A Corny Concerto

Did You Know?

• The short was voted No. 47 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time in 1994 by members of the animation field.
• It entered the public domain in 1970 because United States failed to renew the copyright.

Plot

The cartoon opens with a parody of Carnegie Hall called "Corny-gie Hall," while Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 plays. A disheveled Elmer Fudd, wearing an ill-fitting tailcoat, glasses, and an unshaven face, appears as a musicologist spoofing Deems Taylor from Fantasia. The first musical piece is Johann Strauss's waltz "Tales from the Vienna Woods." Porky Pig takes on Elmer's usual role as a hunter, joined by his dog Laramore.

Porky holds a sign that reads, "I'm hunting that @!!*@ rabbit!!" and the target is Bugs Bunny. A series of visual jokes follows, ending when all three characters think an angry squirrel has shot them after grabbing Porky's rifle. Realizing they are unharmed, Porky and Laramore try to give first aid to Bugs, who seems fatally wounded, while Laramore howls in time with the music. When Porky pries Bugs' clenched hands away from his chest, Bugs is wearing a baby blue bra. He screams in modesty, his face turning green, covers the bra with his left hand, slaps Porky three times with his right, then places the bra cups over the hunters' heads. Finally, wearing a tutu and pointe shoes, Bugs dances gracefully away, tripping and falling at the music's climax. Elmer returns briefly to introduce the second segment, Strauss's "The Blue Danube" waltz. A duckling resembling a young Daffy Duck tries to join three cygnets following their mother swan; the mother violently rebuffs him. A large vulture with a "hep cat" hairdo (resembling Beaky Buzzard) swoops down, sprinkles salt and pepper on the cygnets, plucks each from the water (the last has a tiny outboard motor), then grabs the duckling but puts him back with a sign reading "Rejected 4F." The mother swan faints upon realizing her children are gone. The duckling becomes angry, takes off like a Curtiss P-40 fighter aircraft, buzzes the vulture (who turns yellow), drops the cygnets (who parachute safely), and stuns the vulture before handing him a drum of TNT that blows him sky high. The final scene shows the grateful swan family and the duckling merrily quacking "The Blue Danube" as they glide across the water together, waving goodbye to the audience.