A Look Inside Mel Blanc’s Throat as He Performs the Voices of Bugs Bunny and Other Cartoon Legends

Last month we told you about The Strange Day When Bugs Bun­ny Saved the Life of Mel Blanc. It’s a true tale about how, back in 1971, Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bun­ny and oth­er beloved Looney Tunes char­ac­ters, got into a ter­ri­ble car acci­dent in Los Ange­les and slipped into a coma. Blanc’s wife and son spent two long weeks in the hos­pi­tal try­ing to revive him, but got no response. But then, one day, Blanc’s neu­rol­o­gist walked into the room and said to the patient: “Bugs Bun­ny, how are you doing today?” After a pause, a voice said, “Myeeeeh. What’s up doc?” You can get more on that sto­ry here. In the mean­time, we’ll amuse you with anoth­er short sto­ry. Once upon a time, an ear-nose-and-throat spe­cial­ist want­ed to see how Mel Blanc (1908–1989) per­formed all of those Looney Tunes car­toon voic­es. So he took a fiber optic laryn­go­scope, stuck it down Blanc’s throat, and here’s what he saw. Watch above.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Cel­e­brate Superman’s 75th Anniver­sary by Enjoy­ing the Orig­i­nal Super­man Car­toon and Radio Show

The Sto­ry Of Men­stru­a­tion: Watch Walt Disney’s Sex Ed Film from 1946

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  • Donna Savage says:

    His throat even looks like a Loony Toons char­ac­ter! So great. I miss that man’s tal­ent and those super clever types of car­toons he was a major part of. I hope that some­day, we will have anoth­er ani­ma­tion renais­sance.

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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.