Gossamer (Looney Tunes)
Gossamer is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The character is a hairy, red monster. His rectangular body is perched on two giant tennis shoes, and his face is composed of only two oval-shaped eyes and a wide mouth, with two hulking arms ending in dirty, clawed fingers. The monster's main trait, however, is bright red hair. In fact, a gag in the 1980 short Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century lampoons this by revealing that Gossamer is, in fact, composed entirely of hair.
Animator Chuck Jones introduced the monster character in the 1946 film Hair-Raising Hare. In it, Bugs Bunny is lured to the lair of a mad scientist who wants to use the rabbit for his experiments. The monster (here called "Rudolph") serves as the scientist's henchman, trying desperately to capture the bunny. This plot was repeated in the 1952 Jones short Water, Water Every Hare, in which the character was again referred to as "Rudolph." The monster would remain dormant for many decades until Jones used the character once more in Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century in 1980. This is the first cartoon where the character is called "Gossamer", and is so named by Marvin the Martian.
Gossamer has also appeared in a cameo role in a number of recent Warner Bros. productions. He was in a 1990 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, for example ("Duck Treck"), and he appears briefly in the 1996 movie Space Jam. He has also featured in a number of episodes of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.
In recent years, Warner Bros. marketers seem to have seized upon the character. Gossamer's image is available on all sorts of Warners merchandise, from T-shirts to ballcaps to plush toys. This sort of marketing helped propel The Tasmanian Devil to newfound stardom, and it is seemingly helping Gossamer's popularity to some extent. It remains unclear whether Gossamer will become one of the more popular Looney Tunes characters, as has Taz, or if he will remain relatively obscure. In 2001 Gossamer returned in the Sheep Raider video game. He also appears in the Loonatics Unleashed series as a wrestling rival for Slam Tasmanian who hails from "the planet Gossamer."
A clip in the deleted scenes featurette on the Looney Tunes: Back in Action DVD features Gossamer being harassed by Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman), suggesting that Gossamer was planned to make an appearance in the film, but it was deleted. However, a full look at this scene is not shown in the full deleted scenes clips on the DVD-ROM.
Trivia
In the flash cartoon Halloween Potion-ma-jig on the Homestar Runner website, the character Strong Mad is dressed as an orange version of Gossamer.
