Who Bopped Bugs Bunny? is the 50th episode of Tiny Toon Adventures. It was written by Paul Dini, Earl Kress, and Sherri Stoner, and Directed by Kent Butterworth. Its title is a reference to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Plot
The episode begins with Sappy Stanley building a robot copy of himself while watching the Bugs Bunny cartoon, Knighty Knight Bugs. Bugs' award ceremony is tonight and Stanley plans to rig the show.
Pepé Le Pew appears at Bugs Bunny's award ceremony as the host. He welcomes both the Looney and Tiny Toons, who appear in the audience of the ceremony. The Tiny Toons are at the very top of the balcony, unable to get a good view of the stage. Hamton is hungry, and Buster and Babs go get some snacks for him.
Backstage, Pete Puma checks on Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Daffy is jealous of both Bugs' 1959 Shloscar award and the fact that Bugs is getting another award that night. Sappy Stanley is also getting ready backstage, but to get his revenge on Bugs Bunny. He spray-paints a fake award and sends his robot copy onstage to talk to Daffy Duck, whom only Plucky and Hamton cheer on. As Stanley's robot copy talks to Daffy, he slips the fake award in Daffy's pocket. The real Stanley disguises himself as a female so he could sneak offstage undetected. He charges through Buster and Babs on their way back to their seats, with a large pile of snacks in hand. Stanley sneaks into Bugs' dressing room and knocks Bugs out with his 1959 Shloscar. As Pete checks on Bugs, he finds out that Bugs is missing and the police rushes over.
On France's news network, it was revealed that Daffy Duck had been framed and arrested for the crime of kidnapping Bugs and stealing his prized Shloscar. Buster vows that he and his friends will not leave Paris until they find Bugs.
In the second act, the Tiny Toons know that Daffy was innocent. Plucky takes Hamton with him to help break Daffy out of jail. Buster and Babs decide to solve the mystery by interviewing Stanley, as he was the toon closest to the scene of the crime.
Stanley is in his mansion, watching his cartoons. He notices Buster and Babs at his door, and gives them his autographed pictures and sock trunks. Buster and Babs tell them that they are not fans, but want to talk to him about Bugs' disappearance. Stanley refuses to be interviewed, as he doesn't want them to find out that he was the one responsible for Bugs' disappearance. They dress in trenchcoats and pester him, so he kicks them out.
Meanwhile, Plucky and Hamton disguises themselves as ninjas in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Daffy. They get detected, arrested, and put in the same cell as Daffy. Daffy, ungrateful that they tried to rescue them, tells them, "Nice try, nin-jerks!" Plucky whispers to Hamton, "Next semester, I'm getting Foghorn for my mentor."
Buster and Babs search the theater to see if there are any clues there. They look inside the janitor's office, where the dress Stanley used for his disguise was. They also notice a secret passage in between the janitor's office and Bugs' dressing room, so they decide to interview Stanley again.
Stanley is at Acme Studios, preparing for his next cartoon. As the cartoon is being filmed, Buster and Babs interview Stanley about the dress they found. Stanley tells them that the dress is his mother's and that she told him about it after the show. They ask him if they could talk to his mother about the case, and he tells them she's at his mansion. He is suddenly worried that they might find out, so he disguises himself as his mother and uses a machine to disguise his voice. At his mansion, dressed as his mother, he tells them that they ruined the dress. He tells them, "I had to dress in the janitor's office and miss my sonny boy's whole show!". Buster and Babs give up, as Stanley couldn't be in two places at once.
In the third act, Buster is still sure that Stanley is guilty. He wishes that they could find out more information about him, and Babs points to a theater that shows a movie documentary about him, entitled, The Sappy Stanley Story.
It was revealed in Stanley's life story, that as a baby, Stanley discovered he had the ability to make others laugh, as proven by chimpanzees laughing at him after throwing coconuts at his head. Throughout the 50's, Stanley starred in such cartoons as Two Chimps and a Blimp, Fat Fool Follies, Stanley Gets a Headache, and Which Way to the Arctic?, many of which involved him getting hit by coconut-throwing chimpanzees. Which Way to Arctic? was nominated for the Hollywood Shloscar in 1959, but lost to Knighty Knight Bugs. Outraged, Stanley moved to Paris, where he became a national star (similar to the career of Jerry Lewis), but slowly began building up his revenge against Bugs Bunny.
Buster and Babs meet Stanley at the theater, and tell him that they know about the trap door he used to sneak offstage, and the robot copy that was onstage as he snuck away. They reveal that they also had robot copies during Stanley's interview, as they knew that Stanley Built his robot copy from the Acme Do-It-Youself Robot Kit. They find out that he sneaked a fake award in Daffy's pocket to frame him for the crime. The real Shloskar was in his trunk. Stanley tries to head back to his mansion, but Buster and Babs catch up to him. They find out that Stanley had kidnapped Bugs and forced him to watch his cartoons. They rescue him and return his prized Shloskar, and Stanley is arrested.
On their way back to Acme Acres, Buster gets the feeling they forgot something. Plucky, Hamton, and Daffy are still in jail and are stuck making License plates with Stanley. After making a license plate that says, "THE END", Daffy says, "This ending is despicable!"
Cast
| Voice Actors: | Character(s): |
| Charlie Adler | Buster Bunny, Buster Robot |
| Tress MacNeille | Babs Bunny, Babs Robot |
| Joe Alaskey | Plucky Duck, Narrator |
| Don Messick | Hamton J. Pig |
| Jeff Bergman | Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck |
| Jonathan Winters | Sappy Stanley, Stanley Robot |
| Greg Burson | Pépe Le Pew |
| Stan Freberg | Pete Puma |
| Mel Blanc | Bugs Bunny (Archive recording) |
Quotes
- Bugs (in the cartoon, Knighty Knight Bugs) "Farewell to thee!"
- Stanley: "And Farewell to thee, you scene-stealing rabbit!"
- Stanley: "I'm so slap-happy sappy!"
- Plucky: "Daffy wouldn't swipe Bugs' Shloscar, no matter how much he deserved it!"
- Stanley: "Now where is that cheesecake?"
- Stanley: "Are you trying to tell me how to do the coconut gag? Let me tell you something, mister, I was doing the coconut gag before you were born! I invented the coconut gag, you got that? I taught this country how to laugh!"
- Stanley: "American cinema is nothing more than brain pudding for the common rabble. You and your precious rabbit deserve each other!"
- Bugs (tied up and being forced to watch marathons of Stanley cartoons as Buster and Babs come to rescue him): "I'm only three and a half years old."
Allusions
- This episode, specifically the title, is a parody of the 1988 Disney/Spielberg film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Interestingly, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? actually had cameo appearances by many classic Looney Tunes characters.
- Sappy Stanley, the main antagonist of this episode, is a parody of Terrytoons' cartoon character, Sidney the Elephant, AKA Silly Sidney. In 1958, the Silly Sidney cartoon, Sidney's Family Tree was nominated for the Oscar award, but lost to Knighty Knight Bugs.
- When conducting the investigation, Buster and Babs dress and act like Columbo from the mystery show of the same name.
Trivia
- Furrball appears alongside Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton in the beginning of this episode, but later in the episode, he is nowhere to be seen.
- In the Season 2 episode, Buster And Babs Go Hawaiian, Buster doesn't like riding on airplanes because he gets motion sickness. In this episode, Buster is perfectly calm on the airplane and shows no sign of motion sickness.
- After Stanley crashes into his mansion, he loses all his attire, except for his goggles.
- The character of Sappy Stanley was designed by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi, the famed creator of Ren & Stimpy. Kricfalusi received no credit for his design.
- Looney Tunes character Henery Hawk is seen in the audience in the beginning trying to eat Foghorn Leghorn, bust is mistakenly colored yellow like Tweety instead of his usual brown.
Transcript
- To read the transcript for this episode, click here.
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