Bugs Funny

I was listening to Jazz legend Eric Dolphy today when I had a revelation: Love and appreciation for Bugs Bunny is like an immortal cosmic onion that lasts a lifetime. New layers of humor continually peel away to reveal greater depths with repeated viewings of the classic cartoon star in his world-beating element.

Anytime, anywhere, his clever grace and unparalleled comic energy will effortlessly wear down and defeat the villain in every conceivable scenario.

A classic example is 1963's "Transylvania 6-5000", wherein Bugs successfully dodges the murderous advances of Count Bloodcount. Discovering a book of spells, Bugs recites a litany of magic words that transform the Count into a series of ridiculously non-threatening creatures from a raggedy bat to Witchy-Poo. In a scene we're all familiar with, Bugs roams the halls of the Count's castle humming wordlessly to himself ending each phrase with a magic word or two like "abracadabra" or "hocus pocus".

I've been watching Bugs Bunny cartoons since I was a toddler. But it wasn't until this afternoon when I was listening to Eric Dolphy that I realized Bugs is humming the tune from "It's Magic", a hit song for Doris Day in 1948. It was there all along, a magical musical in-joke embedded in the animation for half a century just waiting for me to get it.