Bugs Bunny: This slick, conniving, insulting, sarcastic, clever carrot-munching rabbit has to be one of the all-time favorite cartoon characters in the world. Mel Blanc, who was Bugs Bunny’s voice, said he blended the accents of Brooklyn and Bronx to create that distinctive Bugs Bunny line: “What’s up, Doc?”
Elmer Fudd: He is a perfect foil for Bugs Bunny and his lightning-quick antics. Elmer, who is the hunter, doesn’t really want to kill Bugs. In ‘A Wild Hare’, for instance, Elmer is filled with grief, wailing “I’m a murderer!” when he believes he has really killed Bugs, much to the merriment of Bugs, and also the audience, of course. One of the funniest characteristics of Elmer’s is his babyish voice, provided by Arthur Q. Bryant, when he goes all tremulous when he can’t catch that “wascal wabbit!”
Tweety & Sylvester: These are another inimitable pair of cartoon characters. This is another comical case of the villainous cat chasing the cute little canary, with Tweety always ending up safe at ‘Home Tweet Home’, escaping the wicked ‘puddy tat’s’ claws. It was Mel Blanc’s voice again which came up with that adorable Tweety line: “I tawt I taw a puddy tat… I did! I did!”
Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote: Is another funny cartoon pair that comes to mind. These comic shorts are about the Road Runner, which is a flightless bird, based loosely on the Great Roadrunner, a real bird, being endlessly chased by the hungry coyote, Wile E. Coyote, or ‘wily coyote’, wherein the coyote never does manage to catch Road Runner, despite his elaborate schemes of doing so, and mostly ending up causing injury to himself. The only dialogue in the cartoon is Road Runner going “beep-beep.” Even though Wile E. Coyote is the aggressor, his bumbling efforts evoke humor and even sympathy for him.
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble: This is another great cartoon duo. Remember this cartoon’s signature song – “Flintstones… Meet the Flintstones, They’re a modern stoneage family. From the town of Bedrock, They’re a page right out of history…” and Fred’s catchphrase – “Yabba-Dabba-Doo?” The cartoon is an account of the daily lives of the stoneage couple Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and Barney and Betty Rubble, their best friends. All of them live in Bedrock, a prehistoric city, but have to deal with the problems of the modern-day life of the working class. Instead of a cat or a dog, they have a saber tooth tiger and a baby dinosaur as family pets. In 1962, Pebbles appears in the series as the daughter of the Flintstones, and in 1963 Bamm Bamm makes his appearance as the adopted son of the Rubbles.
Daffy Duck: True to his name, this black little duck was daffy indeed, with his hair-trigger temper, enormous ego and blind covetousness. Although Daffy was popular indeed, with the introduction of Bugs Bunny a year later, he always played second fiddle. But that secondary status was in itself a great source of laughs.
Porky Pig: This adorable character, with his stuttering delivery of the famous line, “That’s All Folks!” – wonderfully given voice to, initially by Joe Dougherty, who was a stutterer himself, and subsequently by Mel Blanc – is one more all time cartoon great. He made his first appearance in 1935, and remained the favorite through the 1930s, but with the appearance of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, he lost ground. However, he remained as a popular supporting character for a long time. Porky made his last appearance in 1965, in ‘Corn on the Cop,’ where he played a secondary role to Daffy Duck.
