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This article is for a character that is approved as a Silly Pure Evil example, meaning they are a character that fits the criteria for Pure Evil while being consistently played for laughs. |
| NOTE: This article only covers Bugs Bunny's characterization in "Rebel Rabbit", as his mainstream incarnation was not voted Pure Evil. |
| “ | Hare! Die! Hair Dye! That's a joke, son! You missed it! Admit it, son! I'm too fast for ya! | „ |
| ~ Bugs mocking the Congressman after the latter considers him worthy of death. |
| “ | A million bucks? Now, that's more like it! Bugs Bunny, King of the Beasts! [thumps his chest passionately while he screams out a Tarzan yell] | „ |
| ~ Bugs after seeing his $1,000,000 bounty on a sign as intended. |
Bugs Bunny is the titular main protagonist of the 1949 Merrie Melodies short Rebel Rabbit.
In contrast to the mainstream incarnation of the gray hare, who is typically portrayed as a mischievous, yet ultimately well-meaning anti-hero, this version of Bugs is an anarchic, sadistic, petty egotist willing to cause feats of mass destruction in an effort to prove that rabbits can be just as “obnoxious” as anyone else.
He was voiced by the late Mel Blanc.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Although he claims that rabbits being given a two-cent bounty due to their perceived innocence was a form of discrimination, he is not an extremist as he was the only rabbit legitimately offended by it.
- At the end of the film, he selfishly celebrates when individually getting a $1,000,000 bounty, proving that he never cared about other rabbits in any way.
- After arguing with a game commissioner, he assaulted him by hitting with a ballpoint pen before proclaiming his intention to go on a massive crime spree to prove that rabbits can be just as "obnoxious" as anyone else.
- To start off his crime spree, he assaulted a security guard with a baseball bat before vandalizing a private bench.
- He vandalized or destroyed several national monuments and places during his spree:
- He covered the Washington Monument in stripes and wrote "BUGS BUNNY WUZ HERE" on the side.
- He rewired the lights in Times Square to say "BUGS BUNNY WUZ HERE".
- He shut off the water in Niagara Falls.
- He sold Manhattan Island back to the Native Americans.
- While giving land back to the Native Americans would sound like a good deed to many, Bugs admitted to the audience that they actually wouldn't take Manhattan until he threw in a set of dishes, so he didn't do it for their sake.
- He swiped the locks off the Panama Canal.
- He filled the Grand Canyon with sand.
- Using a hand saw, he detached the entire state of Florida from the United States, causing it to drift away in the ocean and thus endangering its population.
- After doing this, he tells South America to "take it away", implying that the state would eventually crash into the aforementioned continent.
- To close off his foray in crime, he tied up railroad tracks into a knot, derailing the trains on them in the process.
- One of the trains derailed was a passenger train, heavily insinuating that lives were lost or threatened by the act.
- When an outraged congressman demands to see him punished, Bugs sadistically mocked him by claiming he was "too fast" for him to stop.
- After seeing his $1,000,000 bounty, Bugs proudly boasts that he is the "King of the Beasts" before subsequently causing a war to start, leading to him being arrested and taken to Alcatraz Island for his crimes.
- Although he claims and admits that he likely "went too far" with what he wanted and how it carried it at the end of the short, this isn't indicative of genuine remorse as he was only a little upset over being punished and not the damage he caused (and handling this result rather too nonchalantly), and the way he casually accepts this fate with being imprisoned, means he couldn't care less of the crimes he had committed throughout.
- While his fate of being put in Alcatraz is horrible, it is not played for sympathy in the slightest and it is well deserved.
- While Looney Tunes is rather very comedic (with too many villains/antagonists such as Elmer Fudd, Dan Backslide, Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, even those who had passed the baseline such as Daffy, Sylvester, Marvin, Mr. Chairman and even The Invader, from multiple different continuities from the franchise that are usually shown to be either far too humorous, bumbling and/or full of redeeming qualities too detracting and inconsistent for this wiki let alone Near Pure Evil), none of the jokes Bugs provides in-universally detract from the fact Bugs' actions here are still exceptionally played with gravitas, with the congressman being repulsed by his horrendous deeds and sending the entire U.S. military to detain him.
Trivia[]
- Bugs Bunny from Rebel Rabbit is (so far) the only Looney Tunes villain to be Pure Evil, unless Judge Doom counts as another since Who Framed Roger Rabbit? features some Looney Tunes characters.
External Links[]
- Bugs Bunny on the Villains Wiki
