Happy Birthday, Mel Blanc

[filkertom]

On this date in 1908. One of the gods of how we live, of what I do, of why we are the way we are.

Name a favorite voice he did, and give a favorite line of dialogue. As many as you want, really -- it's not like we're gonna run out. ;) I have great love for his quieter moments as Foghorn Leghorn, such as when he was playing hide-and-seek with Egghead. He hid in the corn bin... and Egghead figured out mathematically that he was actually buried a distance away... which Foghorn was. Whereupon Foghorn marches right over to that corn bin, stops, and says, "... No, I better not look. I just might be in there."

And of course I adore his voices for Marvin Martian and Wile E. Coyote.

Comments

[ericcoleman]

"I'm a happy miser"

cracks me up every time

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Hassan CHOP!

[tony-goldmark.livejournal.com]

There was a Porky/Charlie Dog cartoon with the following exchange:

"Mostly, I'm all labrador retriever"
"Oh, y-y-you are not a labrador retriever."
"I'm not?"
"N-n-no, you..."
"Look, if you doubt my woid, bring me a labrador and I'll retrieve it for ya."
(PAUSE)
"A...l-l-labrador? Wh-wh-why sure, I, eh...I, eh..."
"Have you got a labrador?"
"N-n-no."
"Know where you can get a labrador?"
"N-n-no."
"DEN SHADDAP."

Made me laugh when I was five, still makes me laugh today. RIP Mel.

[whouseknecht.livejournal.com]

The man himself said that his favorite voice was that of Sylvester, since it was the closest to his own. Thus, I offer:

"Thufferin' Thuccotash!"

[devospice.livejournal.com]

"Grab a fencepost hold it tight
Whomp your partner with all your might
Hit him in the chin, hit him in the head
Hit him again that critter ain't dead!"

- Bugs Bunny doing a squaredance.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That is the Best Fuckin' Square Dance Evah.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

"Where's the kaboom? There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"

Puts me on the floor every time.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

There are, of course, zillions of moments. The ones that comes to mind right now are Bugs coping with threatening situations:

"My stars! Where did you ever get that awful hairdo? It doesn't become you at all...Here, for goodness' sake, let me fix it up. Look how stringy and messy it is. What a shame. Such an interesting monster, too. My stars, if an interesting monster can't have an interesting hairdo, then I don't know what things are coming to. In my business you meet so many interesting people - Bobby pins, please - but the most interersting ones are the monsters. Oh, dear, that will never stay. We'll just have to have a permanemanent...Now, I've got to give an interesting old lady a manicure, but I'll be back before you're done...explosion of dynamite 'curlers' "

o/~ "Welcome to my shop
Let me cut your mop
Let me shave your crop
Daintily, daintily...
Hey, you!
Don't look so perplexed
Why must you be vexed?
Can't you see you're next?
Yes, you're next, you're so next!" o/~

(Note to self: You NEED a couple of WB usericons...)

[poltr1]

From Rabbit Seasoning:
Bugs: "Do you shoot me now or wait 'till you get home?"
Daffy: "Shoot him now! Shoot him now!"
Bugs: "You keep out of this. He doesn't have to shoot you now."
Daffy: "Aha! That's it! Hold it right there. Pronoun trouble. It's not 'He doesn't have to shoot *you* now, it's he doesn't have to shoot *me* now.' Well, I say he does have to shoot me now. So shoot me now!"

And the one with the two cats George and Lenny on a Mexican ship (I think it featured Speedy Gonzalez):
"P-E-T-R-O-L. Gee, what a funny way to spell water."

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

It is entirely possible that "Pronoun trouble" is the single funniest line WB ever did.

[mnelson.livejournal.com]

There are so many!

In the interest of not repeating:

Foghorn Leghorn:
"Gal reminds me of the highway between Fort Worth and Dallas....No curves"

Elmer Fudd:
"Kill the Wabbit!! Kill the Wabbit!!"

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Actually, Elmer Fudd was voiced by Arthur Q. Brian.

But Mel had it in his contract to be the only name credited with "vocal characterization".

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

My favorite would have to be another Foghorn Leghorn moment. After being repeatedly injured during his pursuit of a certain widow (Spinster? Memory fades ...) chicken he leaves her. She says something about "I thought you needed my love to keep you warm?"

"I say, I say, I have my bandages to keep me warm!"

[per_solo]

"They got jobs!"

The dad in "Strange Brew", somehow I knew that one was not going to be noted quickly. :-)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Everything he touched was gold, it's kind of hard to pick which boullion is your favorite.
But if I had to...

My favorite line by Mel Blanc was one that was never recorded. He had been in a terrible car accident, was in traction, and had fallen into a coma. The presiding Doctor had tried continuously to get him to speak to see if he was coherent. It wasn't until several days later that the Doctor learned who Mel was and what he did for a living. Finally, in desperation, he tried the following;

DOCTOR: Bugs Bunny? Are you in there? Can you hear me?

MEL: [As Bugs, barely above a whisper] I hear ya loud and clear, Doc!

[que-sara-sara.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite off the wall Mel Blanc things is the song I Yust go Nuts at Christmas. :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ummm... that was Yogi Yorgesson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Yorgesson). :)

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Foghorn Leghorn: "That boy's as sharp as a bowling ball." I have that as a sound clip, I need to use it more often when I cast on Dementia Radio.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

If I ever record... no, I'm gonna record it. That's that. For now suffice it to say that I use that line.

No, no, NO! Not the WED BUTTON!!!!

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Daffy, as a salesmen who gave Porky Pig a roboticized house (whatever they called it, 1950's style).

[sdelmonte]

Just to be a little different...

"All abroad for Anaheim, Asusa, and COO-camunga!"

From Mel's other job of note, as one of Jack Benny's cast (as well as the voice of his car).

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was going to go to Benny...

"Say, what's your name?"
"Sy"
"Sy?"
"Si"

"And you have a sister?"
"Si"
"and her name?"
"Sue"
"Sue?"
"Si"

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

"Of course you know, this means war."

[denali1.livejournal.com]

Oh gods, where to begin?

Wile E. Coyote - *hands over business card* "Wile E. Coyote, Suuuuper-genius!"

Foghorn Leghorn - "That's a joke, son!"

Yosimite Sam - "When I says Whoa, I means WHOA!"

Twiki (Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century) - "Eat lead, sucker!"

Bugs Bunny - "What a gulli-bull! What a nin-cow-poop!"

Bugs Bunny - "Bric-a-bracka, Firecracker! Sis, boom, bah! Bugs Bunny! Bugs Bunny! Rah! Rah! Rah!"

Daffy Duck - "Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers... and gun powder...and cordite. I'm an elk! Shoot me! Go on!! It's elk season! I'm a fiddler crab. Why don't you shoot me?! It's fiddler crab season!"

Daffy Duck - *as Erol Flynn's Robin Hood* "Ho! Ha Ha! Parry! Guard! Turn! Dodge! Spin! Thrust! *Twang!* *hits self in bill with his buck and a quarter quarterstaff*

Speedy Gonzales' cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez - "My name is Slowpoke Rodriguez."

Pepe Le Pew - "I must find out what zees 'pew' means every time I appear."

And while I know this was mentioned before, the whole damn thing is just so funny it needs to be said. I now present to you... The Bugs Bunny Square Dance Call!

Promenade across the floor. Sasche right on out the door. Out the door and into the glade and everybody promenade. Step right up you're doing fine. I'll pull your beard you'll pull mine. Yank it again like you did before. Break it up with a tug of war. Now into the brook and fish for the trout. Dive right in and splash about. Trout! Trout! Pretty little trout! One more splash and come right out. Shake like a hound-dog. Shake again. Wallow around in the old pig pen. Wallow some more. Y'all know how. Roll around like an old fat sow. Alamand left with your right hand. Follow through with a great left band. Now lead your partner the dirty old thing. Follow through with an elbow swing. Grab a fence post. Hold it tight. Womp your partner with all your might. Hit him in the shin. Hit him in the head. Hit him again. The critter aint dead. Womp him low and womp him high. Stick your finger in his eye. Pretty little ring. Pretty little sound. Bang your heads against the ground. Promenade all around the room. Promenade like a bride and groom. Open up the door and step right in. Close the door and into a spin. Whirl! Whirl! Twist and twirl! Jump all around like a flying squirrel. Now don't you fuss and don't you swear. Just come right out and form a square. Now right hand over and left hand under. Both join hands and run like thunder. Over the hill and over the dale. Duck your head and lift your tail. Don't you stray and don't you roam. Turn to your partner. Promenade home. Corn in the cornfield. Wheat in the sack. Turn to your partner. Promenade back. And now you're home. Bow to your partner. Bow to the gent across the hall. And that is all!

[bald-ruminant.livejournal.com]

"What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?"

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

I can always get a laugh out of my wife by singing "Oh Bwunhilda, you're so wuvly!"

She can't help but respond with "Yes I know it, I can't help it!"

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I probably should've worded the challenge above as, "What Mel lines do you use as callbacks in real life?" But then we'd all be here all day. That one. And....

"Kill da [insert whatever needs killing here]!"
"Boy! Ah say, boy!"
"Pwease, Mistuh Game Wawden...."
"Suuuuper jeeen-ius!"
"Pronoun trouble!"
"Ohhhh, no, you don't. Not again. Thorry."
"NOT DA WED ONE! Don't EVER touch da WED one!"
"I'm rich! I'm a happy miser!"
"Kew... kamunga."
"Chattenoogie!?"
"Where's the kaboom?"
"Delays, delays."
"And if an innnteresting monster can't have an innnnteresting hairdo then I just don't know what the world is coming to."
"[any given recipe or foodstuff or passing small furry animal or whatever] under tooled leather! Dah-rool, dah-rool."

And on and on and on....

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Bugs and Daffy: "Be veewwwy quiet... We're hunting Elmers."

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

"Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gaaaaal!"

:)

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Ah, a good line, but it isn't Mel.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

The sequence where Bugs and Daffy are imitating each other.

"Yoicks, and away!"

Pretty much everything in "Duck Amuck".

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

A scene from Jack Benny's TV show, Jack's in a panic because they changed his time slot without telling him, but his comedy writers come through! Mel Blanc (and another guy who's name escapes me at the moment) come barging into the office:

Mel: We have it! The entire show written out! And it's hilarious!
Jack: Thank goodness! You've saved the day. Where is it?
Mel hands him the roller from a typewriter, Jack gives him a befuddled stare.
Mel: We got so carried away, we forgot to put paper into the typewriter.

There was a good amount of back & forth from there, but that was the line that started the audience laughing so much they had to edit out huge blocks of them standing there waiting for the laughter to die down.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

Twiki: "Be de be de. What's up Buck?"

Again Mel as a member of the Jack Benny cast. This past Christmas I seen the episode on PBS of Jack in a high service department store with Mel as the clerk-who-must-provide-service, including multiple times gift-wrapping the present that keeps on changing. It's the vocalizations away from Jack that get ya.

Daffy Duck: "You're despicable". Which is why I think Despicable would be a great name for a punk band.

Mel for bargaining that he be credited as a voice actor on his cartoons, leading others to get the same. Before him it wasn't just something that was not done, it probably was just not thought of (as deserving) by the companies.

Capital records in the post-war 1940s and 1950s had high revenue but slim profit margin on artists like Frank Sinatra. Meanwhile artists like Mel Blanc, Jerry Lewis, Yogi Yogi Yorgesson & Stan Freburg where putting lots of high profit icing on the Capital capitol cake with relatively low-cost to produce records that sold well in their day, and I think are remembered more today than the big hits of those days.

-Ryan