Tweety Bird

Tweety aka Tweety Pie or Tweety Bird is a fictional character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. Bob Clampett created the character that would become Tweety in 1942's "A Tale of Two Kitties", pitting him against two hungry cats named Babbott and Catstello (based on the famous radio and comedians Abbott and Costello). Tweety was originally naked (pink), jowly, and far more aggressive and saucy, as opposed to the later, more well-known version of him as a less hot-tempered (but still somewhat ornery) yellow canary. In the movie Bugs Bunny, Superstar, animator Clampett stated, in a sotto voce "aside" to the audience, that Tweety had been based "on my own naked baby picture". Clampett did three more shorts with the "naked genius", as a Jimmy Durante-ish cat once called him in "Gruesome Twosome".

Tweety is normally called Tweety Bird nowadays. His previous name originated from the episode called Tweetie Pie, Friz Freleng's first short that paired him and a character he'd used in several pictures already, a lisping cat named Sylvester. Friz toned Tweety down and cutsied him up, giving him huge blue eyes and yellow feathers.

Many of Mel Blanc's characters are notable for speech impediments. Tweety's comes from having a beak, with no lips or teeth. Thus he has trouble saying certain words, especially ones with "dental" sounds. For example, "pussy cat" comes out as "putty tat" or "puddy tat", and "sweetie pie" comes out as "tweetie pie", although it is doubtful he ever actually called himself by that name on-screen. Aside from this speech challenge, Tweety's voice (and a fair amount of his attitude) is similar to that of Bugs Bunny.

The pairing of Sylvester and Tweety was a classic. Most of their cartoons followed a standard formula:

• The hungry puddy tat wanting to eat the bird, some major obstacle stands in his way – usually Granny or her bulldog Hector (or, more often than not, numerous bulldogs).
• Tweety says his signature lines ("I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" "I did, I did taw a puddy tat!").
• Sylvester spending the entire film using progressively more elaborate schemes or devices to capture his meal.

Of course, each of his tricks fail, either due to their flaws or, more often than not, because Tweety steers the enemy cat towards Hector the Bulldog, an indignant Granny (voiced by Bea Benaderet and later June Foray), or other device (such as off the ledge of a tall building or steering him into an oncoming train).

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Quotes:

• "I tawt I taw a putty tat!"
• "I did, I did, I did taw a putty tat!"
• "Him faw down, go--BOOOOOOM!! [last word uttered loudly]

This was inspired in part by a Jazz Age song called I Faw Down and Go Boom

• "You know dat putty donna hurt himself, if he's not more careful."
• In response to Hector the Bulldog chasing away Sylvester: "Uh-oh! Da putty got another pwaymate."

Tweety problems

Curiously, Tweety has become something of an icon in the field of non-monotonic logic. The Tweety problem is as follows; suppose you know that Tweety is a bird and that all birds fly. You will then conclude that Tweety must fly. Now I tell you that Tweety is a penguin, and you will conclude that Tweety does not fly since penguins don't fly. Accounting for these kinds of inference is difficult in general.

Filmography

• A Tale of Two Kitties
• Birdy and the Beast
• A Gruesome Twosome
• Tweetie Pie
• I Taw A Putty Tat
• Bad Ol' Putty Tat
• Home Tweet Home
• All A Bir-r-r-d
• Canary Row
• Puddy Tat Twouble
• Room and Bird
• Tweety's SOS
• Tweet, Tweet Tweety
• Gift Wrapped
• Ain't She Tweet
• Bird in Guilty Cage
• Snow Business
• Fowl Weather
• Tom Tom Tomcat
• A Street Cat Named Sylvester
• Catty Cornered
• Dog Pounded
• Muzzle Tough
• Satan's Waitin
• Sandy Claws
• Tweety's Circus
• Red Riding Hoodwinked
• Tweet And Sour
• Tree Cornered Tweety
• Tugboat Granny
• Tweet Zoo
• Tweety And The Beanstalk
• Birds Anonymous
• Greedy For Tweety
• A Pizza Tweety Pie
• A Bird In A Bonnet
• Trick Or Tweet
• Tweet And Lovely
• Tweet Dreams
• Hyde And Go Tweet
• Trip For Tat
• Rebel Without Claws
• The Last Hungry Cat
• The Jet Cage
• Hawaiian Aye Aye

During the 1990s, Tweety also starred in an animated TV series called The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, in which Granny ran a detective agency with the assistance of Tweety, Sylvester and Hector. In 2003, a younger version of him premiered on Baby Looney Tunes.

Tweety appeared in an early 1990s public service announcement, warning parents of the dangers of boiling temperature bath water.

In the TV series Tiny Toon Adventures, Tweety appeared in several episodes as the mentor of Sweetie Pie.de:Sylvester und Tweety es:Piolín pt:Piu-piu