Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs himself).[1] His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and other antagonizing characters. He speaks in an unusual way, replacing his Rs and Ls with Ws, so "Watch the road, Rabbit," is replaced with "Watch the woad, wabbit!" Elmer's signature catchphrase is, "Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits", as well as his trademark laughter, "huh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh".

Few characters are more distinctly recognizable today than Warner Bros.'s Elmer Fudd. But did you know that Fudd wasn't quite himself when he first hit the silver screen? In fact, he was positively a shell of his latter self.

Let's backtrack a little. The first ever incarnation of Bugs Bunny's dogged foe was in director Tex Avery's The Isle of Pingo Pongo in 1936. But he wasn't quite the lispy liquidator we've come to know and love. He was simply named "Elmer" (in the Cher/Madonna, one-moniker kind of way), and he didn't have the trademark voice and laugh so familiar to Elmer today. The only notable resemblance was his bulbous head, which quickly prompted Avery to rename his protagonist, "Egghead." And Egghead he remained for a good little while.

But before too long, Egghead was revamped and reintroduced in a 1939 Chuck Jones short called "Elmer's Candid Camera." This time, Elmer had an immediately endearing secret weapon to wield: the masterful vocal stylings of Arthur Q. Bryan.

As it turns out, Elmer was fleshed out before his detested bunny bandit was. Though a Bugs prototype faced off with Elmer in Jones's short, it would be another year yet before the true Bugs surfaced, complete with carrot, accent and "What's up, Doc?" catchphrase.