''Daffy Duck & Egghead'' is a 1938

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 ...

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

'' cartoon produced in 1937 and directed by

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...

. The cartoon was released on January 1, 1938, and stars

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character, character created for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic American black duck, black ...

and

Egghead In the U.S. English slang, egghead is an epithet used to refer to intellectuals or people considered out-of-touch with ordinary people and lacking in realism, common sense, sexual interests, etc. on account of their intellectual interests. It wa ...

Plot

Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic

Joe Penner Joe Penner (born József Pintér; November 11, 1904 – January 10, 1941) was an American vaudeville, radio, and film comedian. Early life Penner was an ethnic Hungarian born József Pintér in Nagybecskerek, Austria-Hungary, (present-day Zren ...

), who is annoyed by a silhouetted man in the theater audience (

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 ...

) who refuses to sit down. After he sits down twice and finally gets shot by Egghead when he will not stay down, out comes Daffy Duck biting his nose. While fighting, a tortoise (imitating radio comic

Parkyakarkus Harry Einstein (May 6, 1904 – November 24, 1958), known professionally as Harry Parke and other pseudonyms, most commonly Parkyakarkus, was an American comedian, writer, and character actor. A specialist in Greek dialect comedy, he became famo ...

) comes and tries to give Daffy and Egghead new weapons. When the tortoise goes away, Egghead uses his real gun and Daffy tries to make him shoot the apple on his head. Egghead misses every time, so Daffy puts a blind sign, a cup of pencils, and disguise glasses on Egghead. Daffy then sings a song (considered semi-obligatory for a Merrie Melodies cartoon at the time), and when he concludes, his own reflection in the water surfaces in three dimension and shakes his hand before they swim away together. Later, Egghead finally manages to capture Daffy by shooting a pair of gloves from his gun, knocking Daffy out and allowing Egghead to place him in a net. Just as Egghead celebrates, a duck from the mental ward (seemingly his reflective doppelgänger from the earlier scene) comes to claim Daffy. He thanks Egghead for helping to catch Daffy, and tells him that Daffy is 100 percent nuts. "Yeah?", Egghead asks. "Yeah!", answers the duck warden. At that moment, both he and Daffy beat Egghead up before woohoo-ing out into the distance. Egghead becomes fed up with the antics and decides to join them as the cartoon ends.

Voice cast

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, Ambulance Duck, Turtle Referee,

("woo-hoo" sounds) * Danny Webb as Egghead *

as Audience Member

Home media

*VHS – ''Daffy!'' *VHS – ''

The Golden Age of Looney Tunes ''The Golden Age of Looney Tunes'' is a collection of LaserDiscs released by MGM/UA Home Video in the 1990s. There were five sets made, featuring a number of discs, and each disc side represented a different theme, being made up of seven cartoon ...

- Vol. 2: Firsts'' *LaserDisc – ''The Golden Age of Looney Tunes - Vol. 1'' *DVD – '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3'' *DVD – ''

The Essential Daffy Duck ''The Essential Daffy Duck'' is a DVD set featuring cartoons focusing on Daffy Duck. It was released on November 1, 2011. Contents The contents are split over two discs. The first disc features 15 classic Daffy Duck shorts (14 of which were previ ...

Production notes

*''According to the copyright date in the cartoon's original opening title cards from 1937 and in the Blue Ribbon ''Merrie Melodies'' reissued opening title cards from 1946, this cartoon began production in 1937. But this was released in theaters on January 1, 1938. *''Daffy Duck & Egghead'' features the early, zany version of

, who spends the film harassing

(making his second appearance in this cartoon as a hunter after making his first appearing

Egghead Rides Again ''Egghead Rides Again'' is a 1937 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It was first released to theaters on July 17, 1937. The cartoon marks the first appearance of Egghead, a character who eventually appear in three mo ...

), and also marking the second appearance of Daffy Duck (after ''

Porky's Duck Hunt ''Porky's Duck Hunt'' is a 1937 Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon was released on April 17, 1937, and stars Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, the latter making what is considered his first official appearance. Pl ...

''), his first in color, and first where he is given his current name. It includes a set-piece song-and-dance number by Daffy, doing his own variation of "

The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin and published by Harms Inc., New York. It is best known as the theme tune for the ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon series and ''Merrie Melodies'' reissued cartoon ...

" (which had recently become the theme for ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

'').Daffy Duck & Egghead
. ''Big Cartoon DataBase'', August 30, 2014 *Some scenes were reused from the previous Looney Tune cartoon ''Porky's Duck Hunt'', from Daffy nipping the hunter's nose, to his whooping and hollering as he bounced in and out of the water. *This cartoon was re-released into the Blue Ribbon ''Merrie Melodies'' program on April 20, 1946. The original opening, credits, and closing title cards were found and restored with the release of the third volume of the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'' in 2005. However, the audio used for the remastering of this short was taken from the European Turner "dubbed version", hence why the ending rendition of "Merrily We Roll Along" is incorrect.

Censorship

When the short was aired in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

during the 1990s and 2000s on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

and

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

, the scene in which Egghead kills the silhouetted audience member was cut.

References

External links

* *
''Daffy Duck & Egghead (Blue Ribbon)'' on the Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daffy Duck and Egghead Merrie Melodies short films Films directed by Tex Avery Daffy Duck films Films about hunters 1938 animated films 1938 short films 1938 films 1930s Warner Bros. animated short films