it's rabbit season and not duck season. As one would expect, Bugs tricks Elmer into shooting Daffy instead. This happens about 10 times in the cartoon and in fact is actually the only joke in the cartoon. However, the more it is repeated the funnier it gets - it's hard to imagine that one single gag repeated over again would do this but it totally works here!

Bugs is fantastic but for once it is Daffy that actually steals the cartoon. The manner in which Daffy reacts to getting shot is hilarious and the little black duck shows that he is a character with great timing regardless of him being crazy or selfish! Fudd is also very funny and he plays his character very easily befuddled - we don't see him as a threat we just think his bemusement is good for our amusement!

Overall this is a very funny cartoon that had me rolling! Usually if someone says that something is a `one-joke affair' they meant it as a criticism; but when the one joke is as funny as the running gag is here then it can only be a good thing!

From the whole Bugs/Daffy/Elmer hunting trilogy, this is without a doubt my favorite. Even though "Rabbit Fire" and "Rabbit Seasoning" are very good too, the reason why this one stands out is because it's an awesome combination of the previous two. While "Rabbit Fire" focused more on the visual gags, and "Rabbit Seasoning" more on the word games. This one had both visual jokes ("It's baseball season" LOL!) and word games, like when Daffy writes Elmer's "permit" to hunt rabbits (D-U-C-K). This a true masterpiece from writer Mike Maltese and director Chuck Jones, a definitely must see.