Hare Conditioned

Plot

Bugs is on display in the "Stacey's Department Store" window, helping to advertise camping gear. After closing time, Bugs retires to have a well-earned carrot. The store manager appears and informs Bugs that since the summer sale's over, he's being transferred to another department, which Bugs puzzles over ("tax-ee-doy-mee?") The man tells the rabbit he will look splendid... after he has been "stuffed". Right after Bugs does what he thinks could be a suitable pose, he ponders this for a second. Upon realizing that the manager intends to cut him open to be "stuffed," Bugs screams and begins a cartoon-long chase.

The manager then chases Bugs into the jewelry department with a gun and fires when he catches sight of Bugs' ears sticking up from a counter. Bugs moves his ears so the bullets miss, but seems to raise his hands in surrender. As the manager gloats that he'll finish Bugs off, Bugs pops out from behind the counter (revealing that the raised hands were just a pair of gloves on the tips of his ears), armed with a gun as well, and states he'll finish off the manager. He pulls the trigger, to which the gun sticks out three "bang" signs, prompting the manager to stick three "ouch" signs out of his mouth.

When the manager laughs that he outsmarted Bugs, Bugs distracts him, saying that he sounds "just like that guy on the radio: The Great Gildersneeze!" Bugs is right, the voice is a good imitation of Harold Peary's character in the The Great Gildersleeve. The actor providing that voice here is uncredited, although most animation historians seem to agree it was Dick Nelson (for unknown reasons, Blanc dubbed one line for him). The manager gushes over this comment, and Bugs swipes the gun away, making it go off in the process. The manager demands to know if Bugs had been trying to outsmart him, to which Bugs innocently states that he just did and gives the manager a wacky kiss on the nose.

The manager then chases after Bugs into the ladies' department, where he sees a customer (Bugs in disguise). Bugs asks for a pair of bedroom slippers, to which the gushy manager removes Bugs' high heel and tickles his feet. While they're laughing, Bugs falls to the floor, revealing that what the manager was tickling was actually a mannequin leg, to which Bugs wiggles his real toe and escapes.

The manager then chases Bugs through several departments where they each wear the outfit associated with that department (little boys, Turkish Baths, costume, sports). Bugs then blows his cover when the manager sees Bugs isn't wearing any lingerie.

As Bugs rushes upstairs, the manager gets into the elevator, where Bugs (in disguise again) brings him down. Just as the manager gets wise after exiting, Bugs tricks him into getting aboard another elevator going up, where the manager sees multiple Bugs's thumbing lifts on the elevator on each floor. Just as he comes back down, Bugs shoves the manager out of the elevator, making the manager rush up hundreds of flights of stairs to the top of the building.

Once at the top, Bugs pushes the manager down a shaft with an elevator under repair. Bugs then listens to the manager crash to the ground floor, and while he remarks 'What a dope. What a maroon.', the manager, looking worse for wear, zips back up ready to strangle Bugs.

Just when Bugs is about to be captured, he distracts the man again by tricking him into thinking there is a "frankincense" monster behind him, just like in a good book he just read. When he looks behind, Bugs has leaped into position, making a hideous face. The frightened man leaps off the building with a scream. Bugs tut-tuts, then pulls out a mirror, makes the same face to himself, turns to the audience in horror, and then he leaps off the building with a scream.

Analysis

In the opening of the film there is a camping scene, which soon is revealed to be part of the window display for a department store. Outdoor recreation turning into an illusion. The taxidermy department represents "a more deadly artificial display on nature". Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann argue that these serve as monuments to a disappearing natural world.

This animated short contains a reference to wartime shortages. Bugs impersonates an elevator operator and introduces the items available on the sixth floor: girdles, nylons, alarm clocks, bourbon, butter. Then he makes clear these are only available as picture postcards. These were indeed rare items during World War II.

Bugs scares the store manager and himself by doing an impersonation of "a horrible Frankincense monster". This serves as an indirect reference to Frankenstein's monster.

Availability

This cartoon is found on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2.