A Spear AND Magic Helmet!: A cartoon ‘pregnant’ with meaning

a.k.a. Sometimes a man thrusting a spear into a hole is just a man thrusting a spear into a hole.

Back in February of ’07, I lamented on the revelation that I’ve stopped learning. I wept at the thought that great swaths of knowledge were no longer being opened before my eyes.

That was a bit dramatic.

Because every now and then, I still am amazed at the way some things I’ve been looking at my whole life, once I tilt my head, look completely different.

Enter Bugs Bunny.

When I watched the cartoon “What’s Opera, Doc?” back in the late seventies I thought, it was a sneaky way, for adults to make us kids appreciate opera. I had seen Fantasia and I might or might not have gotten the whole jab at Disney’s masterpiece.

But recently, some 30 odd years later, I tilted my head.

Much in the same way I once saw Star Wars as a modern day Wizard of Oz, I suddenly saw implication and innuendo in “What’s Opera, Doc?”

Let’s recap.

The year is 1957.

You can’t say crap, poop, wankle rotary engine, or many other things on TV. You can’t even say ‘pregnant’.

You can say ‘the rabbit died.’

Am I the only one to think, now that I go back and watch this cartoon, that one of these writers got a mistress pregnant and wanted to kill her? Or perhaps was tricked into a homosexual affair and wanted revenge?

Here’s Elmer, decked out as the demigod Siegfried in his phallus shaped armor and ‘magic helmet’ (hrumph) casting a huge shadow exaggerating his size and prowess setting up unreasonable performance expectations.

Then, as he works himself into a blind frenzy, he proceeds to thrust his ‘spear’ repeatedly into a hole while chanting rhythmically, “Kill the wabbit, Kill the wabbit!”

We find out after Bugs appears from another hole that he’s thrust his spear into the ‘wrong hole’. (*cough*Freudian*cough*)

Fudd continues in his rage explaining he’s going to “Kill the wabbit” with his ‘spear and magic helmet!”

"Spear and magic helmet?"
"Spear and magic helmet!"
"Magic helmet?"
"Magic helmet!"

The rabbit belittles the ‘magic helmet’ which drives Fudd into a rage. (If you can’t see this Freudian slip you aren’t looking.)

Fudd uses all the powers of his ‘magic helmet’ to call forth lightning a destroy a tree.

The rabbit gets away.

Act II

The rabbit, displaying a penchant for cross dressing, appears dressed as the Valkyrie Brunhilde riding astride a rather large horse.

The horse displays it’s hindquarters, a mating display, to Fudd while the Valkyrie walks ‘her’ fingers across it’s buttocks.

Fudd is rendered ‘smitten’ and dances about like a gay ballet dancer.

He beckons the transvestite over and begins swooning over ‘him’.

The rabbit mounts a pole.

Fudd climbs a mountain (again, Freudian) to get to Brunhilde all the while professing his love to, what he thinks, is a woman.

When he reaches the top, he embraces the transvestite and ‘her’ fake hair falls off.

Enraged at his betrayal, Fudd races to the top of the mountain to exact vengeance on the cross dressing rabbit. He uses his ‘magic helmet’ to call down lightning to kill the wabbit.

Fudd then races down to a parapet to witness the cross dresser, naked and broken, laying on a rock while some sort of ‘white liquid’ drips onto his face. (*cough*)

Shocked from the realization that the implication of the dead rabbit means his previous life of heterose…. Um…Hunting and adventure is over…he carries the limp body off into an unknown future.

This is the only Looney Tunes where Bugs (the rabbit) dies.

Just before the end, Bugs pops alive and asks, “What did you expect? A happy ending?”

Given the overwhelming references to unintended pregnancy and impending fatherhood, the similarity to modern day slang for a commitment free erotic massage technique is assumed to be coincidental…or is it?

In celebration of #914 “Mark off list day” (I need to come up with a better name), I’m marking two things I accomplished in the last couple of weeks in addition to two things I’ll be accomplishing this weekend.

#688 Own an air hockey table – Accomplished 9/17

#689 Own a pool table. – Accomplished 9/17

#883 See an Arkansas Razorbacks game in person – Will accomplish 10/4

#905 See the Passion Play in Eureka Springs, AR – Will accomplish 10/5