Bugs Bunny is known for his famous line “What’s up, man?” (“Um… What’s up, doc?” in the original), which he usually uses as a greeting to anyone he meets (usually while chewing a carrot).
It is cunning, relaxed, charismatic, shrewd and intelligent.
These personality traits are what give him an edge over his enemies, rivals, and opponents. He is characterized by being intelligent and able to outsmart almost anyone who is hostile to him, including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, the Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, Wile E. Coyote (when he is not struggling with Beep Beep), Gossamer, the witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck and many more. Bugs almost always wins these conflicts, a plot pattern that recurs particularly in films directed by Chuck Jones. Worried that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Jones made sure bugs were bullied, cheated or threatened by antagonists while doing his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense.
He is known to break the fourth wall by “communicating” with the audience, either by explaining the situation, describing someone to the audience, giving an idea of the story, or explaining that one of the actions of his antagonists pushed him to the breaking point by saying “Of course, you realize that this means war” (a joke taken from Groucho Marx) and the audience gave Bugs his tacit assent to retaliation. Other directors like Friz Freleng made Bugs help other characters in distress, thus creating acceptable circumstances for his villainies. When Bugs meets other “winning” characters like him, however, such as the turtle Cecil in the episode The Turtle and the Rabbit, or the Gremlin from Falling Hare, his results are rather poor; overconfidence tends to work against him.
