Ducking the Devil

Ducking The Devil is a 1957 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Robert McKimson.^[1] The short was released on August 17, 1957, and stars Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil.^[2]

At a zoo, a cage was reserved for the Tasmanian Devil. He soon escapes and runs amok, scaring everyone away from the zoo in the process. Meanwhile, Daffy is at home in his duck pond, and reads about Taz's escape in a newspaper. Taz soon finds him and gives chase after the black duck. While fleeing from Taz's hungry jaws, Daffy hears a news bulletin posting a $5,000 reward (the equivalent of $45,686.65 in 2022) for the Tasmanian Devil's return which also says Taz becomes docile when exposed to music.

After failing with a radio (the extension cord does not go too far), a trombone (Daffy accidentally loses the slide) and bagpipes (apparently the only music Taz does not like), Daffy eventually resorts to using his own singing voice to calm the devil. Eventually, after serenading him for 10 mi (16 km), Daffy leads Taz to his cage, and manages to contain the beast just as he finishes his song-and his voice gives out nearly at the very last point. After Taz grabs some of the Duck's reward money, which slipped on the ground, Daffy rushes inside the cage, screaming one of his most famous lines: "It's mine! Mine, all mine!", and beats up Taz, and reassures the audience that he may be a coward, but he's a "greedy little coward".

Ducking the Devil is available on the Looney Tunes Super Stars DVD, but was cropped to widescreen. The original full-screen version is available on Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 and the Taz's Jungle Jams VHS release.

"Zookeeper Burton", mentioned by a radio announcer in a newsflash that Daffy is listening to, is possibly a reference to Warners production manager John Burton. (It is rather funny that, even at this late date, the aging remnants of the old Termite Terrace gang would still be referring to themselves and their studio as a "zoo".)

This is one of several WB cartoons that uses the gag of receiving a package immediately after placing the order in the mailbox.

This was the only Golden Age Warner Bros. cartoon where Taz's adversary was a character other than Bugs Bunny (in this case, Daffy Duck).

A small amount of footage from both Bedevilled Rabbit and Wild Over You is reused in this cartoon.

A running gag is that Taz acts the character about whom the music plays; for example, he mimics a stage Irishman with pipe when Daffy sings When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.

This is also one of the few times Daffy goes after a large sum of money and not only succeeds in getting it, but keeps it by the cartoon's end.

Among the headlines in the newspaper Daffy reads, in the beginning, include "Ike to Make Slow Cruise to Bermuda" and "3700 May Quit Tonight".

• Carolina in the Morning by Gus Kahn
• When Irish Eyes are Smiling by Ernest Ball
• Moonlight Bay by Edward Madden
• The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money) by Harry Warren
• L'amour toujours by Catherine Chisholm Cushing
• Sweet Georgia Brown by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard
• I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover by Mort Dixon and Harry M. Woods
• It's Magic by Jule Styne

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ducking the Devil.

• Ducking the Devil at IMDb