Now the sequence switches to an analogy with a carnival midway strongman game where someone uses a mallet to bash a weight up to the top of a pole, the winner getting a prize. That’s what happens here. Elmer soars to the top of a tree, bashes against a branch, a bell is heard, then when he lands, Bugs Bunny fishes into his pocket for the prize—a cigar.
The scene ends with a little balletic dance as Bugs exits.
This, of course, is from A Wild Hare (1940), Tex Avery’s Oscar-nominated take on Bugs. The pacing of the cartoon is far more measured than what he would create at MGM, where it seemed like he tried to cram as many gags in a short as possible. But the slower tempo works here. The audience is given the time to anticipate and then watch what the rabbit will do.
Virgil Ross is the only credited animator, but the Avery unit had Bob and Chuck McKimson, Sid Sutherland and Rod Scribner in it by this point.
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