Daffy Duck

Last week was the American Thanksgiving, and some people online were mentioning things they were thankful for.  Even though Canada's Thanksgiving was seven weeks ago, I want to mention something I'm grateful for:  Daffy Duck cartoons.  The later, curmudgeonly Daffy is the greatest of all Warner Brothers animated characters, and not for lack of competition! (When I was young I would have named Bugs Bunny as my favorite, but now that I've grown up I prefer Daffy.)

The greatest Daffy Duck cartoon of all is Duck Amuck, with Daffy in a cartoon world drawn by a prankster cartoonist who keeps changing things around, to Daffy's indignation. ("Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin!") At the end Bugs looks up from the drawing board and says, "Ain't I a stinker?" They tried making a similar cartoon with Bugs in the changing cartoon world, but it didn't suit his character as well.

There are some great cartoons pairing Bugs and Daffy, such as Ali Baba Bunny, in which they find themselves inside Ali Baba's treasure cave.  While Bugs just wants to find Pismo Beach and all the clams you can eat, Daffy starts pouncing all over Bugs and saying, "It's mine!  It's all mine!" What, share?  In the end Daffy offends a genie who turns him into a tiny figure trying to snatch the pearl from Bugs' clam. (Pismo Beach must have some oysters as well.) Such a fate has a Dantean logic, since Daffy's greed has already made him small!  And there's also Beanstalk Bunny, where Bugs and Daffy climb a beanstalk and tangle with a giant Elmer Fudd.  (At one point they run around inside Elmer's predictably empty head!)

Even the minor Daffy Duck cartoons have some great moments.  Take the late cartoon Aqua Duck, in which Daffy finds a big nugget of gold in the desert, but can't find water! (A parody of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, of course.) I like the bit where he starts hallucinating and saying things like "Belly up to the bar, boys!"

But I've never cared for Robin Hood Daffy, a cartoon which many people consider a classic.  Daffy's goofy Robin Hood and Porky Pig's derisive Friar Tuck are both funny in themselves, but the combination of the two isn't so funny.  There's a one-note story in which Porky wants to join Robin Hood's band but refuses to believe that someone as bumbling as Daffy is the one he's looking for, so Daffy sets out to prove he's Robin Hood by carrying out a robbery, but only confirms how goofy he is.

Tonight was the last opera rehearsal before the new year.  Some girls brought a box of chocolate treats that included some party hats.

The other day online I came up with this saying:  Who's the bigger fool, the fool or the one who underestimates his foolishness? (I admit that despite realizing what a weak candidate Hillary Clinton was, I still couldn't believe that American voters would be foolish enough to elect Donald Trump!  I wasn't alone there, of course.)