Daffy Dumas Duck (also known by Sheldon, Idiot Eyes, or Armando) is an animated cartoon character produced by Warner Bros. Animation. He has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, where he usually has been depicted as a rival and occasional best friend of Bugs Bunny. Daffy was one of the first of the new "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to replace traditional "everyman" characters who were more popular earlier in the decade, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye.
Daffy starred in 130 shorts in the Golden Age, behind Bugs Bunny's 175 appearances and Porky Pig's 162 appearances. Daffy was ranked #14 on TV Guide's list of Top 50 best cartoon characters of all time and was featured on one of the issue's four covers with Porky Pig and the Powerpuff Girls (all of which are WarnerMedia-owned characters).
Origin[]
Daffy first appeared on April 17, 1937 in "Porky's Duck Hunt", directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett. The cartoon is a standard hunter/prey pairing for which Leon Schlesinger's studio was famous, but Daffy (barely more than an unnamed bit player in this short) was something new to moviegoers: an assertive, completely unrestrained, combative protagonist. Bob 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."
This early Daffy is less anthropomorphic and resembles a "normal" duck, being short and pudgy, with stubby legs and a beak. The only aspects of the character that have remained consistent through the years are his voice (provided by Mel Blanc) and his black feathers with a white neck ring. Mel's voice for Daffy at one point held the world record for the longest voice-acting of one animated character by his original voice actor: 52 years, just barely breaking the previous record that had been set by Clarence Nash, the original voice actor of Donald Duck who voiced the character for 51 years from 1934 until 1985. Both actors have since been surpassed by June Foray, who voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel from Rocky and Bullwinkle for 55 years (albeit in far fewer productions than Nash or Blanc's respective characters), from his debut in 1959 to 2014.
The origin of Daffy's voice is a matter of some debate. One often-repeated "official" story is that it was modeled after producer Schlesinger's tendency to lisp. However, 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 'dethpicable.'"
In "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" (1950), Daffy has a middle name, Dumas, as the screenwriter of a swashbuckling script, a nod to Alexandre Dumas. Also, in the Baby Looney Tunes episode "The Tattletale", Granny addresses Daffy as "Daffy Horacio Tiberius Duck." In The Looney Tunes Show (2011), the joke middle names "Armando" and "Sheldon" are used.
Daffy's slobbery, exaggerated lisp was developed over time, and it is barely noticeable in the early cartoons. In "Daffy Duck & Egghead," Daffy does not lisp at all except in the separately drawn set-piece of Daffy singing "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" in which just a slight lisp can be heard.
In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Daffy is put under a more sympathetic light where he feels underappreciated alongside his envy of Bugs' popularity, which gets him fired. He goes on an adventure with DJ to battle The ACME Company and save DJ's father, but his real purpose of coming is to get the Blue Monkey diamond.
Interpretaions[]
(Look it up on Looney Tunes Wiki)
Daffy Today[]
When Warner Bros. revived Daffy and the rest of the classic Looney Tunes cast in modern interpretations, Chuck Jones' greedy, selfish, neurotic, sassy, immature and spotlight-hungry of Daffy is commonly used, completely ignoring the "evil Daffy" traits exhibited in the mid-1960s.
Daffy appears in later cartoons like a piano duel with his Disney counterpart and rival Donald Duck in the 1988 Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as both are playing "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2".
In 1987, to celebrate Daffy's 50th anniversary, Warner Bros. released "The Duxorcist" as its first theatrical Looney Tunes short in two decades. Daffy Duck also appeared in several feature-film compilations, including two films centering on Daffy. The first was released in 1983, Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island; the second came in 1988, Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, which is considered one of the Looney Tunes' best compilation films and featured another new theatrical short, "The Night of the Living Duck". Daffy has also had major roles in films such as Space Jam in 1996 and Looney Tunes: Back in Action in 2003. The latter film does much to flesh out his character. That same year, Warner Bros. cast him in a Duck Dodgers series. (It should be stressed that in this show, Duck Dodgers actually is Daffy Duck due to him being frozen in suspended animation.) He had a cameo appearance in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries. Daffy has also been featured in several Webtoons.
In the television series Tiny Toon Adventures, Daffy is a teacher at Acme Looniversity, where he is the hero and mentor of student Plucky Duck. Daffy is shown as a baby in the Baby Looney Tunes show, and makes occasional cameos on Animaniacs and Histeria! (TV series). In the show Loonatics Unleashed, his descendant is Danger Duck (voiced by Jason Marsden), who is also lame and unpopular to his teammates. In the majority of these appearances, the selfish, neurotic, and spotlight-hungry Daffy characterized by Chuck Jones is the common version.
The Looney Tunes Show[]
Daffy returned to Cartoon Network in The Looney Tunes Show, voiced by Jeff Bergman. His characterization here seems to incorporate some elements of Clampett's and Jones' designs while giving him an overall cheery if dimwitted personality. In the show, he has moved out of the forest and shares Bugs Bunny's house with him. Unlike Bugs and their neighbors, Daffy has no way of earning money and relies on Bugs for food and shelter.
He has tried on numerous occasions to get rich quick but ended up failing repeatedly. Daffy's one possession he is proud of is his paper-mache parade float, constructed on top of a minivan, which is his main means of transportation. It was destroyed by a car wash incident, and Daffy sought to replace it with a yacht by tricking Porky Pig into giving him the expensive loan, but his less-than-stellar boating skills ended that ambition. His parade float is repaired shortly after. His girlfriend on the show is Tina Russo. While Daffy's greed and jealousy of Bugs remains, he appears to be less antagonistic in this show, with the exception of the series finale. This is the final production to feature Daffy's egotistical Chuck Jones persona, as all further productions would use his original screwball personality instead.
Daffy also starred in the 2012 3-D short Daffy's Rhapsody with Elmer Fudd that was originally set to premiere before Happy Feet Two but instead it debuted prior to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. The short features Daffy and Elmer in the first CG or 3-D depiction of these specific Looney Tunes characters. According to Matthew O’Callaghan who directed the short, the audio comes from a 1950s recording for a children's album.
Cartoon Network, during the summer of 2013, created a video montage cartoon characters from their shows. In the end of the montage, the CN logo is formed by several characters quickly showing up and disappearing. One of the cameoed characters was Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny representing gods.
New Looney Tunes/Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Prod.[]
Daffy finally appears again after Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (2015) in a New Looney Tunes clip from "Porky's Duck-Livery Service", his only appearance in season 1. Daffy appears more in seasons 2 and 3 after the series stopped focusing solely on Bugs Bunny.
Here, Daffy abandons his egotistical Chuck Jones personality and reverts back to the zany screwball character as perfected by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, although some episodes may feature his Jones personality when the plot calls for it, like "You Were Never Duckier", "Daffy Dilly", and "Don't Axe Me", classic shorts which combine both his Clampett and Jones personalities at once. In addition, he is now redesigned to resemble his early-1940s screwball Daffy design by Bob Clampett. This Daffy is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who previously voiced the character in Space Jam.
Looney Tunes Cartoons[]
Daffy appears in some of the Looney Tunes Cartoons, retaining his screwball personality and character design from the early shorts and New Looney Tunes. He is voiced by Eric Bauza. Like the original shorts, Daffy is paired up with Porky Pig, causing mayhem for the pig.
Bugs Bunny Builders[]
Daffy will appear in the preschool series Bugs Bunny Builders.
Comics[]
The Dell Comics published several Daffy Duck comic books, beginning in Four Color Comics #457, #536, and #615 and then continuing as Daffy #4-17 (1956–1959), then as Daffy Duck #18-30 (1959–1962). The comic book series was subsequently continued in Gold Key Comics Daffy Duck #31-127 (1962–1979). This run was, in turn, continued under the Whitman Comics imprint until the company completely ceased comic book publication in 1984. In 1994, the corporate WB's cousin, DC Comics, became the publisher for comics featuring all the classic Warner Bros. cartoon characters, and while not getting his own title, Daffy has appeared in many issues of Looney Tunes.
Other Media[]
- The Robert Clampett version of Daffy made an appearance in the 1988 Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit where he played dueling pianos with Donald Duck.
- Daffy appeared with two live-action children in a 1984 public service announcement while wearing a fireman's helmet, warning the children about fire prevention and how to best evacuate their house in case of fire.
- Daffy made a cameo in a 1998 episode of The Drew Carey Show in a method of live-action/animated film.
- A poster of Daffy is prominently displayed in Michael Garibaldi's quarters in the Science-Fiction series Babylon 5. In one episode, Zack Allen jokingly explains to G'Kar that Daffy is the "ancient Egyptian god of frustration." Garibaldi is also shown entertaining Ambassador Delenn with Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, which she finds difficult to understand when Duck Dodgers accidentally puts his rocket into reverse.
- In Family Guy, after holding an exploding bomb from Adam West, Meg has Daffy Duck's bill on the wrong side of her head, moves it to its proper position, and then states, "Of course, you realize this means war!" This scene was supposedly deleted after a contract dispute between MacFarlane and Warner Bros.
- A sound clip of Daffy Duck grunting from one cartoon was reused for Linus Van Pelt fidgeting in anger in Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!)
- In the Office episode Diversity Day, Michael signs his diversity form with Daffy's name.
- The Eminem freestyle Despicable gets its name from the claim that Eminem is as "despicable as Daffy Duck."
- Doug Walker of "ThatGuywiththeGlasses.com" stated that he drew a lot of inspiration for the Nostalgia Critic from Daffy.
- Daffy's head can be seen on a building two times in the 1992 Ralph Bakshi live-action/animated film Cool World.
- Daffy was Seen on Cartoon Network's Show MAD three times. On "Pirates of the Neverland: At Wit's End" Daffy is seen as one of Captain Hook's crew members and was seen carrying a barrel wearing Donald Duck's clothes. On "I am Lorax", Bugs and Daffy showed up as zombies and Will Smith shot a gun at Daffy's beak at bugs. On "PilGrimm", Daffy appeared and forgot the sign that says "Duck Season".
Voice Actors[]
- Mel Blanc - 1937 - 1989
- Jeff Bergman - (Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, Happy Birthday, Bugs!: 50 Looney Years, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Tiny Toon Adventures, Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster, Box-Office Bunny, (Blooper) Bunny, Bugs Bunny's Creature Features, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers, The Plucky Duck Show, The Looney Tunes Show, Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe, Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, Mad (Episode "First White House Down / McDuck Dynasty"))
- Jeff Bennett - "Attack of the Drones"
- Frank Gorshin - "Superior Duck"
- Dave Spafford - "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (Doing Woo-hoo, Woo-hoo at the end of Piano Duel)
- Mel Torme - "The Night of the Living Duck" (singing voice only)
- Maurice LaMarche - Taz-Mania
- Billy West - Histeria!
- Samuel Vincent - Baby Looney Tunes, Baby Looney Tunes: Egg-straordinary Adventure
- Joe Alaskey - Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes, "Carrotblanca", "Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension", The Drew Carey Show, Tweety's High-Flying Adventure, Looney Tunes: Reality Check, Looney Tunes: Stranger Than Fiction, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Duck Dodgers, "Daffy Duck for President", Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, various video games
- Greg Burson - Animaniacs, Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, Tiny Toon Adventures
- Dee Bradley Baker - Space Jam, New Looney Tunes
- Eric Bauza - Looney Tunes World of Mayhem, Looney Tunes Cartoons, Space Jam: A New Legacy
- Keith Scott - Australian Looney Tunes commercials