Screwball "Screwy" Squirrel is a
cartoon character, an
anthropomorphic squirrel created by
Tex Avery for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, generally considered the wackiest of the
screwball cartoon characters of the 1940s, which included
Warner Bros.'s
Bugs Bunny and
Daffy Duck,
Disney's
Aracuan Bird, and
Walter Lantz's
Woody Woodpecker.
Among the most intangible and non-standard cartoon characters ever created, Screwy (voiced by
Wally Maher) can do almost anything to almost anyone: he pulls objects out of thin air, doubles himself, and constantly breaks the
fourth wall; all the while uttering a characteristic cackling laugh. The character was not as successful as Avery's Happy Hound (later
Droopy) was at this time, and Screwy was phased out after appearing in only five cartoons between 1944 and 1946.
The character was notable for being brash and erratic, and is considered by some to be annoying with few sympathetic personality characteristics such as
Bugs Bunny's nobility or
Daffy Duck's pathos. Most of his cartoons revolve around him inflicting various forms of torture on his enemy (usually Meathead Dog, voiced by Dick Nelson) for seven minutes. In
The Screwy Truant, Screwy hits a dog across the head with everything he can find in a trunk labeled "Assorted Swell Stuff to Hit Dog on Head". When he finishes, the dog remarks, "Gee whiz! He hit me with
everything but the kitchen sink!" Screwy responds with, "Well, don't want to disappoint you, chum,"...
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