Gossamer is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie
Melodies series of cartoons. The character is a hairy, orange monster. His rectangular
body is perched on two giant tennis shoes, and his heart-shaped face is composed of only
two oval eyes and a wide mouth, with two hulking arms ending in dirty, clawed fingers. The
monster's main trait, however, is bright uncombed orange hair. In fact, a gag in the 1980 short
Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century lampoons this by revealing that Gossamer
is, in fact, composed entirely of hair. He was originally voiced by Mel Blanc and has
been voiced by Frank Welker, Joe Alaskey, Jim Cummings, and Kwesi Boakye.
The word "gossamer" means any sort of thin, fragile, transparent material — in particular,
it can refer to a kind of delicate, sheer gauze or a light cobweb. The name is meant
to be ironic, since the character is large, menacing, and destructive.
History Animator Chuck Jones introduced the monster
character in the 1946 cartoon Hair-Raising Hare. In it, Bugs Bunny is lured to the lair
of a mad scientist as food for Gossamer. The monster serves as the scientist's henchman.
Part of this plot was repeated in the 1952 Jones cartoon Water, Water Every Hare, in
which the monster's character is referred to as "Rudolph". The mad scientist, in need
of a live brain for his giant robot, releases Rudolph from his chamber on a mission to capture
Bugs Bunny; Rudolph shows a sudden burst of joyousness and quickly sets out when the mad
scientist promises the reward of "spider goulash" for capturing the rabbit. The monster next
appears in Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century in 1980. This is the first
cartoon where the character is called "Gossamer", and is so named by Marvin the Martian. Jones
gave the monster this name "because he's the opposite looking of gossamer. He's a big,
hairy thing." Later appearances
Gossamer has also appeared in a cameo role in a number of recent Warner Bros productions.
He appeared in 1990s episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures, including a prominent role in
a Frankenstein parody segment in the Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery special.
He appears briefly in the 1996 movie Space Jam, and he has also been featured in a number
of episodes of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. He was used as an enemy in Bugs Bunny Crazy
Castle 4 and his silhouette appears on the cover of the game.
He is a boss character in the Looney Tunes video games Taz: Escape from Mars; Sheep,
Dog, 'n' Wolf; and Taz: Wanted. Gossamer also makes a cameo in the Pinky and
the Brain episode Star Warners. Gossamer appeared in the Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
episode "Monsters are Real" where he was shown on the Gromble's monitor as one of the best
monsters to scare people and animals. He appears in the Videogame Looney Tunes Collector Alert
as a boss in the Count's Castle, and a non-playable character.
Gossamer appeared in the Warner Bros.'s Beetlejuice as redesign named The Monster Across the Street
In recent years, Warner Bros marketers seem to have seized upon the character. Gossamer's
image is available on all sorts of Warner's merchandise, from T-shirts to ball caps to
plush toys. This sort of marketing helped propel The Tasmanian Devil to new-found stardom,
and it is seemingly helping Gossamer's popularity to some extent.
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
named Gorlop, who hails from "the planet Gossamer." A younger Gossamer appeared in an episode
of Baby Looney Tunes as a helper in Pepe Le Pew's garden.
He also appears in 2006's Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas as a Security Guard
who has to work overtime without pay for greedy Daffy Duck.
A clip in the deleted-scenes featurette on the Looney Tunes: Back in Action DVD features
Gossamer being harassed by Kate Houghton, 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.
Gossamer appeared in The Looney Tunes Show episodes "Monster Talent", "Newspaper Thief",
"Sunday Night Slice" and "The Muh-Muh-Muh-Murder" voiced by Kwesi Boakye. Strangely, Witch Hazel
is somehow his mother. Gossamer is a child in this incarnation, a lonely boy who just
wants to make friends. To that end, he seeks the dubious advice of Daffy Duck. In "Monster
Talent" he makes his debut. In Newspaper Thief he appears as a guest at the Dinner with Witch
Hazel, Granny and Yosemite Sam. In" Sunday Night Slice" he is a client of the Pizzariba.
In "The Muh-Muh-Muh-Murder" he appears at Pizzariba for Daffy's birthday party.
Gossamer also made a cameo in the MetLife commercial "Everyone" that was first seen
during Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. In September 2002, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran
a special Gossamer paint scheme at Richmond International Raceway during the Chevy Rock
and Roll 400 weekend in which he and his brother Kerry ran Looney Tunes cars in the Busch Series
race, and nine drivers (Skinner, Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon [who crashed his Bugs Bunny car
in final practice for the race and, therefore, the Bugs car never saw race action], Joe Nemechek,
Kevin Harvick, Jeff Green, Robby Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Greg Biffle [in place of Bobby
Hamilton, who was injured in a Truck Series race two days before] ran Looney Tunes paint
schemes. He is a playable character in the games Looney
Tunes: Acme Arsenal and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Gossamer is an enemy in Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble.
References ^ Korkis, Jim. "The Return of Duck Dodgers".
Outré magazine. p. 86.