Visit Wagnabbit...just for the fun of it

Visit Wagnabbit…just for the fun of it

Introducing Wagnabbit…a blog that intends to delve into topics of general interest that will evoke genuine “dagnabbit” responses from readers…as in “I’ll be darned, I’ve been mommicked or dang shucks.”

In short, the parameters for eligible subject matter are boundless…just as long as it amazes and/or annoys this writer…and the resulting essays can be enriched with an infusion of humor. If it’s not fun, it’s not worth me writing about it or you reading it.

Dan Nosowitz, a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y., says “dagnabbit” is one of the “most hilarious words in the English language…full of very funny hard syllables and, for most Americans, it’s most often heard coming out of the cartoon mouth of Yosemite Sam.”

Yosemite Sam is a Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated cartoon character, who debuted with Warner Bros. Studios in 1944. He is commonly depicted as hot-tempered, pistol-toting, rough-neck buckaroo who hates rabbits…especially Bugs Bunny.

Yosemite Sam was not the first Looney Tunes character to utter “dagnabbit.” Elmer Fudd, whose cartoon existence dates back to 1940, was the original archenemy of Bugs, and some cartoon buffs credit Elmer with creating the word “dagnabbit” as a Fuddism for “dang rabbit.”

That seems inconsistent with Elmer’s speech impediment, in which he nearly always vocalized the consonants “r” and “l” with a “w” sound. Hence, Elmer would more likely have said, “dang wabbit.”

Elmer was usually cast as a hapless big-game hunter, armed with a puny shotgun, on a mission to “off” Bugs Bunny, who was always stealing carrots from Elmer’s garden. It’s said the studio actually created Yosemite Sam to be a more worthy adversary for Bugs Bunny. Elmer Fudd had been characterized as a dimwitted, bumbling buffoon, so he was a pushover for Bugs.

Then, along came Deputy Dawg in 1962, as Terrytoons introduced a whole new generation of television cartoon watchers to the word “dagnabbit.”

In the clip “Dagnabit Rabbit,” Deputy Dawg solicits help from Muskie Muskrat and Vincent van Gopher to thwart the unnamed father rabbit character who is stealing produce from Deputy Dawg’s garden adjacent to the jailhouse in order to feed his wife and their offspring, a fluffle that extended as far as the eye could see on the TV screen.

Wayne Groner of Springfield, Mo., is a multi-talented author, writer and public speaker. He also has a consulting business through which he coaches people how to write their life stories as memoirs, biographies or family histories. His blog is “Your Memories, Your Book.”

For the fun of it, he’s done a lot of research on the use of “dagnabbit” on the silver screen and in television productions.

Actor Gabby Hayes, who was the scruffy cowboy sidekick of Roy Rogers in the 1942 film, “Sunset on the Desert,” used the word “dagnabbit” in a fit of pseudo cussing.

Born in 1885 as George Francis Hayes, he had a profitable career in vaudeville, retiring in 1928 at age 43. But then lost everything in the 1929 stock-market crash. Hayes resurfaced in Hollywood and quickly began to seek his second fortune by acting in Western movies.

Hayes gained fame as Hopalong Cassidy’s sidekick Windy Halliday in many films between 1936-39. A salary dispute, however, with Paramount Pictures reached an impasse and Hayes was out of a job and legally precluded from using the “Windy” nickname. He evolved into Gabby Hayes and worked almost exclusively as a Western sidekick, teaming with stars such as John Wayne, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Randolph Scott.

Groner’s research found three other actors, also from the Westerns film genre, who were known to deliver “dagnabbit” lines with great emotion. They were Walter Brennan, Andy Devine and Slim Pickens. All went on to have highly successful careers in the entertainment industry.

From the trivia trove:

Brennan is the only Hollywood actor of all time to win three Oscars as Best Supporting Actor, winning in 1937 for “Come and Get It,” in 1939 for “Kentucky” and in 1941 for “The Westerner.”

Devine’s “distinctive raspy, crackly, scratchy duo-tone voice became his trademark.” Once he was asked if he had strange nodes on his vocal cords, to which Devine replied, “I’ve got the same nodes as Bing Crosby, but his are in tune.”

Louis Burton Lindley Jr. was considered to be an excellent rider. He worked in rodeo for 20 years despite a salary of “slim pickings,” which led to his new name – Slim Pickens. Pickens also worked as a rodeo clown and was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.

More recently, “dagnabbit” has been featured prominently in the television advertising world for two major insurance companies.

In 2009, Progressive introduced a commercial starring an old coot customer who was confounded when Flo, the sales representative, handed him the “name your own price tool.” He asked: “Do I still get all the dagnabbit coverage I need?”

In 2013, GEICO brought back its celebrated farmer Old McDonald (from 2005), who was a really bad spelling bee speller. His word was “cow,” which he laboriously spelled “c-o-w…e-i-e-i-o.” After being buzzed, McDonald issued his classic “dagnabbit” line with disgust and a classic gesture as he dejectedly trudged off the stage.

Despite his spelling ineptitude, McDonald’s an intelligent chap…probably the only Midwesterner to know GEICO is an acronym for the Government Employees Insurance Company.

Dagnabbit, have you ever been “mommicked?”

Check out the Wagnabitt blog and let me know what you think.