Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner
Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons.
Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball"
characters that emerged in the 1930s and supplanted traditional
"everyman" characters, such as Goofy, in popularity
in the 1940s. Daffy is also one of the most difficult
cartoon characters to define. Virtually every Warner Bros.
animator put his own spin on the duck; Daffy may be a
lunatic vigilante in one short but a greedy glory hound
in the next. Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones especially made
extensive use of two very different versions of the character.
Daffy first appeared on April 17, 1937 in "Porky's
Duck Hunt", directed by Tex Avery with Bob Clampett
being an uncredited co-director. This early Daffy is not
a handsome creature; he is short and pudgy, with stubby
legs and beak. His voice (performed by Mel Blanc and patterned
after Warners producer Leon Schlesinger's) is about the
only part of the duck that would stay with him.
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