June 28, 1947
Easter Yeggs is a 1947 Looney Tunes theatrical animated short. The cartoon was released on June 28, 1947, and features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. The title is a play on "Easter eggs" and on "yegg", a slang term for a burglar or safecracker. The voice and characterization of the Easter Bunny in the short is a reference to a character that Mel Blanc performed on the Burns and Allen radio show, the morose Happy Postman, even including the character's catch phrase, "Remember, keep smiling."
Storyline
Bugs Bunny finds the Easter Rabbit sitting on a rock, crying. He tells Bugs that his feet are sore, so he cannot deliver the Easter eggs. Bugs takes up the job, not knowing that he was actually tricked into doing so. Once Bugs leaves, the Easter Rabbit says that every year, he gets some "dumb bunny" to do his work for him. While skipping along merrily, Bugs pauses for a second and says, "I'm glad I don't have to do this for a living", before resuming.
The first house the "joyous bunny" visits bears a name by the door: Dead End Kid, and the mean little red-haired kid who lives inside throws the egg at Bugs' face, bites him and beats up Bugs before body slamming him on the floor. Bugs loses his cool and grabs the kid's arm. Dead End Kid screams and three huge thugs, one of which is either a man dressed as a woman or a woman with masculine features, rush in on Bugs while aiming guns at him. Bugs barely escapes the hail of bullets. The bullets even write out a message on the door "AND STAY OUT". When Bugs rushes back to the Easter Rabbit telling him he quits, the Easter Rabbit urges him to "try once more."
The next house is that of Elmer Fudd, the veteran wabbit hunter who wants to make stew out of the Easter Rabbit. Elmer sets up an elaborate welcome and, disguised as a baby, hides his gun in a bassinet and climbs in. Just then Bugs arrives, but this time he's prepared for toddler resistance: he cracks the egg in Elmer's hands. Thus commences the classic chase with Elmer building a trap hole for Bugs to fall into. Then when he fills the hole with water, Bugs emerges sitting on an inflatable life raft. Elmer chases Bugs into a hollow log and both of them come out in the fashion of a love tunnel. Elmer turns red in the face as Bugs tries to show him a magic trick involving Elmer's hat. Bugs pulls the Easter Bunny out of Fudd's fedora and pushes him back in. Then Bugs asks for Elmer's pocket watch and handkerchief, wraps the watch with the cloth, hammers it into pieces, places them into the hat, and recite the magic words, "Hocus-pocus! Alakazam! Voila!" But when he took a peek under the handkerchief, the watch is still broken into many pieces as the trick failed. Elmer points his shotgun at Bugs, but the rabbit smacks the gun away from his mouth, and says, "Of course you know, this means war!" When Bugs marches away, Elmer turns red in anger again as he begins chasing and blasting at Bugs.
The Easter Rabbit trips Bugs with a rope and gives the basket of Easter eggs to deliver again. Bugs manages to sic Dead End Kid on Elmer by painting Elmer's head to look like an Easter egg and the Kid beats Elmer on the head repeatedly with a hammer. Elmer runs away into the woods with the Kid still on his head beating him.
Finally taking care of Elmer, Bugs vows to stop involving himself with Easter eggs, until he notices the Easter Rabbit finding a large egg with a bomb inside of it. When he picks it up to finish his job, Bugs lights the fuse, proclaiming, "It's the suspense that gets me," and the bomb explodes on the Easter Rabbit, leaving the hapless hen-fruit handler hanging high up in a tree with a dopey smile on his face. Bugs says, "Remember, Doc, keep smiling!" and starts laughing.
Sound Effects Used
- Looney Tunes Carrot Munching Sound
- Looney Tunes Explosion Sound 5
- RICOCHET - CARTOON RICCO 14
- Sound Ideas, CARTOON, WHIZZ - FAST WHIZZ BY