Happy birthday, Daffy Duck!

RESPECT THE GREATEST CARTOON CHARACTER OF ALL TIME, MOTHERFUCKERS

Someone important to me is celebrating his birthday today, an’ it ain’t your usual close friend of mine, or even a noted rapper, actor, singer, producer, composer, writer, or social justice advocate this time, either. But it is non-negotiably necessary that I salute him anyway! I know you wouldn’t have been able to guess who it was if I hadn’t told you, because I am the only person on earth nerdy enough to have this information memorized, but that’s right, y’all – today is the birthday of MOTHERFUCKIN’ DAFFY DUCK. 

Yes, the greatest cartoon character of all time (with all due respect to his close homie and rival Bugs Bunny, his frequent sidekick Porky Pig, and the eternal Homer Simpson) first appeared in a short called “Porky’s Duck Hunt” that debuted on April 17th, 1937 – Porky is the only classic-era Looney Tunes character who’s older, having been created two years earlier. This means that – I’ll say it again – the greatest-ever cartoon character is 84 years old today. (The Looney Tunes were the first pop culture arcana I was ever a nerd about, and this information has been emblazoned upon my brain since I was about five years old.) 

The ever-unflappable mid-twentieth-century American icon Bugs Bunny was more popular, but I always preferred Daffy – he was my first sustained encounter with neurosis, with eccentricity. Shouts to Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Michael Maltese, the eternal godbody top don voice actor Mel Blanc, and most especially one Charles M. “Chuck” Jones, for all they did to fashion the beautiful legacy of this amazing character and all his homies across hundreds of miraculous cartoons. Yes!