''Barbary-Coast Bunny'' is a 1956

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

'' Looney Tunes'' cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones and written by

Tedd Pierce Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. Biography Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samue ...

. The short was released on July 21, 1956, and stars

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring role ...

Plot

Bugs is tunneling the cross country to meet his cousin Herman in San Francisco, only to run head first into a boulder which is actually a large nugget of gold. Bugs is considering how to keep the gold safe; Nasty Canasta sees this and sets up a simple stand claiming to be a

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

who can safely store Bugs' gold. Bugs falls for the ruse. When Bugs decides to ask for his gold back, Canasta claims that the bank is closing and traps Bugs in the folded-up stand while he rides away with the gold. Wrathfully, Bugs vows revenge on Nasty Canasta by saying: "You realize that this is ''not'' going to go unchallenged." Six months later, Canasta has used his ill-gotten gains to start a casino in San Francisco, which is shamelessly rigged in the house's favor. Bugs enters the casino in the role, playing a hopelessly naïve country boy who confuses a

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

for a "telly-o-phone". When Bugs uses it to phone his mother for some money, he hits the jackpot, much to Canasta's shock. In an attempt to recoup this loss, Canasta convinces Bugs to stay for a game and thinks that he is maneuvering the apparently easy mark into playing a game of roulette on the pretense of it being a game of

marbles A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called ''marbles'', as well being placed in mar ...

. To build his would-be victim's confidence, Canasta arranges for Bugs to win on his first spin. But Bugs develops a winning streak on the same number (#23). To recoup his losses, Canasta covers #23 with a block of wood and sets the wheel up for the marble to stop on #00. When it does, he laughs and strikes the table in triumph, causing the ball to bounce on and hammer through a knot in the wood block, giving Bugs another win. Determined to get back Bugs’ now massive winnings, Canasta convinces Bugs to try playing

draw poker Draw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing, or "drawing", cards. The descriptions below assume the reader is familiar w ...

and Bugs literally draws a picture of a

fireplace poker A fire iron is any metal instrument for tending a fire. Types There are three types of tools commonly used to tend a small fire, such as an indoor fireplace fire or yule log: the spade, the tongs and the poker itself. These tools make it possi ...

. Bugs then pretends to misinterpret Canasta's description of the importance of having the biggest hand to win by blowing his glove into a giant balloon. Canasta loses his temper at his would-be victim's obtuseness ("CUT IT OUT, CAN'T YA?!"). Bugs threatens to walk out, forcing Canasta to grovel in order to coax Bugs to return to the game. After staking all his money, Bugs promptly wins with a Four of a Kind consisting of Aces ("All I got is two pair: a pair of ones, and another pair of ones"), trumping Canasta's

Full House ''Full House'' is an American television Situation comedy, sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The show is about widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best ...

. With his casino's bank broken at the hands of this simpleton who seems physically incapable of losing, Canasta decides to rob Bugs at gunpoint on the pretense of it being another game of chance, namely Russian roulette. Bugs, still keeping in character, naïvely spins the revolver bullet cylinder like a slot machine and a mass of coins inexplicably pours out the gun's barrel. As Bugs departs with all the casino's funds and more, Canasta greedily tries to win money from his gun, only to shoot himself in the attempt and collapse. Bugs pops in and says to the audience: "The moral of this story is: 'Don't try to steal no 18 karats arrotsfrom no rabbit" shaking his head and swirling his eyebrows.

Home media

The short is available on ''Stars of

Space Jam ''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel ...

: Bugs Bunny'' VHS, and on both the fourth volume of the ''

Looney Tunes Golden Collection The ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'' is a series of six four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' animated shorts. The series began on October 28, 2003, and ended on Octo ...

'' DVDs and the second volume of the ''Looney Tunes Platinum Collection'' DVDs.

References

External links

* * {{Chuck Jones 1956 films 1956 animated films 1956 short films Looney Tunes shorts Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Short films directed by Chuck Jones Films set in San Francisco 1956 comedy films Barbary Coast, San Francisco Films scored by Carl Stalling Bugs Bunny films Films about gambling 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Films produced by Edward Selzer 1950s English-language films