High Diving Hare

A hilarious Friz Freleng directed Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam short finds Yosemite Sam trying to get Bugs Bunny to perform in his high diving show after his star atraction can't make the show. What follows with Bugs tricking Sam to dive again and again is vintage Looney Tune style antics that will make you cry with laughter. Quite possibly my favorite Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam paring and that's no mean feat! This cartoon is uncut (so you get quite a few more jokes that you would have missed if you caught it playing in syndication) on the 'Looney Tunes Golden Collection' on disk 1. It has commentary & featurette.

My Grade: A+

"Due to an unfortunate delay," announces the barker, Bugs Bunny, "Fearless Freep will be unable to perform his high-diving act today." But Yosemite Sam had bought out the house just to see Freep. If Freep isn't going to dive, someone else will just have to. And that someone is going to be Bugs Bunny. Bugs is no high diver; but at gunpoint, he'll have to take his first-ever 500-ft. jump into a tank of water. Or will he? Yosemite Sam will find himself tricked into doing the dive himself—many times—before realizing that no matter what he does, Bugs's blissful ignorance of physics will always save him.

Friz Freleng said he took a big chance on this one-joke idea. It paid off big time. You've got to love this parody of human nature, as represented by Sam. The little bully doesn't get his way, so he takes it out on the closest person at hand. And of course—of course!—he gets outraged when his victim refuses to be bullied. Bugs's own heroic brand of stubbornness only inspires Sam to redouble and requadruple his efforts. Oh, and don't you love what Sam does the first time he tries to force Bugs off the diving board—and thinks he's succeeded? He feels sorry!

But not for long. If the bullies of the world are Yosemite Sams, why can't the rest of us be Bugs Bunnys?

This short is available on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1.

This is a classic Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon and one of the all time greats of the Warner Brothers shorts collection. The plot is this: Yosemite Sam is eager to see the star of the high-diving act, Fearless Freep. When Freep fails to show, he forces the fast-talking usher, Bugs Bunny, to perform the act instead of Fearless Freep. Bugs is extremely reluctant, but Yosemite Sam leaves him with no choice.

He and Sam chase hilariously chase each other around stage, up and down the tall high-diving ladder, and through various classic, anvil-dropping, TNT-exploding Warner Brothers gags, Bugs eventually, as always, comes out on top.

"High Diving Hare" epitomizes the phrase "They don't make 'em like they used to." It features Bugs Bunny hosting a high-diving act when he learns that the performer can't arrive. Incensed, Yosemite Sam - who'd earlier bought about 100 tickets - orders Bugs to dive at gunpoint. But Bugs tricks Sam into diving. When Bugs tries to continue the show, Sam once again orders Bugs up the ladder. But no matter how many times he tries, Sam always ends up diving; Bugs Bunny has some great tricks up his sleeve. And that end scene was a real hoot.

I said it before and I'll say it again: the people who created the classic Looney Tunes cartoons were real geniuses.

Classic Bugs Bunny short directed by Friz Freleng with a story by Tedd Pierce. This is one of the Bugs cartoons I saw most as a little kid because it was on a compilation video that my teacher would play on rainy days when we couldn't go out for recess. It's brilliantly simple as it's basically one gag done over and over but, trust me, it never stops being funny. The premise is that Bugs is working as a barker for a show where there's a high diving act. When the diver doesn't show up for the performance, angry audience member Yosemite Sam tries to force Bugs at gunpoint to perform the act himself. What follows is Bugs repeatedly outsmarting Sam, resulting in Sam being the one to do the dive. Like I said, it's one gag but it's done a little different each time and never gets old. The animation is gorgeous. I especially love the colors. Excellent voice work from the great Mel Blanc. Carl Stalling's music is exciting and fun. It's a hilarious cartoon that every Looney Tunes fan should see. For my money it's one of the best Bugs and Sam shorts ever made.