3284. Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character produced by Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are series of cartoons which Daffy has appeared on. Daffy is usually seen as the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny. Daffy was one of the first of the new "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to replace traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who were more popular earlier in the decade[citation needed]. Daffy starred in 133 shorts in the Golden Age, third amongst Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, behind Bugs Bunny's 166 appearances and Porky Pig's 159 appearances.
Daffy was #14 on TV Guide's list of top 50 best cartoon characters, and was featured on one of the issue's four covers as Duck Dodgers with Porky Pig and the Powerpuff Girls (all of which are Time Warner-owned characters).

Daffy first appeared on April 17, 1937, in Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett. The cartoon is a standard hunter/prey pairing for which Leon Schlesinger's studio was famous, but Daffy (barely more than an unnamed bit player in this short) represented something new to moviegoers: an assertive, combative protagonist, completely unrestrainable. As Clampett later recalled, "At that time, audiences weren't accustomed to seeing a cartoon character do these things. And so, when it hit the theaters it was an explosion. People would leave the theaters talking about this daffy duck."
This early Daffy is less anthropomorphic and resembles a "normal" duck. The Mel Blanc voice characterization and the white neck ring contrasting with the black feathers, are about the only aspects of the character that remained consistent through the years. Blanc's characterization of Daffy holds the world record for the longest characterization of one animated character by his or her original actor: 52 years.
The origin of Daffy's voice is a matter of some debate. One oft-repeated "official" story is that it was modeled after producer Schlesinger's tendency to lisp. However, in Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All Folks!, he contradicts that conventional belief, writing "It seemed to me that such an extended mandible would hinder his speech, particularly on words containing an s sound. Thus 'despicable' became 'desthpicable'."
Daffy's slobbery, exaggerated lisp was developed over time, being barely noticeable in the early cartoons. In Daffy Duck & Egghead, Daffy does not lisp at all, except in the separately drawn set-piece of Daffy singing "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", in which just a slight lisp can be heard.
Daffy has no official middle name, but he has sometimes been given a "joke" middle name specific to the plot of a cartoon. In The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1949), he calls himself "Daffy Dumas Duck" as the writer of a swashbuckling script, a nod to Alexandre Dumas. In The Looney Tunes Show (2011), the joke middle names "Armando" and "Sheldon" are used.