Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the 1930s and supplanted traditional "everyman" characters, such as Goofy, in popularity in the 1940s.

Origin

Daffy first appeared on April 17, 1937 in Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery with Bob Clampett being an uncredited co-director. The cartoon is a standard hunter/prey pairing for which the studio is famous, but Daffy (not more than a bit player in the short) represented something new to moviegoers: an assertive, combative protagonist, completely unrestrained and completely unrestrainable. When audiences left the theaters, they could not stop talking about (as Porky Pig puts it) "that crazy, darnfool duck."

Related Topics:
April 17 - 1937 - Porky's Duck Hunt - Tex Avery - Bob Clampett - Porky Pig

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This early Daffy is not a handsome creature; he is short and pudgy, with stubby legs and beak. His voice (performed by Mel Blanc and patterned after Warners producer Leon Schlesinger's) is about the only part of the duck that would stay with him.

Related Topics:
Mel Blanc - Leon Schlesinger

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