''The Prize Pest'' is a 1951

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 directed by Robert McKimson, 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 cartoon was released on December 22, 1951, and stars

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Mel ...

and Porky Pig.

Plot

After listening to one of his favorite radio programs, Porky Pig receives a grand prize from the station. Out of the gift box pops Daffy Duck, who insists on living in Porky's house. After numerous attempts to throw Daffy out of the house, Daffy devises a plan to stay. He tells Porky that he has a

split personality Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...

(á la ''

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...

''). When people treat him with kindness, he becomes sweet and cuddly, whereas when treated badly, he turns into a hideous monster, which he does by messing his hair up and putting in

fangs A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fa ...

. Getting the idea, Porky promises to be nice to Daffy, who then begins to treat him like a servant. Porky intends to call the authorities about Daffy without him knowing, only to be outsmarted by Daffy who impersonates the phone. Daffy puts up his monster guise on and chases Porky around the house. When Porky realizes he's been had (after coming out scared from a closet with a skeleton in it, presumably put in there by Daffy), he decides to outsmart this

psychotic Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior t ...

duck and get him out of the house by dressing up as a monster. When Daffy sees the monster ("Sufferin' catfish, I never realized I was THAT hideous. I'M NOT!"), he becomes so scared, he falls apart (literally) and runs out of the house screaming (putting himself back in the gift box in the process). When Porky accidentally sees himself in the mirror in his monster costume (which he stated that only a craven little coward would be scared of), he scares himself so much that he jumps onto a chandelier ("So I'm a craven little coward").

Aftermath

*''The Prize Pest'' is considered by some to be one of the last

screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...

Daffy Duck cartoons, as all of the directors eventually stuck with the greedy, self-centered Daffy that emerged in ''

Rabbit Fire ''Rabbit Fire'' is a 1951 ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. Directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese, the cartoon is the first in Jones' "hunting trilogy"—the other two cartoons following it ...

'' (1951). *The cartoon was incerpted in the 1988

compilation film A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common example would be a docum ...

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters ''Daffy Duck's Quackbusters'' is a 1988 animated compilation film featuring classic Warner Bros. Cartoons shorts and animated bridging sequences, starring Daffy Duck. The film was released to theaters by Warner Bros. on September 24, 1988. It was ...

'' in which Daffy hired Porky in his "Paranormalist at Large" company. The cartoon was shortened in the movie, with a mix of new animation. *Daffy reprises his "crazy" look from this short in the '' Looney Tunes Show'' episode "Devil Dog" when trying to distract some SWAT team guys while Bugs and Taz escape.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prize Pest, The Looney Tunes shorts 1951 animated films 1951 short films 1951 films Films directed by Robert McKimson Daffy Duck films Porky Pig films 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Films about dissociative identity disorder Films scored by Carl Stalling 1950s English-language films Films produced by Edward Selzer