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Glite Dictionary
Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

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A series of short cartoons made by Warner Bros that feature characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
  • proper noun
  • /ˈluːni tuːnz/
translation icon : Looney Tunes
  • My favorite character in Looney Tunes is Bugs Bunny because he is so funny.
  • Looney Tunes: Back in Action
  • Looney Tunes: Back

I hate that rabbit and I hate those Looney Tunes.

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Examples

  • Do you remember that Looney Tunes cartoon?

  • In the meanwhile, they released Back in Action, which was a Looney Tunes film with Brendan Fraser.

  • There's this one contractor electrician guy who used to work for my dad and he could do like any Looney Tunes character's voice perfectly.

  • Each features animation at its best in three key brands: Hanna-Barbera (May), Looney Tunes (June), and DC Comics (August).

    Blog text (18)

  • HBO Max's Looney Tunes reboot is disarming some classic characters.

  • I grew up watching Looney Tunes every Saturday morning.

  • Many of the jokes in Looney Tunes cartoons are loved by both kids and adults.

Surface Forms

Looney Tunes main

Morphology

looney + tune

The literal constituents 'looney' (crazy person) and 'tunes' (melodies) would lead a learner to infer something like 'crazy songs' rather than a specific series of animated shorts. 'Looney Tunes' is a proper name and cultural brand referring to a cartoon franchise, so its referential meaning cannot be derived from the parts and requires prior exposure.

Etymology

The name Looney Tunes mixes looney, meaning 'crazy', and tunes, meaning 'music', because the early short films used lots of music and wild, silly action. So, the title came to mean the famous series of funny, wild cartoon short films.