Crazy little black duck. One of Warner Brothers' most important and popular cartoon characters and one of the few characters whose development was contributed to by all of Warner's major animators.
Daffy started out, when he made his debut in Tex Avery's "Porky's Duck Hunt" back in 1937, as an extremely wacky character with a penchant for shouting "Whoo-Hoo!" and bouncing all over the place. His daffy attitude continued under the direction of Robert Clampett, who gave the duck an extremely elastic body capable of the most bizarre, surrealistic stunts. Robert McKimson redesigned Daffy into a form more closely resembling his current appearance, and Friz Freleng began to turn him into a more intelligent and sophisticated (though still way insane) character.
Of course, Chuck Jones made the greatest and most lasting refinements in Daffy's character, evolving him into the greedy, cowardly, fame-hungry loser we all know and love.
Daffy's best cartoons include: "Porky's Duck Hunt," "The Daffy Doc," "Book Revue," "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," "Rabbit Fire," "Drip-Along Daffy," "Rabbit Seasoning," "Duck Amuck," "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century," "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!," "Ali Baba Bunny," "Robin Hood Daffy," and his brilliant piano duet with cross-studio rival Donald Duck in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."
Some research from "That's All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation" by Steve Schneider, published by Henry Holt and Company, copyright 1988, pp. 150-161.