My Dick Twacy Hat

When the time of year for candy egg hunts and chocolate bunnies rolls around, cartoon fans rush to talk about Bob McKimson’s “Easter Yeggs” (1947). Well, let’s face it, who really cares about faux Disney forest animals (like the ones in Lantz’s “The Egg Cracker Suite”) when some psychopathic kid is bashing Elmer Fudd’s egg-painted bald head with a hammer?

A cute little bit is when Elmer digs a trap for Bugs. “I can’t miss with my Dick Twacy hat,” he tells us, and flips up the brim to emphasize his point.



Bugs, conned by the Easter Bunny (Bugs tends to be an unwitting victim in too many of McKimson’s shorts) into delivering eggs, falls in the hole. Love the brush strokes.



The unusually-vicious Elmer tries to drown Bugs by filling the hole with water. In a nicely-timed series of drawings, Bugs unexpectedly emerges in an inflatable raft. Elmer stretches out of camera range.



The water from Elmer’s hose creates a stream through a log. The chase is on and ends in an inevitable Tunnel of Love scene. How many times was that used in a Warners cartoon? (Cal Howard even borrowed it for Columbia’s “Wacky Quacky”)



Only Bick Bickenbach, Chuck McKimson and Izzy Ellis get credited on this cartoon. The foliage is by Dick Thomas.