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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Oily Hare (1952)

Oily Hare (1952)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Charles McKimson, Phil De Lara, Rod Scribner, Herman Cohen, Keith Darling
Music by Carl Stalling (uncredited)

“Oily Hare” takes place amid the Texas oil boom, along a stretch of road identified by a sign as “Hi-Way $101.00” just outside of “DOLLAR$ (FORMERLY DALLA$”) TEXA$.” A stretch limousine is cruising down the road, and it is quite a stretch – the vehicle is so long that its midsection is occupied by a switchboard operator connecting a long-distance call from the passenger to the driver.

The limousine’s passenger looks and sounds like a wealthy and barely more refined cousin of Yosemite Sam – a diminutive Texan with an oversized cowboy hat, oversized mustache and oversized temper. His driver, identified as maverick, is also vertically challenged and wears a too-large red mustache that excessively emphasizes his nose and a too-large cowboy hat atop a shock of red hair that covers his eyes. This unlikely duo notices a quiet hole amid the field of oil derricks and start working to turn into a new gusher. However, the hole is the residence of Bugs Bunny and he’s not eager to surrender his home.

“Oily Hare” retreads some of the elements of “The Fair-Haired Hare” with a new structure being built atop Bugs’ subterranean domicile and a conclusion where an attempt to blast Bugs out of the hole backfires with comic results – in this case, a stream of carrots comes pouring from the ground instead oil.

“Oily Hare” has one of the most hilarious dark comedy gags in the Bugs Bunny series, with Bugs lighting dynamite sticks and putting it on a birthday cake for the oil tycoon to blow out. The tycoon cups his hands over his face and blows into the dynamite sticks, which explode in a cloud that covers the screen. When the smoke is gone, the tycoon is seen with his hat gone and the top of his head incinerated while his hands are still cupped over his face. He slowly opens his hands to survey the damage then quickly covers it over and looks to the viewer with extreme agitation as Carl Stalling’s score strikes the musical equivalent of “Uh Oh!”