Virgil Ross was struggling to make it as an animator during the Great Depression, going from Disney to Ub Iwerks to Universal, where he worked on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, and then to Warner Brothers, where he teamed up with cartoonist Tex Avery to create one of the most memorable animated characters in television history. Word came down from the story department they wanted the drawing of a rabbit, and the studio’s artists each submitted their rendition. The one that got picked was named “Bugs,” after one of the employees there. The rabbit would be pursued by a hunter in the form of Elmer Fudd, a situation reprised for many of the subsequent episodes.

On this day, July 27, in 1940, Warner Brothers introduced the still-unnamed rabbit that would become Bugs Bunny in “A Wild Hare”, a play on the homonym “hair” (which was further reinforced by the music from the song “I’m Just Wild About Harry” that played during the opening sequence.

Bugs Bunny’s signature line, “What’s up, Doc?” with a mouthful of carrot was a spin on the Clark Gable character on It Happened One Night, who in one scene was also biting off a carrot faster than he could swallow it. The scene was famous enough that audiences immediately recognized it. This was just one of many references to popular culture of the time contained within the cartoon.