I admit it: I’m a voice nerd. It’s one of the side effects of a career in radio and a lifelong love of language (for which I equally credit my English teacher Grandma and the works of George Carlin.) I could spend hours talking about the skills of Don Messick or Frank Welker, or even the peculiar appeal of Lenny Weinrib, but for the real coup de grace, you have to go with Mel Blanc. His sixty-year career included nearly the entirety of Looney Tunes output (he didn’t originate the role of Elmer Fudd, though he did take over after the original voice actor’s death), massive amounts of radio, as well as voicing Barney Rubble, originating the role of Woody Woodpecker and the seminal role of Bob & Doug McKenzie’s dad in ‘Strange Brew.’ Granted, that last one was probably two lines in all, but sticks in your head anyway, leading us to today’s vocal query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) grew up on ‘Speed Buggy’, but still loves the classic Daffy Duck Looney Tunes, asking: Which of the hundreds of Mel Blanc roles is your favorite of them all?
9 Comments
Hmm, its one of the Looney Tunes characters and out of those, I like Wile E Coyote the most.
Although most of his Loony Tunes were great, Daffy Duck is an amazingly complex range of voice work. Pulling off that degree of pathos with such a high degree of farce in play is really pretty impressive.
When I was in college back in the ’80’s, we had Mel Blanc come and give a speech for the college. I was friends with the University’s Student Program director and he said that one of the funniest things he ever saw and heard was when they were bringing Mel to the school from the New Orleans airport was going through the drive through at McDonalds and Mel ordering their food in the voices of Daffy Duck and Bugs.
Although I have a great love for Captain Caveman, I gotta go with Maxwell.
…or the English horse. Cracks me up every time…
I agree on Daffy Duck. Sometimes he’s the annoying antagonist, sometimes he’s the tragic hero, sometimes he’s just an animated punching bag. But he’s always engaging and entertaining as a character regardless of which role he’s plugged into.
This is like asking which pizza topping is my favorite. He’s done so many great voices, bringing distinct personalities and depth beyond what was written for the characters that it is difficult to pick.
But if I must choose, I’ll go with Daffy Duck, with Captain Caveman coming in a close second.
Today the answer is Twiki the robot, from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. It was robo-Porky Pig, what’s better than that?
Bidi-bidi-bidi.
Mel Blanc is one of my favorite voice actors. “Sid” is one of my favorites. It’s from a skit on the Jack Benny skit.