Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is the deuteragonist and anti-hero of the animated series Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. He is the arch-rival and occasionally best friend of Bugs Bunny.

Biography
Daffy Duck is Bugs Bunny's best friend, but however, he is sometimes his rival.

He also has a former girlfriend named Melissa Duck and has a new girlfriend named Tina Russo Duck.

Daffy first appeared on April 17, 1937 in "Porky's Duck Hunt", directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett. The cartoon is a standard hunter/prey pairing for which Leon Schlesinger's studio was famous, but Daffy (barely more than an unnamed bit player in this short) was something new to moviegoers: an assertive, completely unrestrained, combative protagonist. Bob later recalled: "At that time, audiences weren't accustomed to seeing a cartoon character do these things. And so, when it hit the theaters it was an explosion. People would leave the theaters talking about this daffy duck."

This early Daffy is less anthropomorphic and resembles a "normal" duck, being short and pudgy, with stubby legs and a beak. The only aspects of the character that have remained consistent through the years are his voice (provided by Mel Blanc) and his black feathers with a white neck ring. Mel's voice for Daffy holds the world record for the longest voice-acting of one animated character by his/her original actor: 52 years.

The origin of Daffy's voice is a matter of some debate. One often-repeated "official" story is that it was modeled after producer Schlesinger's tendency to lisp. However, in Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All, Folks!, he contradicts that conventional belief, writing, "It seemed to me that such an extended mandible would hinder his speech, particularly on words containing an s sound. Thus 'despicable' became 'dethpicable.'"

In "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" (1950), Daffy has a middle name, Dumas, as the screenwriter of a swashbuckling script, a nod to Alexandre Dumas. Also, in the Baby Looney Tunes episode "The Tattletale", Granny addresses Daffy as "Daffy Horacio Tiberius Duck." In The Looney Tunes Show (2011), the joke middle names "Armando" and "Sheldon" are used.

Daffy's slobbery, exaggerated lisp was developed over time, and it is barely noticeable in the early cartoons. In "Daffy Duck & Egghead," Daffy does not lisp at all except in the separately drawn set-piece of Daffy singing "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" in which just a slight lisp can be heard.

In Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Daffy is sick of Bugs and goes on an adventure with DJ to battle The ACME Company and save DJ's father, but his real purpose of coming is to get the Blue Monkey diamond.

When the Warner Bros. animation studio briefly outsourced cartoon production to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE) in the 1960s, Daffy Duck became an antagonist (or inconsistent friend) in several Speedy Gonzalescartoons, where his mean spirit is taken to extremes. In these years Daffy was transformed into a disturbingly nasty and bitter character with little to no good character traits present in him.

For example, in "Well Worn Daffy" (1965), Daffy is determined to keep the mice away from a desperately needed well seemingly for no other motive than pure maliciousness. Furthermore, when he draws all the water he wants, Daffy then attempts to destroy the well in spite of the vicious pointlessness of the act, forcing Speedy to stop him. In "Assault and Peppered" (1965) he whipped poor Mexican mice for (starving) on (his) property. in "Go Go Amigo" (1965) he threatens a local radio station at gunpoint so that Speedy and his friends couldn't listen to music at Daffy's electronics store.

The last cartoon featuring Daffy and Speedy is "See Ya Later Gladiator", which has been negatively received by fans of the Warner Bros. cartoons. The Warner Bros. animation studio was entering its twilight years, and even Daffy had to stretch for humor in the period. It is worth mentioning, though, that in many of the later DFE cartoons, such as "Feather Finger" and "Daffy's Diner," Daffy is portrayed as a more sympathetic character rather than the full-blown villain he is in cartoons like "Well Worn Daffy" and Assault and Peppered.

Trivia

 * Despite being the deuteragonist of the series, Daffy is a supporting character in Space Jam and he was the main protagonist of Duck Dodgers.