Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, let's talk today about Bugs Bunny.
Speaker 1: Although a Bugs esque character appeared in the cartoon in
Speaker 1: Night Bugs as would recognize him today, first appeared on
Speaker 1: July nine and a cartoon titled a Wild Hair. His
Speaker 1: character was well received by children and adults alike. This
Speaker 1: and the fact that his debut coincided with America's Golden
Speaker 1: Age of animation helped secure his spot as one of
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers main cartoon characters. During World War Two, Bugs
Speaker 1: got another boost the several Air Force troops, including the
Speaker 1: three eightieth Bombardment Group, shows Bugs as their mascot, and
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps designated him an honorary Master Sergeant. He
Speaker 1: starred in propaganda cartoons made specifically for American soldiers stationed
Speaker 1: in Europe, as well as government and advertisements for wartime bonds.
Speaker 1: Bugs Bunny went on to star in a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty films, appear as the first animated character on a
Speaker 1: postage stamp, receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
Speaker 1: and be ranked number one on a list of the
Speaker 1: fifty Greatest cartoon characters. Compiled by TV Guide. Although many
Speaker 1: have attempted to identify what sets Bugs Bunny apart from
Speaker 1: the cartoon crowd, perhaps the late Chuck Jones, the longtime
Speaker 1: writer and producer of Bugs Bunny, described it best. His
Speaker 1: daughter Linda Jones Cloud told Smithsonian Magazine, and my father's
Speaker 1: attitude was that bugs already existed and they were just
Speaker 1: writing about him. He would come home in the evening
Speaker 1: and say to my mother, you won't believe what Bugs
Speaker 1: Bunny said today. What do you mean? She would say,
Speaker 1: you wrote it. No. I discovered under the circumstances that
Speaker 1: this is what he would say. Whether Bugs Bunny was
Speaker 1: conceived as a rabbit or a hare isn't clear. Although
Speaker 1: the word bunny is part of his name, many of
Speaker 1: his cart UNEs had hair in the title, including a
Speaker 1: bill of hair and fallen hair. Of course, that could
Speaker 1: be wordplay rather than scientific nomenclature. Before we hop to
Speaker 1: the wrong conclusion, let's take a look at some of
Speaker 1: the characteristic differences between rabbits and hairs. Although rabbits and
Speaker 1: hairs are all from the lapoor dae family, they're classified
Speaker 1: under nine different genera, eight for rabbits and one for hairs.
Speaker 1: And fifty three species, twenty one for rabbits and thirty
Speaker 1: two for hairs, and they start life in markedly different ways.
Speaker 1: Hairs are pregnant for about forty two days and deliver
Speaker 1: fully developed newborns called leverettes, while bunnies have a thirty
Speaker 1: day gestational period and give birth to kits that don't
Speaker 1: yet have for or the ability to regulate their body temperature.
Speaker 1: Hairs also have jointed skulls, unlike those of any other mammal.
Speaker 1: This gives them cranial kinesis, which means that their skull
Speaker 1: bones can move relative to each other in ways that humans,
Speaker 1: for example, can't. Our jaw is our only movable skull joint.
Speaker 1: Hairs have an intracranial one that researchers think helps them
Speaker 1: distribute the impact of long running leaps. Hairs have longer
Speaker 1: ears and longer legs than rabbits, which seems to tip
Speaker 1: the scale in favor of bugs. Bunny being a hair,
Speaker 1: hairs look lanky in ways that rabbits, with their shorter
Speaker 1: ears and shorter legs, just don't. Also, hairs are more
Speaker 1: likely to be gray in color, though hairs and rabbits
Speaker 1: both come in a range of colors and patterns from
Speaker 1: white to brown to black, with lots of gradients in between.
Speaker 1: Hairs are also less social than bunnies. Hairs don't hang
Speaker 1: out with their families, and by all accounts, neither does bugs.
Speaker 1: But hairs live completely above ground, whereas bugs, bunny lives
Speaker 1: in a burrow like a rabbit that most bunnies create
Speaker 1: burrows or warrens in which they live and hide their young.
Speaker 1: There is one thing that could clear all this up,
Speaker 1: DNA analysis. Rabbits have forty four chromosomes, while members of
Speaker 1: the hair genus have so analyss of bugs Bunny, a
Speaker 1: genetic material would wrap this up once and for all,
Speaker 1: except that he's not real. So maybe instead of splitting
Speaker 1: hairs over taxonomy, we should all just relax with a
Speaker 1: character free and enjoy some classic cartoons. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article is bugs, Bunny, a rabbit or
Speaker 1: a hair? On how stuff Works dot Com? Written by
Speaker 1: lore L Dove. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and
Speaker 1: it is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my
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