Elmer Fudd

"Fudd" redirects here. For other uses, see Fudd (disambiguation).

Elmer J. Fudd
Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies character
First Episode Appearance	Little Red Walking Hood (1937)
Created by	Tex Avery
Character played by	Mel Blanc (1937-1940; 1950; 1957; 1959–1989) Danny Webb (1938–1939) Roy Rogers (singing voice in A Feud There Was) Arthur Q. Bryan (1939–1959) Frank Graham (1944) Dave Barry (1958) Hal Smith (1960-1961) Paul Kuhn (1989) Jeff Bergman (1990-1992; 2002; 2014-present) Greg Burson (1990-2001) Joe Alaskey (1991-1992) Frank Welker (1993) Billy West (1996-2015) Tom Kenny (2004-2005) Eric Bauza (2018, 2021-present) (see below)
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Hunter

Elmer J. Fudd is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the most disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs himself). It was evidenced that Elmer originated from Fred "Tex" Avery in 1937, as a "Running Gag" character with small, sometimes squinty eyes, a derby hat, and a green suit. His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and/or other antagonizing characters. Since Elmer made his ninth appearance in a cartoon named, "Elmer's Candid Camera" (1939, released in 1940) He speaks in an unusual way (rhotacism), replacing his R's and L's with W's, so "Watch the road, Rabbit," becomes "Watch da woad, wabbit!" Elmer's signature catchphrase is, "Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits", as well as his trademark gloat, "huh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh." The best known Elmer cartoons include Chuck Jones' masterpiece "What's Opera, Doc?", the Rossini parody "Rabbit of Seville", and the "Hunting Trilogy" of "Rabbit Fire", "Rabbit Seasoning", and "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!. He is also a millionaire, who lives in a mansion and owns a yacht.

He actually only appeared in about 37 (out of 168) of the original Bugs Bunny cartoons, although he did co-star with other characters in many other shorts, along with several of his own solo appearances, amounting to 71 classic shorts total, between 1937 to 1962.

History

The early Elmer Fudd as he appeared in 1938's A Day at the Zoo

Early appearances

In 1937, Tex Avery created a very early version of Elmer Fudd named Elmer and introduced him in "Little Red Walking Hood", as a mysterious hero whistling everywhere he goes. In this cartoon, he had a derby hat, small squinty eyes, big reddish nose, a high collar around his neck, a green long sleeve shirt, green pants, and a bald head. At the end of the cartoon, the character tells the villain, the Big Bad Wolf, that he is "the hero in this picture" after he hits the wolf in the head with a mallet. He then continued to make more appearances in the Warner cartoons, mostly as a "running gag" character. In "A Feud There Was" (1938), Elmer made his entrance riding a motor scooter with the words "Elmer Fudd, Peacemaker" displayed on the side, the first onscreen appearance of that name. Elmer then appeared on early merchandise and of early Looney Tunes books in 1938 and 1939, and even on the lobby cards for "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" and for "Cinderella Meets Fella" with his name attached on them. This early prototype Elmer would be retired from the cartoons after 1939's "Believe It or Else".

Confusion with Egghead

Main Article: Egghead

It is often confused by several sources and fans alike that another character created by Tex Avery, called Egghead who first debuted in 1937's "Egghead Rides Again", was a predecessor of Elmer, and that the two were the same individual and thus would eventually evolve together to form the finalized Elmer Fudd. However, Michael Barrier asserts that "Elmer Fudd was not a modified version of his fellow Warner Bros. character Egghead" and that "the two characters were always distinct. That was apparently evidenced by Elmer's early prototype being identified in a Warner publicity sheet for Cinderella Meets Fella (filed with the Library of Congress as a copyright description) as 'Egghead's brother.' which was also explained on his website, and that "The Egghead-Elmer story is actually a little messy, my sense being that most of the people involved, whether they were making the films or publicizing them, not only had trouble telling the characters apart but had no idea why they should bother trying." Further elevating this confusion is modern Looney Tunes media depicting Egghead as Elmer's early appearance, instead of his original Joe Penner depiction. Unlike Elmer at the time, the character would be inherited to Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton's direction when Friz Freleng left Warner Bros. for MGM and would appear in two cartoons directed by the duo, last appearing in "Count Me Out". Further confusing the matter is that in the compilation film, "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters", where Mark Kausler voices Egghead, the Looney Tunes Back in Action movie, and in Looney Tunes Cartoons, Egghead is depicted as the early Elmer Fudd design instead of his design where he had hair in "Daffy Duck and Egghead", bearing Elmer Fudd's clothes and derby hat from Avery's cartoons. In official listings of cartoons in DVD/Blu-ray sets by Warner Media, Elmer's early cartoons from "Little Red Walking Hood" to "Believe It or Else" are mistaken as Egghead's.

Elmer Fudd, with his new redesign resembling his early design in, is annoyed by a rabbit in Elmer's Candid Camera.

Redesigning Elmer

In the 1939 cartoon "Dangerous Dan McFoo", a new voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan, was hired to provide the voice of the hero dog character. It was in this cartoon that the popular "milk-sop" wabbit voice was later used for Tex Avery's character, Elmer Fudd. Bryan was found because of the voice—a veteran of radio, he was a mainstay on The Grouch Club, of which a series of Warner Bros produced short films were made. Bryan appeared in a number of them. Sometime later on in this year, some new drawings and redesigns of Elmer Fudd were being created by character designers, Charlie Thorson and Bob Givens.

In 1939, Elmer's appearance was refined, giving him a chin and a less bulbous nose (although still wearing his old clothing that he was wearing in Tex Avery's earlier cartoons) and Arthur Q. Bryan's "Dan McFoo" voice in Elmer's Ninth appearance, a Chuck Jones short entitled "Elmer's Candid Camera", in which a rabbit drives Elmer insane; the rabbit was an early appearance of what would become Bugs Bunny, beginning their long-standing rivalry. Later that year, he appeared in Friz Freleng's "Confederate Honey" and "The Hardship of Miles Standish", which were carryovers of Hardaway's and Dalton's work that would've featured Egghead. Elmer would get his next design in "Good Night Elmer". And Elmer Fudd has since been the chief antagonistic force in most of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, initiating one of the most famous rivalries in the history of American cinema.

Elmer's first hunting cartoon, however, was "A Wild Hare" made in 1939 and released in 1940. It is the first cartoon to feature Elmer in his usual hunting outfit and the fifth cartoon to feature Bugs Bunny (Bugs debut in "Porky's Hare Hunt" (produced and copyrighted in 1937, and released in 1938), as a zany white rabbit).

Fat Elmer

Shortly after "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", another Elmer cartoon, "Wabbit Twouble", notably changed Elmer's appearance to look very chubby based on Arthur Q. Bryan's physique. These cartoons depict Elmer as more incompetent and often has him provoked by Bugs in all his appearances. Due to theatrical backlash, this design was retired quickly after only four cartoons, with this version last appearing in "Fresh Hare".

Interpretations by director

As later years progressed, each director took their own spin on the character, as with most of the main characters made at the time. Notably, these later efforts often depict Elmer more sympathetic and often has him provoking conflict instead of his opponent's starting turmoil.

Chuck Jones' Elmer

After realizing that Elmer was often considered a pushover in the cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, Jones would enforce a rule starting from "Hold the Lion, Please" where Bugs must be provoked to give a valid reason to torment the opponent. As a result, Jones often depicted Elmer as a bit of a kind fool, with him being taken advantage of his stupidity. Despite his efforts, he rarely causes harm over fleeing from overreaction, such as over disease in "Hare Tonic" and superiority of hats in "Bugs' Bonnets".

Jones would most notably rise Elmer's fame up in the hunting trilogy with Bugs and Daffy, where he attempts to hunt rabbits for the season, only to often be directed to instead target Daffy after Bugs tells the confused Elmer that it is really duck season. He would also appear in various musical Bugs cartoons such as "Rabbit of Seville" and "What's Opera, Doc?", with the latter being inducted to the National Film Registry.

Friz Freleng's Elmer

After the early years, Freleng would rarely use Elmer, as the director claimed that Elmer was too dumb and made Bugs looked unforgiving as a result. This would primarily lead to Freleng using more tougher and less sympathetic opponents for his cartoons against Bugs, such as Yosemite Sam and Rocky and Mugsy. Despite that, Freleng would sporadically use Elmer, often depicting him as a rich everyman occasionally having conflict from outsiders such as Sylvester or ants. A few cartoons where he goes against Bugs often have the hunter resort to alternate techniques to catch the rabbit, such as a robot.

Bob Clampett's Elmer

Bob Clampett's direction with Elmer seems more contented on taking advantage of Elmer's dumbness, with Bugs being the provoker in almost all of his cartoons by Clampett. In these cartoons, Bugs would take every turn to make Elmer fall into his goofy ruses, and Bob's direction makes such gags outlandish for Elmer.

Robert McKimson's Elmer

Robert McKimson would use Elmer a few times prior to 1955, pairing him with Bugs in "Easter Yeggs", "Upswept Hare", and most notably "What's Up Doc?". He would also pair him with Daffy for two cartoons, one where Daffy commerses as a salesman bent on forcing Elmer to purchase an overly dangerous and destructive smart house, and another where Daffy tries to stop Elmer from hunting during duck season.

After McKimson's original crew was disbanded, McKimson would begin to use Elmer more often, depicting him as a bit brighter than most of his other appearances, but still rather gullible. He would also depict Elmer as an everyman working for smaller businesses with hunting as his hobby.

Later years

As time would go on, Elmer's voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan, would experience illness that affected his ability to voice the character. One cartoon, "Pre-Hysterical Hare" was the first example of such in that Dave Barry had to replace Bryan's role for Elmer. However, the voice difference is largely obvious, and Bryan's health would deteriorate further as the years went on. Bryan voiced Elmer his final time with Freleng's "Person to Bunny", with Elmer's voice being roughened at this time. The cartoon would posthumously release after Bryan's passing in 1959, being released early the following year. With McKimson still in the middle of completing two cartoons featuring Elmer, Hal Smith took over Elmer's original voice actor. Due to negative feedback from theatrical audiences of Elmer's new voice, which sounded notably different to that of Bryan's, Elmer was quickly retired after the two cartoons were completed, being "Dog Gone People" and "What's My Lion?". Elmer would make his final appearance in Freleng's "Crows' Feat", where he silently defends a cornfield from two dimwitted crows.

Elmer in Rabbit Fire (1951)

Elmer's role in these two films, that of would-be hunter, dupe and foil for Bugs, would remain his main role forever after, and although Bugs Bunny was called upon to outwit many more worthy opponents, Elmer somehow remained Bugs' classic nemesis, despite (or because of) his legendary gullibility, small size, short temper, and shorter attention span. In Rabbit Fire, he declares himself vegetarian, hunting for sport only.

Elmer was usually cast as a hapless big-game hunter, armed with a double-barreled shotgun (albeit one which could be fired much more than twice without being reloaded) and creeping through the woods "hunting wabbits". In a few cartoons, though, he assumed a completely different persona—a wealthy industrialist type, occupying a luxurious penthouse, or, in one episode involving a role reversal, a sanitarium—which Bugs would of course somehow find his way into. In Dog Gone People, he had an ordinary office job working for demanding boss "Mister Cwabtwee". In another cartoon (Mutt in a Rut) he appeared to work in an office and had a dog he called "Wover Boy", whom he took hunting, though Bugs did not appear. (Elmer also has a hunting dog in To Duck or Not to Duck; in that film, the dog is named Laramore.)

Several episodes featured Elmer differently. One (What's Up, Doc?, 1950) has Bugs Bunny relating his life story to a biographer, and recalling a time which was a downturn for the movie business. Elmer Fudd is a well-known entertainer who, looking for a new partner for his act, sees Bugs Bunny (after passing caricatures of many other famous 1940s actors (Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby) who, like Bugs, are also out of work). Elmer and Bugs do a one-joke act cross-country, with Bugs dressed like a pinhead, and when he does not know the answer to a joke, Elmer gives it and hits him with a pie in the face. Bugs begins to tire of this gag and pulls a surprise on Fudd, answering the joke correctly and bopping Elmer with a mallet, which prompts the man to point his rifle at Bugs. The bunny asks nervously: "Eh, what's up doc?", which results in a huge round of applause from the audience. Bugs tells Elmer they may be on to something, and Elmer, with the vaudevillian's instinct of sticking with a gag that catches on, nods that they should re-use it. According to this account, the common Elmer-as-hunter episodes are entirely staged.

One episode where Bugs "lost" in the hunting was Hare Brush (1956). Here, Elmer has been committed to an insane asylum because he believes he is a rabbit (though it is also revealed that he is a millionaire and owns a mansion and a yacht). Bugs Bunny enters Fudd's room and Elmer bribes him with carrots, then leaves the way the real rabbit entered. Bugs acts surprisingly (for him) naïve, assuming Elmer just wanted to go outside for a while. Elmer's psychiatrist arrives, and thinking Fudd's delusion has affected his appearance, drugs Bugs and conditions him into believing that he is Elmer Fudd, after which Bugs starts wearing hunting clothes and acting like Elmer, hunting the rabbit-costumed Fudd, who is in turn acting like Bugs. Their hunt is cut short when Bugs is arrested by a government agent as Elmer Fudd is wanted for tax evasion. After Bugs is hauled away trying to explain that the rabbit is Elmer Fudd, Fudd breaks the fourth wall and tells the audience "I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz" as he hops away as if he had planned the whole thing.

Elmer Fudd has occasionally appeared in other costumes, notably as Cupid, opposite Daffy Duck in The Stupid Cupid (1944).

The Bugs–Elmer partnership was so familiar to audiences that in a late 1950s cartoon, Bugs' Bonnets, a character study is made of what happens to the relationship between the two when they each accidentally don a different selection of hats (Native American wig, pilgrim hat, military helmets, bridal veil and top hat, to name a few). The result is comic mayhem; a steady game of one-upmanship that ultimately leads to matrimony.

Fat Elmer

For a short time in the 1941–1942 season, Elmer's appearance was modified again, for five cartoons: Wabbit Twouble, The Wacky Wabbit, The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, Any Bonds Today? and Fresh Hare. He became a heavy-set, beer-bellied character, patterned after Arthur Q. Bryan's real-life appearance, and still chasing Bugs (or vice versa). However, audiences did not accept a fat Fudd, so the slimmer version ultimately returned for good.

This time period also saw a temporary change in Elmer's relationship with Bugs Bunny. Instead of being the hunter, Elmer was the victim of unprovoked pestering by Bugs. In Wabbit Twouble, Bugs plays a number of gags on Elmer, advising the audience, "I do dis kind o' stuff to him all t'wough da picture!" (A line somewhat ironically would later be said by Cecil Turtle as he and his friends cheat Bugs out of winning a race). Another short, The Wacky Wabbit, finds Elmer focused on prospecting for gold which would be used to fund the World War II effort. Elmer sings a variation of the old prospector's tune "Oh! Susanna" made just for this cartoon (complete with the phrase "V for Victory"), with Bugs joining in just before starting to hassle Elmer. He made a later appearance in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Moskow Side Story" as a Russian version with a simple name "Boris" who owns another comedy club in Russia.

Elmer-speak

He nearly always vocalised consonants [r] and [l], pronouncing them as [w] instead (a trait that also characterized Tweety Bird) when he would talk in his slightly raspy voice. This trait was prevalent in the Elmer's Candid Camera and Elmer's Pet Rabbit cartoons, where the writers would give him exaggerated lines such as, "My, that weawwy was a dewicious weg of wamb." to further exaggerate his qualities as a harmless nebbish. The writers often gave him lines filled with those letters, such as doing Shakespeare's Romeo as "What wight thwough yonduh window bweaks!" or Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries as "Kiww the wabbit, kiww the wabbit, kiww the wabbit...!" or "The Beautifuw Bwue Danube, by Johann Stwauss", Stage Door Cartoon's line "Oh, you dubbuh-cwossing wabbit! You tweachewous miscweant!" or the name of actress "Owivia deHaviwwand".

Part of the joke is that Elmer is presumably incapable of pronouncing his own first name correctly. Occasionally, Elmer would properly pronounce an "r" or "l" sound, depending on whether or not it was vital for the audience to understand what the word was. (For example, in 1944's The Old Grey Hare, he clearly pronounces the "r" in the word "picture".) Usually, Elmer mispronounces the "r" and "l" by substituting the sound of "w".

Later appearances

Elmer Fudd made appearances in several television specials in the 1970s and 1980s, and some cameo roles in two of the Looney Tunes feature-film compilations.

Elmer made a brief headshot cameo appearance in the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) with other famous characters.

Elmer would also appear frequently on the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures as a teacher at Acme Looniversity, where he was the idol and favorite teacher of Elmyra Duff, the slightly deranged animal lover who resembles Elmer in basic head design, name and lack of intellect. On the other hand, a younger version of him makes a single appearance in the episode Plucky's Dastardly Deed, and is named "Egghead Jr", the "smartest kid in class".

Elmer also made cameos on Animaniacs, one in Turkey Jerky, another in the Pinky and the Brain short, Don't Tread on Us.

Elmer also had a guest starring appearance on Histeria! in the episode "The Teddy Roosevelt Show", in a sketch where he portrayed Gutzon Borglum. This sketch depicts Elmer/Gutzon's construction of Mount Rushmore, accompanied by Borglum's son Lincoln, portrayed by Loud Kiddington. Elmer made another appearance on Histeria!, this time in his traditional role, during a sketch where the bald eagle trades places with the turkey during Thanksgiving weekend, featured in the episode "Americana".

Fudd also appeared on The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries in the first-season episode A Ticket to Crime as detective Sam Fudd; at the end he took off his clothes and turned into Elmer.

Elmer appears as part of the TuneSquad team in Space Jam. In one part of the game he and Yosemite Sam shoot out the teeth of one of the Monstars dressed in black suits while Misirlou is heard in the background, a reference TNG be early films of Quentin Tarantino.

Elmer took on a more villainous role in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. He first appears as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck's co-star in a new movie, where he shoots Daffy repeatedly, and is later seen shooting Bugs per the film's script after Daffy's firing. He later appears in the Louvre Museum, where he reveals himself to be a secret agent for the Acme Corporation. Elmer chases Bugs and Daffy through the paintings in the Louvre museum, taking on the different art styles as they do so. At the end, Elmer forgets to change back to his normal style after jumping out of the pointillist painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, allowing Bugs to easily disintegrate Elmer by blowing a fan at him.

A four-year-old version of Elmer was featured in the Baby Looney Tunes episode "A Bully for Bugs", where he kept taking all of Bugs' candy, and also bullied the rest of his friends. He was also shown with short blond hair. He appeared in most of the songs.

An even more villainous Elmer appeared in two episodes of Duck Dodgers as The Mother Fudd, an alien who would spread a disease that caused all affected by it to stand around laughing like Elmer (a parody of the Flood in Halo and the Borg in Star Trek).

In Loonatics Unleashed, his descendant, Electro J. Fudd, tried to prove himself the universe's greatest hunter by capturing Ace Bunny, but settled for Danger Duck instead. Elmer himself also makes an appearance in the form of a photo which shows he presumably died at the hands of a giant squirrel.

In December 2009, Elmer made an appearance in a GEICO commercial where the director tells him to say rabbits instead of "wabbits". He was again voiced by Billy West.

Elmer Fudd appears in The Looney Tunes Show, voiced by Billy West. Portrayed as a wealthy businessman coming home after a hard day's work in the "Merrie Melodies" part of the episode "Best Friends," he sings about his love of "gwiwwed cheese" sandwiches. He later had a brief cameo appearance in "Fish and Visitors" as a weather forecaster briefly exclaiming about the rainy weather and doing his famous chuckle at the end. In "Working Duck," Elmer Fudd appeared as a newsman where he reports that Daffy Duck was fired from his position as a security guard after falling asleep during a nighttime bank robbery in which $10 million was stolen. Later on, Elmer Fudd reports that EnormoCorp went out of business due to the worst business decision in the history of business decisions caused by its CEO Daffy Duck (who succeeded the previous CEO Foghorn Leghorn who retired) where he went with the "Proceed as Planned" choice instead of the "Delay the Merger" choice when he mistook Pete Puma as the new muffin man. As a result of this, Elmer mentioned that 10,000 of its workers are now out of a job and states that experts fear that the world economy could collapse. Elmer also states that disgraced CEO Daffy Duck could not be reached for a comment. In "A Christmas Carol," Elmer Fudd reports on Foghorn Leghorn's plans to end the heat wave on Christmas. Elmer Fudd later joins the other characters in the Christmas song called "Christmas Rules" at the end of the episode. In "Dear John," Elmer Fudd reports on Daffy Duck winning a spot on the city council. Elmer Fudd later reports on Daffy Duck's apparent death where he supposedly lost control of his parade float and drove into the St. Bastian River. In "The Black Widow," Elmer Fudd reports on the theft of the Hillhurst Diamond from the museum caused by someone called "The Black Widow."

On June 8, 2011, Elmer starred in the 3-D short "Daffy's Rhapsody" with Daffy Duck. That short was going to precede the film Happy Feet Two, but was instead shown with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

Elmer Fudd appears in Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, voiced again by Billy West. He appears as a spy working for the Mexican general Foghorn Leghorn.

In the 2017 DC Comics/Looney Tunes crossover books, an alternate version of Elmer Fudd was created for a story in which the character was designed more for the DC Universe and was pitted against Batman in the Batman/Elmer Fudd Special. In the story, Elmer is a bounty hunter that originated from the countryside before he moved to Gotham to make ends meet. He considered putting the shotgun away for good when he fell in love with Silver St. Cloud, but she was killed by hitman Bugs "The Bunny". He goes to a bar called Porky's (which has attendants that are humanoid versions of other famous Looney Tunes stars) to kill Bugs. Bugs confesses to killing Silver but avoids death by telling Elmer that Bruce Wayne hired him to do it. Elmer believes Bugs as Bruce was Silver's former lover, and shoots Bruce at a party for vengeance. Batman confronts Elmer in his apartment and defeats the gunman in a fight, where Elmer tells Batman about Silver's death and Bugs. Elmer and Batman return to Porky's and take out most of the crowd before confronting Bugs. The three are shocked to find Silver in the bar herself, where she revealed that she left Bruce and Elmer because of their dangerous lifestyles and had Bugs fake her death. The story ends with all three of the men requesting a glass of carrot juice from Porky. In the issue's backup story, Bugs, Elmer, and Batman re-enact the famous "Rabbit Season, Duck Season" sketch with Batman replacing Daffy as Bugs tells Elmer it is "Bat Season". After getting shot by Elmer too many times, Batman takes Bugs' advice and makes it Robin season, causing Elmer to pursue the Dark Knight's sidekicks instead.

Elmer Fudd appears in New Looney Tunes, voiced by Jeff Bergman.

Elmer Fudd was depicted without his trademark double-barreled shotgun in the first season of Looney Tunes Cartoons on the streaming service, HBO Max. The series executive producer and showrunner, Peter Browngardt, said the character could continue to use cartoon violence, such as dynamite and Acme related paraphernalia. The absence of the shotgun has garnered both acclaim and controversy. By 2021, his shotgun was reinstated in the show's second season. He is once again voiced by Jeff Bergman in the series.

Portrayal

Fudd was originally voiced by Mel Blanc between 1937 and 1938, Danny Webb between 1938 and 1939 (only in Cinderella Meets Fella (1938) and Believe It or Else (1939)), Roy Rogers in 1938, only doing a singing voice in A Feud There Was, and radio actor Arthur Q. Bryan between 1939 and 1959, but on seven occasions during Bryan's lifetime, the voice was provided by Blanc: in Good Night Elmer (1940), Blanc did Elmer's crying; in The Wacky Wabbit (1942), Blanc did Fudd's screams of fear; in The Big Snooze (1946), Blanc spoke as Fudd crying, "Oh, agony, agony!"; in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), only a single line was needed, and bringing in Bryan was not cost effective; in Quack Shot (1954), Blanc did Elmer's Peter Lorre-esque laugh after he is shot in the face by his toy battleship; in Wideo Wabbit, Blanc did Elmer's cry of pain; and in What's Opera, Doc?, Elmer's furious scream "SMOG!" was dubbed by Blanc, although Bryan had voiced the rest of the part. In The Stupid Cupid (1944), since Elmer has no dialogue in the cartoon, Frank Graham provided his laugh. Later, during the musician's union strike of 1958, Dave Barry did the voice for Elmer's co-starring appearance in Pre-Hysterical Hare, as Bryan was ill during production of the cartoon. Elmer was originally going to be voiced in that cartoon by Daws Butler.

In 1959, Bryan died at age 60, and Hal Smith was selected to replace him as Elmer, but after just two cartoons (Dog Gone People (1960) and What's My Lion? (1961)) were recorded by the new actor, with Blanc doing Fudd's crying and gurgling in two scenes in the former cartoon, and another (Crow's Feat (1962)) was made in which Fudd has no lines and therefore no voice, the character was soon retired. Although in more recent years other voice actors have alternated as Elmer's voice, Bryan's characterization remains the definitive one. He was never credited onscreen, because Blanc had a clause in his contract that required him to receive a screen credit and, perhaps inadvertently, denied the same to other voice performers.

Blanc would take on the role regularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, supplying Elmer's voice for new footage in The Bugs Bunny Show (while Smith voiced the character in the commercials until 1965 when Blanc took up the role full time), The Porky Pig Show, compilation feature films and similar TV specials, as well as some all-new specials. He admitted in his autobiography that he found the voice difficult to get "right", never quite making it his own, which is why his Elmer voice sounded deep and gravelly in the 60s and 70s; however, it began sounding closer to Bryan's Elmer voice, beginning with Bugs Bunny's Valentine (1979). In Speechless (1989), the famous lithograph issued following Blanc's death, Elmer is not shown among the characters bowing their heads in tribute to Blanc.

Other voice actors

Beside Bryan, numerous other actors have voiced Elmer, including:

• Mel Blanc (Little Red Walking Hood, The Isle of Pingo Pongo, A Feud There Was, Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas, Hamateur Night, A Day at the Zoo; Good Night, Elmer, screaming in The Wacky Wabbit, saying, "Oh, agony, agony!" in The Big Snooze, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, laughing in Quack Shot, screaming in Wideo Wabbit, screaming, "SMOG!" in What's Opera, Doc?, crying and gurgling in Dog Gone People, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Porky Pig Show, American Airlines commercials, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies, The New Adventures of Bugs Bunny, 4 More Adventures of Bugs Bunny, Bugs Bunny’s High-Fructose Christmas Record, Bugs Bunny Vitamins commercials, A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court, Bugs Bunny's Valentine, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales, Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny, The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, Six Flags Great America commercial, Sony Electronics commercial, Signet Bank commercial, Looney Tunes Learn About Shapes and Sizes, Looney Tunes Learn About Numbers, Looney Tunes Learn About Sing-Along Songs, Dance Party USA, Oldsmobile commercial, Warner Cinema commercial)
• Danny Webb (Cinderella Meets Fella, Believe It or Else).
• Roy Rogers (singing voice in A Feud There Was)
• Frank Graham (The Stupid Cupid)
• Gilbert Mack (Golden Records records, Bugs Bunny Songfest)
• Dave Barry (Pre-Hysterical Hare)
• Hal Smith (Post Cereal Alpha-Bits commercials, Tang commercials, Dog Gone People, What's My Lion?, Kool-Aid commercials)
• Richard Andrews (Bugs Bunny Exercise and Adventure Album)
• Paul Kuhn (Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports)
• Darrell Hammond ("Wappin'")
• Jeff Bergman (Happy Birthday, Bugs!: 50 Looney Years, Holiday Inn commercial, Tiny Toon Adventures, Tyson Foods commercial, Box-Office Bunny, Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster, (Blooper) Bunny, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers, Cartoon Network bumpers, Mad, Looney Tunes Dash, Wun Wabbit Wun, New Looney Tunes, Ani-Mayhem, Looney Tunes Cartoons)
• Greg Burson (Tiny Toon Adventures, Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure!, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, Have Yourself a Looney Tunes Christmas, Looney Tunes B-Ball, The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, Space Jam (additional lines), Bugs Bunny's Learning Adventures, Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf, various commercials)
• Joe Alaskey (Looney Tunes River Ride, Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, You Don't Know Doc! ACME Wise-Guy Edition)
• Keith Scott (Toyota commercials, The Looney Tunes Radio Show, Looney Rock)
• Jim Meskimen (Bugs & Friends Sing the Beatles)
• Frank Welker (Animaniacs)
• Billy West (Space Jam, Bugs & Friends Sing Elvis, Warner Bros. Sing-Along: Quest for Camelot, Warner Bros. Sing-Along: Looney Tunes, Histeria!, The Looney Tunes Kwazy Christmas, Time Warner Cable commercials, The 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Awards Show Program Special...Live!...In Stereo, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, A Looney Tunes Sing-A-Long Christmas, GEICO commercial, The Looney Tunes Show, Daffy's Rhapsody, Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, various video games and webtoons)
• Chris Edgerly (Drawn Together)
• Tom Kenny (Looney Tunes webtoons)
• Brian Drummond (Baby Looney Tunes)
• Noel Blanc (Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Family Guy)
• Quinton Flynn (Robot Chicken)
• Kevin Shinick (Mad)
• James Arnold Taylor (one line in Daffy's Rhapsody)
• Gary Martin (Looney Tunes Take-Over Weekend promotion)
• Seth Green (Robot Chicken)
• Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy)
• Eric Bauza (Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem, Bugs Bunny in The Golden Carrot, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Bugs and Daffy's Thanksgiving Road Trip)

In popular culture

In the film Fletch Lives (1989), the eponymous character (while in disguise) gives his name as "Elmer Fudd Gantry".

In amateur radio, new amateurs' mentors are called "Elmers", putatively for superficial resemblance to the cartoon character, and perhaps Fudd's use of "broadcastable" euphemisms while (frequently) swearing.

See also

• List of cartoons featuring Elmer Fudd