Is Bugs Bunny the Coolest Cartoon Bisexual?
Bugs Bunny exudes cool and clever. This carrot-chomping cartoon character is perhaps the best bi role model there is out there.
And that’s not without a lot of competition these days. Heck, Stormboy and Deadpool and a slew of other superheroes now unabashedly play both sides of the fence. And, there are rumors about Wonder Woman, Hercules and even Stewie on “Family Guy.”
But Bugs Bunny has been out there since we all were kids. He’s out there kissing guys and gals with reckless abandon, doesn’t care what anyone else thinks and is pretty open about his fetish of dressing up in women’s clothing.
There’s no question about “What’s up” with this Looney Tune.
Sure, he had a girlfriend named Honey Bunny, but he was kissing Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam just as much! The media have speculated a lot about what (and who) Bugs digs. He likes to dress in women’s clothing (which we know doesn’t mean bisexuality), and he seems to be just dandy about everyone around him.
Here is a detailed list of episodes and some potentially bi moments of Bugs and links of whatever we can find:
- What’s Opera, Doc? (Jones, 1957)
In perhaps his most famous example of crossdressing, Bugs appears as Brünnhilde and sings the Maltese aria Return My Love, (set to Wagner’s Pilgrim Theme from Tannhäuser) with Elmer Fudd.
- Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (Jones, 1941) Bugs dances with Fudd and addresses him by conjuring up a bisexual celebrity, saying very Katherine Hepburn-like, “You dance divinely, really you do.”
- The Heckling Hare (Avery, 1941) The hunting dog, believing that he killed Bugs, lays flowers next to his home, and Bugs takes the dog’s flowers coquétteishly, saying “For me? Oh, you darling!”
- Water, Water, Every Hare (Jones, 1952)
Bugs portrays himself as a stereotypical effeminate male hairdresser to Gossamer (a hairy, orange, sneaker-wearing monster), during which he strikes a pose in a very flamboyant manner and does a lot of mincing. - Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (Clampett, 1942) Dances with Beaky Buzzard and asks “Why don’t we do this more often?” Also appears interrupted mid-shower by the bird, and replies coyly “You naughty, naughty boy!”
- Hare Trimmed (Freleng, 1953)
First dressing up as Granny, Bugs ends up eloping with Yosemite Sam as a bride. Bugs’ bridal gown gets caught on a nail, revealing his tail. Upon seeing this, Sam goes nuts. - Robot Rabbit (Freleng, 1953)
Bugs once again dances with Fudd and addresses him saying, Katherine Hepburn-like, “You dance divinely, really you do.” Later, to distract a robot destroyer, Bugs appears as a robot cutie — in a curvy potbellied stove, no less. - Carrotblanca (Cahill/McNally, 1995)
In a theatrical short of the classic movie Casablanca with a Looney Tune twist, featuring beloved Bugs Bunny as the carrot-chomping proprietor (Bogart) of a wacky distortion of Casablanca’s Cafe Americain, Bugs appears as a blonde in a pink dress just before hitting Yosemite Sam with a pink purse containing an anvil. Then, Sam is locked in a cell with a big burly flirty inmate. - From Hare To Eternity (Jones/Clough, 1996)
A musical/theatrical “Pirates of Penzance”-like short with the Swashbuckler Yosemite Sam digging for treasure and declaring, “I’m very broad minded, I love them all” while talking about treasure. He finds Bugs, who distracts Sam by appearing as Buttercup, a mermaid.
- Now, Hare This (McKimson, 1958)
Using the stories Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears with three “male” characters (Bugs, Big Bad Wolf and his Nephew) could only result in all of them crossdressing. In the beginning skit the Nephew appears as Little Red Riding Hood and Bugs takes over that role while the Big Bad Wolf plays Grandma. The following skit has Bugs playing Goldilocks while the Big Bad Wolf doubles as Papa Bear and Mama Bear. - Hare-abian Nights (Harris, 1959)
Bugs finds himself having to entertain the Sultan as a flamboyant story teller. He smacks a bull who’s breathing up Bugs’ backside, and later plays a lisping hairdresser to a hairy monster. - Hair-Raising Hare (Jones, 1946)
Bugs distracts the pursuance by Gossamer acting as a beauty parlor stereotypical effeminate male manicurist. In a very feminine speech pattern, he states “I said to my girlfriend just the other day, …” Same gag except as a hairdresser used in Water, Water, Every Hare (Jones, 1952).
Even in the movie “Space Jam,” Bugs kisses his girlfriend Lola Bunny and also athletic superstar Michael Jordan.
In our book, The Bisexual’s Guide to the Universe, Nicole Kristal and I posit that the universally-beloved Warner Bros. cartoon character Bugs Bunny may be bisexual, but whatever, he is certainly the coolest.
