Ballot Box Bunny (1951)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Animation by Ken Champin, Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis,Manuel Perez
Music by Carl Stalling
Yosemite Sam is running for mayor of an unnamed town, and part of his platform is the promise “to rid this country of every last rabbit.” Needless to say, this doesn’t sit well with Bugs Bunny, who starts a rival campaign. Sam repeatedly tries to sabotage Bugs’ electioneering, but his tricks inevitably backfire badly on him. However, neither candidate prevails as the race goes to a dark horse candidate, literally – a car carrying a sign that reads “Our New Mare” features a large horse as its passenger that is cheered as the election victor by off-screen crowds. Shocked by their respective loses, Bugs and Sam opt to extinguish their disappointment with a game of Russian roulette.
“Ballot Box Bunny” wisely eschews topical political humor for old-school slapstick, although there is funny history gag with Bugs dressing up as Theodore Roosevelt to declare, “I speak softly but I carry a big stick.” This triggers one of Sam’s most hilarious lines: “Well I speak loud, and I carry a bigger stick, and I use it, too” – with the bigger stick crashed down on Bugs’ noggin.
The beauty of Sam’s repeated comeuppance is tied to his volcanic temper and infantile need for revenge – his behavior is so wildly atrocious that the viewer gets a rich guilty pleasure in witnessing him as victim of a dynamite-packed watermelon or in his stupid rush into the booby-trapped door and piano that he engineered for Bugs’ annihilation.
While the mare/mayor punny resolution of the election is a weak joke, the Russian roulette denouement offers a jolting reminder that these classic cartoons were not designed for a kiddie audience. And the vibrant execution of that potentially tasteless gag is a testament to the imagination of writer Warren Foster and director Friz Freleng to create such an original cartoon concept.