Bugs Bunny is Bested

Bugs Bunny cartoons in which another character defeats him.

“8 Ball Bunny”

Bugs Bunny comes across a penguin. After swearing he would help the penguin get home (after regretting making him cry), he finds out that penguins come from the South Pole. He helps the penguin reach the Antarctic, going through hell and high water to do so, only to learn when he finally gets there that this was a domesticated performing penguin who lived in Hoboken, and he just dragged him several thousand miles for nothing. It would be just a regular Shaggy Dog Story, except that the usually calm, impossible-to-beat Bugs suffers a mental breakdown because of it.

“Baton Bunny”

Bugs is getting ready to conduct “The Warner Bros. Symphony Orchestra” (supposedly in concert at the Hollywood Bowl). When he finishes his elaborate preparation, he starts to conduct. However, several problems plague Bugs’ conducting, notably a bothersome fly, and some awkward cuffs that keep falling off. Bugs attempts to kill the fly, crashing into the orchestra and the instruments as he does so. As the music comes to a stop, Bugs bows for the crowd, and instead of applause, hears only silence and crickets chirping. Bugs looks around to see that the seats are empty and the crowd has gone, though he does hear some faint clapping — coming from the fly. Bugs bows to the fly and the episode ends.

“Captain Hareblower”

Pirate Yosemite Sam spots another ship and demands its surrender. All of the crewmen abandon ship after they exclaim in horror of “Pirate Sam”, leaving only Bugs Bunny, a stowaway in a box full of carrots, who finds “Pirate Sam” does not sound very intimidating. Bugs then looks at the other ship. Sam said to surrender. Bugs refuses to give up (having “never hoid the woid” before) and a battle ensues (“So you’ll have to try and take this ship!”). Eventually, Sam gives one more warning when Bugs throws a lit match into the powder room. Sam rushes to get it and puts it out. He mentioned that if Bugs throws another match in to the room he is not going after it. To which Bugs throws another lit match down there. Sam stood there not going down just as he promised, but he decide to do it, much too late. Then the whole ship blows up and Sam lands on Bugs’ ship. With his ship destroyed, Sam grabs the matchbox and does the same thing that Bugs did to him. Sam demands he go and get the match but Bugs refuses to get it. Panicking, Sam swims back to shore. But he didn’t realize that it was the women’s powder room. And to which Bugs said, “Talcum powder doesn’t blow up”. Which then there was an explosion and we see Bugs flying up with the pieces of the ship saying, “Well, I could be wrong you know”, as the cartoon closes.

“Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare”

Bugs, dressed as a doctor, goes up against the Tasmanian Devil. In the last hijink, Bugs leaves Taz to “operate” on a patient: the robotic Frankenstein’s monster. The monster beats up Taz, then, in a backfiring moment, chases Bugs. It ends with Bugs being beaten up by the monster off stage and both the dazed Bugs and Taz staggering back onscreen, bruised and wrapped in bandages while Bugs groans: “Is there a doctor in the house? Huh, is there?”

“Falling Hare”

A gremlin in a WWII airplane.

“Hare Brush”

The tycoon Elmer Fudd tricks BB into trading places; BB is arrested for EF’s tax evasion.

“Hold the Lion, Please”

BB vs. a lion. The lion has Bugs at his mercy, but has to leave suddenly to answer to his wife. Bugs ridicules the lion’s apparent submissiveness, but we soon see that he has someone to answer to as well: his own wife, who sends Bugs slinking into the rabbit hole while “Mrs. Bugs Bunny” (according to the arrow pointing to her) shows the audience that she “wears the pants in this family.”

“Rabbit Rampage”

Elmer Fudd animates (and humiliates) BB. A sequel to “Duck Amuck”, where BB animates Daffy Duck.

“Rabbit Transit”

While relaxing in a steam bath, Bugs reads about the original fable and, as he did reading the credits of “Tortoise Beats Hare”, becomes incensed at the idea of a turtle outrunning a rabbit. Cecil, also in the steam bath, claims that he could outrun Bugs, prompting Bugs to challenge him to a race. Cecil quickly reveals that his shell is now rocket propelled, allowing him to go a surprising combination between fast and slow. Bugs does his best to steal, dismantle, and destroy the device, but all to little effect. In the end, however, Bugs does manage to cross the finish line first. Nevertheless, Cecil has the last laugh when he rooks the rabbit into confessing to “doing 100 easy” — in a 30 miles per hour speed zone. Bugs is taken away by the police to enjoy his victory — behind bars. Cecil closes the cartoon by famously saying, “Ain’t I a…um…stinker?”.

“Rebel Rabbit”

Having found out that the bounty for rabbits is only 2 cents, BB intends to prove that rabbits are tough — even if he has to be ‘more obnoxious than anybody’. Eventually, the bounty for BB specifically is $1,000,000, the whole U.S. Army comes after him, and he wonders, “Could it be that I carried this thing too far?”. It ends with him in a prison cell on Alcatraz Island where he admits: “Ehhh, could be.”

“Rhapsody Rabbit”

BB is a concert pianist trying to play The Hungarian Rhapsody. Near the beginning a mouse appears and pesters Bugs the rest of the way. Bugs turns the final page, which consist of scrambled, quick playing, nearly impossible to read notes. Preparing to play the intense part, he is startled to hear the frenzied finalé playing behind him. It is the mouse, complete with tie and tails, playing a toy piano that plays like a normal piano. Cut back to Bugs after the full-orchestra finalé, and he disgustedly plays the three single notes that actually end the piece, and then mutters inaudible profanity which can be lip-read.

“Tortoise Beats Hare”

Cecil the Turtle outraces BB, with help from Cecil’s cousins.

“Tortoise Wins by a Hare”

Cecil tricks BB to win a race.

“What’s Opera, Doc?”

Elmer Fudd, as the demigod Siegfried, “kills the wabbit” (although the ‘dead’ BB makes a comment to end the cartoon).

Honorable mentions

“Haredevil Hare”

BB is launched to the moon. Marvin the Martian also lands, planning to blow up planet Earth using a Uranium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator. After various hijinks, Bugs rigs the the Uranium PU-36 to a detonator. Bugs activates the detonator, blowing up the moon in the process. The moon is reduced to a crescent (from which Bugs and Marvin hang precariously). Earth contacts Bugs Bunny, asking for a statement to the press. Bugs screams “GET ME OUTTA HERE!”

“Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt”

BB vs. Elmer Fudd as Hiawatha. BB foils Hiawatha, as usual; however, in the closing gag, the miffed-looking Hiawatha suddenly returns, and after a second of wordless staring at each other, Hiawatha gives Bugs the “insulting kiss” that the BB usually bestows on others. Hiawatha then paddles away again, as Bugs “spits out” the kiss at the iris-out.

“Rabbit Hood”

BB vs. the Sheriff of Nottingham in Sherwood Forest. BB does crushingly defeat the Sheriff. However, repeatedly Little John appears, announces that “Robin Hood will soon be here” — and Robin Hood doesn’t appear. Finally BB is fed up and mocks Little John; Little John tells Bugs not to “Talk mean like that”, and Robin indeed appears (played by Errol Flynn, in live-action footage from The Adventures of Robin Hood). Bugs however doubts that it’s him. — Suggested by Mike Miller

“The Unmentionables”

Bugs Bunny (as agent “Elegant Mess”) goes toe-to-toe with Rocky and Mugsy. After many hijinks, Bug apprehends Rocky and Mugsy and takes them to the State Prison. Rocky and Mugsy are then sentenced by the court to spend twenty years of hard labor. As they’re hammering away on the rocks, we see in the final shot that Bugs is joining them in the sentence, as the narrator explains that Bugs had lost the keys to the handcuffs.

“What’s Up, Doc?”

The story begins when Bugs, while relaxing at his pool, gets a call from a local reporter stating that the public demands his life story. Bugs then proceeds to recount his rise to fame over the phone. Early in his career he appears in many shows; in all of them, he’s part of the chorus, singing the same song: “Oh! We’re the boys of the chorus. We hope you like our show. We know you’re rootin’ for us. But, now we have to go.”

The story reverts to the present day. Bugs looks at his watch and notices that he is late for filming a part that was written with him in mind. At the filming, it is revealed that the part is chorus boy, much to Bugs’ chagrin. Bugs and the chorus sing: “Oh! We’re the boys of the chorus. We hope you like our show. We know you’re rootin’ for us. But, now we have to go.”

“Yankee Doodle Bugs”

BB tutors his nephew Clyde in (a fractured version of) American history. Bugs rushes Clyde off to school, saying: “And don’t forget what I told ya!” Later in the day, Clyde returns home with a sour look on his face and Bugs asks him: “Well, Clyde! How did you make out on your history exam?” Clyde puts a “Dunce cap” on his head and asks: “Does THIS answer your question?”