Warner Brothers cartoon character.
Chubby little pig. Rarely wears
pants.
Chronic stutterer.
Boyfriend of
Petunia Pig.
Porky was Warner's first important cartoon
star. He had his
debut in
Friz Freleng's "
I Haven't Got a Hat" in 1935 as a cute little kid with a horrible
stutter. He wasn't an immediate
hit, but he grew more
popular as he was featured in more
cartoons. His
appearance and
attitude changed from cartoon to cartoon in the early days -- he'd change from a
shy schoolboy to an
obese hog to a
svelte loverboy to a
country hick to a
naive explorer. It was Porky who carried the fledgling
animation studio through its
infancy.
As more characters were added to Warner's
roster, Porky became more of a
straight man to the far daffier
Daffy Duck and the more sophisticated
Bugs Bunny. He occasionally stood in for
Elmer Fudd in
hunting cartoons. Porky was
neglected throughout most of the 1940s until
Chuck Jones began
casting him as Daffy's regular
foil, often
commenting
wryly on the egotistical duck's
shenanigans, sometimes playing the eager young
admirer who urges Daffy on toward more
mayhem, sometimes even
saving the day when Daffy proved too
inept to do the job himself, and occasionally even
jeering Daffy openly and humiliatingly.
Some of my favorite Porky cartoons include: "
Porky's Romance," "
Porky's Duck Hunt," "
Porky in Wackyland," "
You Ought to Be in Pictures," "
Porky's Preview," "
The Pest that Came to Dinner," "
Little Orphan Airedale," "
Scaredy Cat," "
Drip-Along Daffy," "
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century," and "
Robin Hood Daffy."
UPDATE: kthejoker says:
"You should mention that Joe Dougherty, who did Porky's original voice, actually did stutter (thus giving Porky his), but they fired him when Mel Blanc came along and gave them a controlled stutter."
"Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all, folks!"