Join the Honors College for this month’s Discussion with the Director. In November, Dr. Westman will welcome her colleague, Rick Cousins from Trent University to discuss The Bunny Politic: Bugs Bunny as a champion of individual rights and an agent of state power
Warner Brothers animation director Chuck Jones often referred to Bugs Bunny as “a counter-revolutionary”. This description is catchy, but it doesn’t quite catch the essence of Bugs’ relationship to power structures in the public realm. Although Bugs prefers to finish fights rather than starting them, the fights he finds himself in frequently put him in the position of a rebel who seeks to change the status quo rather than restore a status quo ante. In his quest to establish the equality of his rights as a rabbit in a human world, he’ll take on anyone from his neighbors to City Hall to Washington. Bugs Bunny prefers a quiet, law-abiding life, but when troublemakers and lawbreakers (especially the ornery Yosemite Sam) cross his path, he’s ready, willing and able to give them more trouble than they can handle. In the interests of restoring order, Bugs has no qualms about resorting to the full arsenal of cartoon weaponry, from good old-fashioned gravity to high explosives.