Foghorn Leghorn

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"That's a joke, I say, that's a joke, son."

Foghorn Leghorn is a recurring character of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short subjects, created by Robert McKimson. Despite only starring in 28 short cartoons between 1946 and 1963, he is still considered a major star of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

The shorts are centered on the eponymous Rhode Island rooster with a Central Virginia accent, with no filter between his mouth and his mind, and very expressive body language. His voice is patterned after a 1930s radio character known as "The Sheriff", with his phrases cribbed from Senator Claghorn, a regular character of the Fred Allen radio show.

Foghorn considers himself the life of the party. He demonstrates this by tricking baby chickenhawks out of capturing him, abusing Mandrake the barnyard dog by beating him with a wooden board and painting his tongue green, or babysitting a genius chick named Eggbert in order to cozy up to his widow hen mother.

Foghorn made several appearances in Tiny Toon Adventures, made a cameo in the ending of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and appeared in two of the 1990s Chuck Jones shorts. He also appeared in Space Jam, and made a brief appearance in Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Currently, ol' Foggy's appearances are infrequent, aside from commercial work for KFC, Oscar Meyer and Geico. His most recent^[when?] appearance was in The Looney Tunes Show episode "The Foghorn Leghorn Story".

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Filmography

All shorts up to "Banty Raids" are directed by Robert McKimson.

• Walky Talky Hawky (1946)
• Crowing Pains (1947)
• The Foghorn Leghorn (1948)
• Henhouse Henery (1949)
• The Leghorn Blows at Midnight (1950)
• A Fractured Leghorn (1950)
• Leghorn Swoggled (1951)
• Lovelorn Leghorn (1951)
• Sock-A-Doodle-Do (1952)
• The Egg-Cited Roosters (1952)
• Plop Goes the Weasel (1953)
• Of Rice and Hen (1953)
• Little Boy Boo (1954)
• Feather Dusted (1955)
• All Fowled Up (1955)
• Weasel Stop (1956)
• The High and the Flighty (1956)
• Raw! Raw! Rooster! (1956)
• Fox Terror (1957)
• Feather Bluster (1958)
• Weasel While You Work (1958)
• A Broken Leghorn (1959)
• Crocket-Doodle-Do (1960)
• The Dixie Fryer (1960)
• Strangled Eggs (1961)
• The Slick Chick (1962)
• Mother was a Rooster (1962)
• Banty Raids (1963)

• False Hare (1964): A Bugs Bunny cartoon, but Foggy makes a cameo.
• The Yolk's On You (1980): Cameo, part of Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-Citement
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988): Cameos in the ending.
• Superior Duck (1996): Cameo appearance.
• Space Jam (1996)
• Pullet Surprise (1997)
• Tweety's High-Flying Adventuure (2000)
• Cock-A-Doodle Duel (2004)
• GEICO-Foghorn Leghorn (2011)

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Tropes used in Foghorn Leghorn include:

• Bratty Half-Pint: Henery Hawk.
• Breakout Character: The original short was meant to be a vehicle for Henery Hawk, but the "loud-mouthed shnook" stole the show, getting him his own series and reducing Henery to his adversary.
• Crazy Prepared: "Fortunately, I keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!" This joke was used in two cartoons.
• The Dark Age of Animation
• Dragged Into Drag: In Banty Raids, Foghorn is bound and beak-tied and forcibly dressed in drag by a machine, then married to a horny bantam rooster.
• Early Installment Weirdness and Off-Model: In the first Foghorn Leghorn cartoon (which actually focused on Henery Hawk), Foghorn had three toes instead of two and four tail feathers. By the second cartoon, Foghorn had two toes, and three tail feathers (though some cartoons depict him with four).
  • The second Foggy short Crowing Pains features the only instance of a certain black cat living on the farm.
• Escalating War: Many cartoons centered on the perpetual Foghorn vs. Mandrake back-and-forth. Which character starts the conflict varies from toon to toon, but Foggy usually ends up getting the worst of it.
• I Resemble That Remark: Groucho Marx may be the Trope Namer, but Foggy could well be the Trope Codifier.
• If It Was Funny the First Time: The joke he makes about keeping his feathers numbered was used in at least two cartoons.
• The Golden Age of Animation
• Goofy Print Underwear: In one cartoon when his feathers are blown off he is shown to have polka-dotted boxers underneath them.
• Jerkass: To an extent, Foghorn is an obnoxious loudmouth and a prankster, but does have occasional moments of good intentions.
• Leitmotif: "Camptown Races" for ol' Foggy, either played on the soundtrack or sung by Foghorn himself.
• Looney Tunes in the Forties
• Looney Tunes in the Fifties
• Looney Tunes in the Sixties
• Looney Tunes in the Seventies and Onward
• Meaningful Name: "Foghorn" describes the character's loud, overbearing voice, and leghorn describes a breed of chicken. And both are intended to resemble "Claghorn", the original inspiration for the character.
• The Millennium Age of Animation
• Motor Mouth Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnd how!
• No Indoor Voice: Take a wild guess, I say, a WILD GUESS.
• Off with His Head: When he made an appearance on Family Guy, and Played for Laughs:

"Well look at that boy, running all around like a chicken with his head cut -- wait a minute."

• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Henery Hawk, who is a speck compared to the mammoth Leghorn, yet can clobber him and effortlessly drag him!
  • In Walky Talky Hawky, Henery drags off in a line Foghorn, Barnyard Dog and a horse.
• The Renaissance Age of Animation
• Rolling Pin of Doom: Miss Prissy tries this in order to get a husband in one cartoon. After she tries it on Foggy, he advises her, "You're going about it all wrong. You don't bat 'em on the bean with a rolling pin. (Aside, to the camera) That comes later."
• Rube Goldberg Device: Occasionally either Foghorn or Mandrake gets dragged through one of these or has theirs backfire on them.
• Screwy Squirrel: Foghorn seems to enjoy pulling pranks on the dog responsible for keeping him and the other chickens safe, for no reason at all. Although, sometimes the dog is the one who starts it...
  • Granted the dog is also implied to be rather bad at his job, most of the time a predator lurks the barnyard he is asleep on the job or actually trying to set it on Foghorn as part of their Escalating War. In this light Foghorn's amnosity to him comes off as a bit justified.
• Strictly Formula: Averted for the most part. While his bouts with Henery Hawk often utilized a recurring formula, Foghorn's shorts were rather diverse compared to a lot of other characters in the Looney Tunes series, never quite sticking to one running scenario for more than two or three instances.
• Talks Like a Simile: "Nice girl, but about as sharp as sack of wet mice."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Foggy and Barnyard Dawg, sometimes.
  • Also clearly applies to Foggy and his old college roommate, Rhode Island Red; in the one episode where he shows up, Foggy does everything he can to get the guy to leave, except just telling him to leave, suggesting the trope applies to them. Indeed, Red is pretty annoying.