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Daffy Dumas Duck (middle name retconned as Sheldon in The Looney Tunes Show) is an animated cartoon character featured in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend or arch-rival of Bugs Bunny. Introduced in the 1937 Porky Pig short Porky's Duck Hunt, Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who were more popular earlier in the decade. Daffy appeared in 129 shorts in the Golden Age of Animation, making him the third most frequently-appearing character in the series, behind Porky Pig's 152 and Bugs Bunny's 166 appearances.

Virtually every Warner Bros. cartoon director put their own spin on Daffy, who could be a lunatic vigilante in one short or a greedy glory-hound in another. Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones both made extensive use of these two very different versions of the character. In 2002, Daffy was voted #14 on TV Guide's list of the Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters.

Appearances in Christmas specials[]

Daffy oddly did not appear in any Looney Tunes Christmas productions until 2002, when the infant version of him from the television spin-off Baby Looney Tunes appeared in that series' Christmas episode, "Christmas in July".

Bugs and Daffy in Bah Humduck

Daffy with Bugs in Bah, Humduck!

The fully-grown Daffy later had the starring role in the 2006 direct-to-video special Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas. In this adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Daffy is the Ebenezer Scrooge-like owner of the Lucky Duck Megastore who is incredibly wealthy but also nasty to his employees, including his assistant manager, Porky Pig. But on Christmas Eve, the ghost of Sylvester the greedy investor appears and warns Daffy that if he does not change his ways, he will end up the same way he did. That night, Daffy, along with Bugs, ends up getting trapped inside the store overnight due to being snowed in. Over the course of the special, he is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (played by Granny and Tweety), Present (Yosemite Sam), and Future (the Tasmanian Devil), who show him the importance of family at the holidays and how, if he refuses to change his ways, no one will mourn him when he is gone. After seeing all this, Daffy becomes a nicer person and gives his employees all the things they've wanted, and Porky's daughter Priscilla invites him to spend Christmas with them.

Daffy about to eat Santa's cookies

Daffy about to eat the cookies that Porky left for Santa in "A Christmas Carol".

As one of the main characters in The Looney Tunes Show, Daffy also has a prominent role in the Christmas episode, "A Christmas Carol". When the town is hit by a heat wave in the middle of December, Daffy accompanies Foghorn Leghorn to the North Pole to set up a giant fan that's supposed to blow cold air down to their sweltering town. However, this task proves to be harder than either of them expected, and Daffy soon runs into a cave that, from his perspective, appears to be Santa Claus' workshop. Upon returning home, however, Daffy learns from the video he'd recorded of the experience that he had actually been hallucinating and wandered into a polar bear's cave. Later, he and Foghorn go to see Lola Bunny's stage play of (an in-name-only version of) A Christmas Carol. Upon leaving the theater, Daffy and Foghorn learn that their efforts to cool down the city were not in vain, as it is now snowing because Santa found and plugged in their giant fan.

Daffy and Porky become elves

Daffy and Porky become elves in Bugs Bunny's 24-Carrot Holiday Special.

Daffy's most recent Christmas production was Bugs Bunny's 24-Carrot Holiday Special, a special Christmas-themed installment of HBO Max's Looney Tunes Cartoons. His segment, "Elf Help", has him and Porky traveling to the North Pole to save Christmas and inadvertently replacing Santa's elves when they go on strike.

Notes[]

  • Daffy was planned to star in a Christmas-themed short titled A Very Daffy Christmas, which was to be part of Larry Doyle's short-lived Looney Tunes revival shorts. In it, Daffy would accidentally arrive at the North Pole when trying to fly south for the winter.

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