The Iceman Ducketh

The Iceman Ducketh is a 1964 Looney Tunes short planned by Chuck Jones and finished by Phil Monroe and Maurice Noble.

Title[]

The title refers to the 1939 play The Iceman Cometh written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill.

Plot[]

At a trading post, Daffy Duck discovers that he can trade animal furs for cash. Despite being warned that winter will come and that he is too late, Daffy runs off to catch fur in the snow. He hopes to capture Bugs Bunny for his soft coat.

Bugs, completely aware that Daffy will be hunting for him this season, builds a snowman. Daffy confuses the snowman as Bugs and beats it up until it reveals a bear, which mauls Daffy. As Daffy returns, Bugs states that his fur is indeed soft but he then smooches the duck and runs off, blocking the rifle with a carrot. The rifle explodes when Daffy tries to shoot at Bugs. Once things quiet down, Daffy realizes that there are bears hibernating in the area, but his aggressiveness angers most of the sleeping bears and gets himself caught in an avalanche, and Bugs trying to trap Daffy whenever possible doesn't help. Daffy then tries to blow up the rabbit hole with dynamite, which Bugs simply direct back at Daffy.

As Bugs runs off to hide in a tree, Daffy tries to burn the tree down, but gets himself drizzled with frozen water until he freezes completely. He then skis down a hill to ram into Bugs, and Bugs uses water that freezes into a wall that Daffy slams into. Finally, Daffy tries to roll a snowball to smash the rabbit, which misses and sends a barrage of bears at Daffy instead. Bugs wishes Daffy a good night, while Daffy, freezing and bruised, is forced up the tree with the bears sleeping under it.

Caricatures[]

• Senor Wences

Availability[]

(1992) VHS
Christmas Looney Tunes

(1997) VHS\LaserDisc
Bugs and Daffy: What's Up, Duck? (1997 dubbed version) (only in PAL regions)

(1998) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 8)

(1998) VCD
Looney Tunes VCD Compilation 2

(1999) VHS
Christmas Cartoon Capers

(2003) VHS
Christmas Collection Looney Tunes

(2010) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl (cropped to widescreen)

(2017) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature Vol. 2, Disc 1

Streaming[]

Boomerang App (2017 - 2024) (full frame HD, restored)

HBO Max (2020 - 2022) (full frame HD, restored)

Max (2024 - ) (full frame HD, restored)

Censorship[]

• On the Fox version of The Merrie Melodies Show, the syndicated version of The Merrie Melodies Show, and the version shown on the now defunct WB, two parts were cut:^[1]
  • Daffy pulling Bugs' carrot from the gun barrel after Bugs plugs it, along with Daffy getting shot and saying sarcastically, "Oooh, I LOVE him!"
  • The part after Daffy gets turned into an ice statue where Daffy climbs out of the statue, tugs on the gun that is still in there, and gets shot.
• While Fox ended the scene with Daffy stuck in his own ice sculpture after Bugs' line "See you after the spring thaw, pal!", the syndicated "Merrie Melodies" show and The WB! ended the scene after Daffy gets out of his own ice sculpture and says "We'll see who gets the last laugh around here!" right before he tugs on the gun.^[1]

Notes[]

• "The Iceman Ducketh" marks several turning points in the theatrical short series:
  • It was the last classic era cartoon worked on by Chuck Jones' unit before it was absolved (though Jones himself had been long fired by 1964, barely having worked on it; this cartoon actually came out after two of his cartoons at his new studio, Sib-Tower 12, were in theatres).
    • This was one of two cartoons Jones started worked on but was finished by Phil Monroe after he was fired, the other being Woolen Under Where (though unlike the latter, Jones did not write the script for this cartoon).
  • It marks the last Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon featuring Bugs and Daffy together until Box Office Bunny almost 27 years later in 1991.
  • It marked the starting point in turning Daffy into a more villainous role, something that would be expanded on in his cartoons with Speedy Gonzales the following year. This more violent Daffy had appeared nine years prior in Stork Naked.
• The bears' roaring sounds were archival recordings of the monster's roars from the WB live-action film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
• Clips from this cartoon were used and commentated on by John Madden and Pat Summerall in the second quarter of the 2001 Cartoon Network special The Big Game XXIX: Bugs Vs. Daffy.
• This is the first of only two cartoons to depict Daffy as a big game hunter, the other is Suppressed Duck.
• This cartoon references the Colgate toothpaste TV commercials of the 1960s; Bugs creates an "invisible shield" by throwing out a bucket of water, which freezes into a shield, into which Daffy crashes. The gag has since become an Internet meme around November 2021.
• This cartoon was used in the intro for Looney Tunes on Nick at Nite.

Gallery[]

TV Title Cards[]

References[]