Top 20 Worst Things Bugs Bunny Has Done

“Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears” (1944)

Hey, what’s a “Looney Tunes” cartoon without a couple of felonies being committed, right? When three bears try luring Goldilocks to their home with the aid of carrot soup, it’s Bugs Bunny they end up attracting instead. In “Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears,” he more or less finds himself as Goldilocks’ replacement. He breaks in through the window, devours the soup, and even ends up locking the bears out of their bedroom. While it’s true that the bears didn’t have the best of intentions, don’t forget that Bugs broke into a house just because he smelled some soup. No matter how tempting it might be, that’s not exactly something a model citizen should do.

“Bugs Bunny Rides Again” (1948)

“Bugs Bunny Rides Again” is a classic “Looney Tunes” cartoon that shows the rocky relationship between Bugs and Yosemite Sam. At one point when Yosemite Sam falls off a cliff, Bugs Bunny arrives to the rescue by placing a mattress on the floor to catch him. Despite their animosity, this was a touching moment that showed Bugs was still willing to save Sam! Oh… wait… actually Bugs ends up pulling the mattress away at the last second as a joke and lets Sam crash onto the ground. Never mind, here’s the real moral of this story: don’t expect to get help from Bugs Bunny.

“Case of the Missing Hare” (1942)

“Case of the Missing Hare” is where all the magic happens. Well, that’s to say it’s where all the magic that this magician is allowed to do happens. You see, Bugs spends this cartoon attempting to humiliate the magician and downplay his tricks. And unfortunately, it works pretty well. Sure, it wasn’t right for the magician to put his advertisements up on Bugs’ home. But getting these levels of revenge hardly feels appropriate. We should aspire to solve our differences peacefully rather than throwing pies in faces and slamming mallets into people’s heads to get even.

“Box-Office Bunny” (1991)

Some characters just aren’t meant for the silver screen. When Elmer Fudd attempts to force Bugs Bunny to exit the movie theater for not paying, it leads to a bunch of wacky hijinks. It isn’t long until Daffy Duck gets involved in the chaos too. But Bugs outsmarts the two and manages to trap them inside a horror movie that kind of looks like “Friday the 13th.” When Daffy and Elmer desperately plead for help to get out, they get ignored by Bugs. If hearing their uncomfortable screams of fear wasn’t bad enough, Bugs ends the cartoon by cracking a joke at their expense. We know we’re supposed to root for Bugs here, but honestly, we feel pretty bad for Elmer and Daffy.

“Devil May Hare” (1954)

It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that the things that Bugs fed Taz in “Devil May Hare” are definitely not part of a healthy diet. To avoid being eaten by the Tasmanian Devil, Bugs prepares a series of odd meals to feed Taz instead. On this menu are inflatable pigs, wooden deer, and even a chicken that Bugs recreates from bubblegum. Bugs, it’s fine that you want to save yourself from disaster. But it might be better to just run out of there instead of trying to create potentially lethal dishes.

“Easter Yeggs” (1947)

Bugs is a menace even to animals like him! When Bugs meets the Easter Rabbit, it becomes clear that the rabbit is disheveled. So to help, Bugs agrees to deliver his easter eggs himself. We’ll admit that the Easter Rabbit tricking Bugs into doing his work is a dishonorable move. But that doesn’t mean Bugs should’ve planted a bomb on him in retaliation! That’s right, when Bugs essentially finds out he’s been tricked into stressful work, he gets a bomb made to look like an easter egg and leaves it for the Easter Rabbit. Then when the rabbit picks it up, the bomb goes off in his face! Maybe this holiday mascot should take a break from visiting the “Looney Tunes” universe.

“Oily Hare” (1952)

When Devil Rich Texan and Bugs butt heads over the possession of the hole which the bunny calls his home, the disagreement quickly turns explosive. Bugs frustrates the rich oil tycoon so much that he decides to load an ungodly amount of dynamite into the home. When he deceives him yet again, the TNT is lit and the tycoon gets caught in a major explosion. There are ways to deal with getting your property taken from you. But driving an oil baron to the brink of madness and causing a major form of destruction like this is not one of them.

“A Hare Grows in Manhattan” (1947)

No matter what way you try to slice it, this experience just sounds horrible! When a pesky bulldog starts roughing it up with Bugs, he devises a plan to get rid of him. Knowing that the dog isn’t exactly the brightest, he hurls a stick over the side of a building like a game of fetch. This leads the pitbull to instinctively chase it which causes him to plummet from the building. Bugs totally tried to kill this dog, right? When the pitbull is later dangling on a clothesline, Bugs even goes out of his way to pry his fingers off of it. Even if you want to make a case that the pitbull should’ve known better, Bugs still had sinister intentions here!

“False Hare” (1964)

The Big Bad Wolf found himself on the end of a brutal beatdown when he encountered Bugs during “False Hare.” When the wolf tries luring Bugs into a trap with the help of his nephew, Bugs manages to flip the script and get the wolf trapped inside of the iron maiden instead. Keep in mind that when we’re talking about an iron maiden, we’re not referring to the band. In this case, it’s a pretty painful-looking torture device. The fact that Bugs was so unafraid of the wolf made his actions that much more terrifying. Yes, the Big Bad Wolf lived up to his name, but this was an encounter where the predator was the prey in the end.

“Hare Tonic” (1945)

Is there anything that Bugs loves more than tormenting Elmer Fudd? Seriously, right from the very start of “Hare Tonic,” Bugs proved to be an absolute menace. He didn’t just terrorize Elmer by eating his carrots and heckling him inside of his house. No, he went above and beyond. In the cartoon’s closing moments, Bugs makes a fake announcement warning of ‘rabbititis’. The highly contagious disease that was infecting all rabbits might’ve been fake, but don’t tell Elmer that. Yep, Bugs Bunny might just be one of the biggest gaslighters in animation.

“Hurdy-Gurdy Hare” (1950)

In the beginning of the episode “Hurdy-Gurdy Hare,” Bugs has already proven how sleazy he can be, using a young monkey to help him make money from playing music. He even tries to cheat the little chimp out of his share! Still, angering the chimp and later on a gorilla just hints at the perverted nature he’s capable of. There are a couple of times where Bugs peeks through one of the windows of an apartment and makes a lady shriek. It's safe to assume that Bugs got a peek at something he shouldn't have, and the stinker sees no shame in it! Seriously, man, don't you know how to respect a woman's privacy!?

“Wackiki Wabbit” (1943)

Could you imagine being stuck on a deserted island with the likes of Bugs Bunny? It’d be tough to tolerate him for more than a few minutes, and "Wackiki Wabbit" showed he would gladly steal a ride and leave you behind. Towards the end of the short, a pair of castaways spots a ship and manages to flag it down. Bugs soon joins the excitement and begins exchanging so many farewells that he tricks the castaways into thinking HE is the one leaving. Before they realize their stupidity, the rascally rabbit has already set sail.

“Homeless Hare” (1950)

We can't blame Bugs for wanting to get even here. However, Bugs takes things way too far when a construction worker digs up his home and dumps the remains in a truck. Bugs ends up using some of the construction equipment as a means for revenge, and the results are incredibly violent. Even by cartoon standards, his abuse is brutal, and we can't even begin to imagine how graphic this could have potentially become. Seems like Bugs isn't one to believe in "overkill."

“Rhapsody Rabbit” (1946)

So far, we've learned that Bugs will stoop to any level if it means getting his way, but his stunts in "Rhapsody Rabbit" show a more petty side to him. In the short, Bugs attempts to put on a performance of "Hungarian Rhapsody." Throughout the concert, he fires at an audience member for coughing, takes a phone call in the middle of the performance, and assaults a mouse who just wants to get in on the action. Clearly, Bugs wanted a one-man show, and damn anyone who was going to make it less than perfect.

“Hare-Way to the Stars” (1958)

In the short “Hare-Way to the Stars,” Bugs finds himself taking a ride in a rocketship and ends up on Marvin the Martian’s base. Surprisingly, Bugs is at his most heroic here as he manages to stop Marvin from blowing up the Earth and even causes the Martian base to explode. However, during his escape, Bugs swipes a container filled with instant Martians and lands in a sewer back on Earth. Given that Martians only need water to be grown, you can guess what happens next. And what does Bugs do to try and fix the problem? Absolutely nothing! Nice, Bugs… You've doomed us all!

Various

This hare may be the herald of harassment, but he's also a tyrant of trickery. Bugs has proven that he will do absolutely ANYTHING to get what he wants, and we mean ANYTHING!! Throughout the decades-long life of "Looney Tunes," Bugs has gone so far as to fake illnesses and even death, sometimes only doing it just to mess with others! Obviously, the rabbit has no consideration for the psychological trauma he could be causing, and the fact that he'll do it for sick kicks is equally abhorrent. How have Elmer, Daffy, and Yosemite Sam not ended up in a mental institute yet?

“Rebel Rabbit” (1949)

After seeing the bounty amount for rabbits, Bugs believes the US doesn't think rabbits are worth anything. When his meeting with the Game Warden doesn't go as planned, Bugs hatches a plan to make the bounty skyrocket, and he proceeds to sabotage society in a variety of ways. For starters, he ties up all the railroads in a big bow, fills in the Grand Canyon, vandalizes the Washington Monument, and even manages to saw Florida off the country and send it down the Atlantic Ocean. Thankfully, this ends up biting him in the butt as the world starts hunting him down for his crimes. You'd think Bugs would have learned after this. Alas, we still have 3 more entries…

Various

Let’s be honest - in real life, none of us would last more than a couple of minutes with Bugs and his gags. Those who dare cross paths with him have often found themselves going crazy, regardless if they were his intended target or an innocent bystander. In addition to driving his usual victims crazy, like the dimwitted Elmer Fudd, Bugs has made a notorious criminal jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and caused an astrologist to resign from his position after bringing two planets and the moon to an observatory. Yeah, nobody is safe from this rabbit’s mischief.

Various

As we’ve mentioned throughout this list, Elmer has often found himself on the edge when it comes to hunting Bugs. One could argue that Bugs’ actions are in self-defense, but some of the things Bugs does to Elmer are extreme. From tricking Elmer into thinking he’s dead to destroying his own property to assaulting him with an assortment of items, Bugs has put the poor guy through all kinds of physical, emotional, and psychological trauma. He’s even gone so far as to try and bury Elmer alive! Will this hare ever realize he’s being too cruel!?

Various

What could be worse than getting put through as much torture as Elmer? Suffering the same kind of torment over and over… and over again! That’s precisely why Daffy is at the top of the list. Across a handful of shorts, Bugs has found countless ways to get Daffy staring down the wrong end of the barrel of a shotgun. He’ll even pull some of the laziest tricks in the book by either dressing up as a duck or tricking Daffy into saying “Duck season, FIRE!” It’s gotten to the point where Bugs could probably write a series of books on how to cook a duck.