Bully for Bugs Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series
Title card
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Story by	Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Ken Harris Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	August 8, 1953 (1953-08-08) (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7:12

Bully for Bugs is a 1952 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in August 1953. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

[edit] Synopsis

Bugs performs the now immortal Slap Dance to the tune of "Las Chiapanecas" on a confused Toro.

On his way to the Coachella Valley for the "big carrot festival, therein," Bugs Bunny gets lost in a bullring in the middle of a bullfight between Toro the bull and a very nervous matador. Bugs famously declares he "shoulda make a left toin at Albuqoique". As he asks the matador for directions, the matador escapes into the stands, leaving Bugs to fend for himself against Toro. After irritating Bugs and getting a slap for "steaming up my tail," Toro rams the rabbit out of the bullring, Bugs muttering his famous line, "Of course you realize, dis means war".

Toro takes his applause for claiming his latest victim, but it is short-lived because Bugs re-enters the bullring in matador garb. Bugs defeats Toro using an anvil hidden behind his cape. While Toro is still dazed from his collision, Bugs makes the bull follow the cape up to a bull shield, accompanied by a lively underscore of La Cucaracha, where his horns pierce it. Bugs hits the horns like nails and makes fun of Toro using puns ("What a gulli-bull, what a nin-cow-poop"), not knowing the bull can detach his horns and strike back.

While Toro sharpens his horns, Bugs interrupts him by placing an elastic band around the horns and using it as a giant slingshot to smack him in the face with a boulder. Toro charges back at Bugs. Bugs then returns, this time in a large sombrero doing a little dance and slapping Toro on the face to the tune of Las Chiapanecas. Toro tries to punch him twice but is slapped each time. Bugs dances more and then disappears under the sombrero, but not before pinching Toro's nose.

While Toro once again sharpens his horns (this time with a much more irritated look on the bull's face), Bugs has prepared a booby trap for the bull, composed of a double-barreled shotgun hidden behind the cape. Toro charges towards the cape, and somehow the shotgun previously in Bugs's hand enters Toro's body and stops at his tail, firing a bullet from one of Toro's horn when he flicks his tail (and the shotgun) on the ground. Now having the upper hand, Toro chases Bugs shooting at the hare, but Toro eventually runs out of bullets. Toro "reloads" by swallowing several "elephant bullets" (with explosive heads) but when he attempts to test-fire, he instead explodes, gun and all.

Bugs taunts Toro once again by calling him, among other things, an "imbecile" (which Bugs pronounces "im-BESS-il") and an "ultra maroon," but realizes that he is cornered by the bull behind barred gates. Awaiting certain death (he writes a will and says his last prayers), Bugs miraculously opens the gates like a garage door, sending Toro out of the bullring and into the horizon. Toro runs back to the bullring, not anticipating that Bugs has laid axle grease, a ramp, and some platforms on the bull's path. The grease and ramp send Toro airborne over some glue, a sheet of sandpaper, a protruding matchstick, and a barrel of TNT which explodes when Toro flies by. Still in the air and in shock, Toro finally crashes into a wooden bull shield.

The cartoon ends with the unconscious bull's hindquarters sticking out of the shield, and the victorious Bugs holding up the cape with the words "THE END" etched on it.

[edit] Development

In his biography Chuck Amuck Chuck Jones claims that he made this cartoon after producer Eddie Selzer burst into Jones' workspace one day and annouced, for no readily apparent reason, that bullfights were not funny, and they were not to make a cartoon about them. Since Selzer had, in Jones' opinion, consistently proven himself to be wrong about absolutely everything, the only possible option was to make the cartoon. The sounds of the crowd are recorded from a genuine bull-fighting crowd in Barcelona, Spain. The boulder to the face gag was reused from Rabbit Punch which was also directed by Chuck Jones five years earlier.

Despite the fact that it has carrots, some fans have come to the conclusion that Bugs' reason for his journey to the carrot festival was to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. (This opinion is not supported by the August release date.) It should also be noted that while the Coachella Valley is a major agricultural region which grows some carrots, it does not hold an annual carrot festival. The immediate area's carrot growing region is outside of the valley in the Imperial County town of Holtville which does in fact hold an annual carrot festival.

[edit] Trivia

• For the scene where Bugs turns the tables on Toro near the end, the aforementioned rabbit concocts an elaborate method of finishing Toro off, with characteristic ingenuity. The workings of the plan are described below.

After being rendered airborne by the greasy ramp (as mentioned above), Toro flies over a paintbrush soaked in glue, some sandpaper, a matchstick, and a barrel of TNT. The saturated paintbrush coats Toro's ventral side in glue, which the sandpaper adheres to. The bull, now with sandpaper stuck to his stomach, soars over the matchstick. The sandpaper strikes the match, lighting it. The match lights a long fuse, connected to the barrel of trinitrotoluene. Just as the bull flies over the volatile barrel, the fuse has lit the explosive chemical inside, which results in a massive explosion. The now-unconscious bull crashes into a bull shield, and the cartoon ends with Bugs gaining the upper hand, to the wild applause of the spectators. Iris out.

[edit] In other media

The short has been referenced in some form in film and television. Toro the bull can be seen in the beginning of Who Framed Roger Rabbit auditioning with other cartoon cows at the Maroon Cartoon Studios for a part in a cartoon. Toro also appears in the films Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode Starting from Scratch Bugs' apprentice Buster Bunny tries the now famous slap dance on a bedbug only to see it backfire on him, prompting Buster to remark, "Well it worked for Bugs Bunny.". In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode M.A.T.A.D.O.R., the opening scene is similar to Bully for Bugs.

The opening segment of the cartoon (prior to Bugs' entry), was reused in the 1963 Speedy Gonzales cartoon Mexican Cat Dance. Part of the cartoon was also used in Hare-Abian Nights in 1959.

In recent years Bully for Bugs has been adapted into various levels in Bugs Bunny video game. Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage has a level where Bugs tricks Toro to run into steel girders. Bugs Bunny In Double Trouble has a level where Bugs searches underground for various items for the booby trap. Bugs Bunny Lost in Time features a level based on the short in the 1930's era called La Corrida. Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf, also known as Sheep Raider, has placed Toro sleeping amongst newly fallen leaves that, if stepped on by the player, will awake Toro and send him charging after Ralph Wolf. He is also seen guarding a goal needed to progress but is distracted by the red monster Gossamer whose color sends Toro into a charging frenzy. He appears one more time where Ralph has to have him chase him over the edge of a cliff where he presumably falls to his death. The Sega Genesis game Taz: Escape from Mars; Toro appears as the end-of-world boss in Mexico. Looney Tunes: Back in Action the video game features Toro in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Daffy must change into his Duck Danger costume and mount Toro, then driving him into several vases which knocks him out.

[edit] Censorship

• When this cartoon aired on ABC, the part where the bull swallows a box of elephant gun bullets and explodes was cut. Also cut was the end gag with the famous glue-and-sandpaper-and-lit-match-and-dynamite end sequence. The edited version just has the bull go up the ramp and hit the wall.
• The CBS airing of this cartoon in the 1980s edited the famous glue-and-sandpaper-and-lit-match-and-dynamite end sequence as well, but just edited the lit match and dynamite part so now the edited cartoon shows the bull getting slathered with glue and stuck with sandpaper on his underside before hitting the wall, looking worse for the wear without explanation.

[edit] Availability

• Bully For Bugs is available, uncut and restored, on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc 1.

[edit] External links

• Bully for Bugs at the Internet Movie Database