| Southern Fried Rabbit | |
| Director: | I. Freleng |
| Story: | Warren Foster |
| Animator: | Ken Champin Arthur Davis Manuel Perez Virgil Ross |
| Layout Artist: | Hawley Pratt |
| Background Artist: | Irv Wyner |
| Starring: | Mel Blanc |
| Music: | Carl W. Stalling |
| Producer: | Edward Selzer |
| Studio: | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Color Process: | Technicolor |
| Runtime: | 6:45 |
| Language: | English |
Southern Fried Rabbit is a 1953 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.[1] The cartoon was released on May 2, 1953, and stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.[2]
Bugs Bunny hears of a record carrot crop in Alabama, prompting him to head South. At the Mason–Dixon line, he comes under fire from Yosemite Sam, who is wearing a Confederate uniform and claims to have orders from General Lee to stop any "Yankee" who tries to cross the border. Bugs points out that the Civil War ended almost 90 years ago, but his protests fall on deaf ears.
Bugs uses a series of disguises in order to fool Sam: first a banjo-playing slave, then Abraham Lincoln, then "Brickwall Jackson", then a Southern belle, and finally an injured Confederate soldier. In the last guise, he tricks Sam into heading for Tennessee by telling him "the Yankees are in Chattanooga". The short ends with Sam brandishing his gun at the New York Yankees, who have come to Chattanooga for an exhibition game.
Due to later controversies about the portrayal of ethnic stereotypes in cartoons, the scene where Bugs crosses the border disguised as a slave and Abraham Lincoln was cut from the episode's television broadcastings.[3]
Southern Fried Rabbit was made available on a VHS tape, and its restored, uncut version on DVD in .