Porky Pig

Porky Pig is a cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series who appeared on Broadway in 1990 in Bugs Bunny on Broadway. He holds the distinction of being the oldest continuing Looney Tunes character and was the first character created by the studio whose star power alone drew audiences.

Porky made his debut in the 100th Warner Bros. short, I Haven't Got a Hat, released on March 2, 1935, and directed by Friz Freleng. The character originated from a suggestion by studio head Leon Schlesinger to produce a cartoon in the style of the popular Our Gang films. Though Porky's role in that first short was minor, the stuttering pig rapidly gained popularity. His name was drawn from two brothers who had been childhood classmates of Freleng, known by the nicknames "Porky" and "Piggy." Tex Avery's 1935 film Gold Diggers of '49 reused cast members from I Haven't Got a Hat, and in it Porky transitioned from a shy child to a heavyset adult, earning most of the laughs despite a supporting role.

The character's most recognizable trait is a pronounced stutter, which he sometimes navigates by substituting words mid-sentence. His original voice actor, Joe Dougherty, was himself a person who stuttered, but because Dougherty's uncontrolled stutter drove up production costs through lengthy recording sessions, Mel Blanc replaced him in 1937. Blanc shaped the stutter into a precise comedic tool, and he remained the permanent voice of Porky until his death in 1989. Blanc stated in later interviews that he intended the stutter to evoke the grunting of actual pigs. Porky is currently voiced by Bob Bergen and Eric Bauza.

Bob Clampett brought consistency to the character beginning in 1939, establishing Porky as a permanent young adult who was slimmer, more intelligent, and somewhat less of a stutterer than earlier incarnations. Prior to that, Porky's age, appearance, and personality had shifted from film to film, with some cartoons depicting him as a child with a father named Phineas and an unnamed mother. Clampett's version of the character was an innocent figure encountering the strangeness of the world, a concept most fully realized in Porky in Wackyland, in which Porky searches for the last surviving Dodo. That film was later selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2000.

Porky appeared in 153 cartoons during the golden age of American animation. In 1937, the studio began pairing him with various sidekicks, including Petunia Pig, Gabby Goat, and Daffy Duck. Daffy, created by Tex Avery, proved the most popular of these pairings and eventually eclipsed Porky in prominence. Chuck Jones later refined Porky's role as a straight man opposite Daffy in a series of film and television parodies, including Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, Drip-Along Daffy, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, and Robin Hood Daffy. Jones also cast Porky alongside Sylvester the Cat in a series of late 1940s and early 1950s cartoons in which Porky plays the oblivious owner of the cat, unaware that Sylvester is repeatedly saving him from various threats.

Porky's signature closing line, delivered by bursting through a bass drum head, is "Th-Th... That's all, folks!" A version of that phrase, without the stutter, had previously been used by the characters Bosko, Buddy, and Beans at the conclusions of Looney Tunes cartoons. On television, Porky entered syndication in the 1960s, and The Porky Pig Show ran as a Saturday morning program from 1964 to 1967, followed by Porky Pig and Friends in 1971, both of which compiled earlier theatrical shorts. The 1986 film Porky Pig in Hollywood, another such compilation, screened in art and college theaters. In print, Porky headlined a self-titled comic book series from Dell Comics between 1942 and 1962, after which Gold Key Comics continued the series for 109 issues from January 1965 to June 1984.