Rocky and Mugsy

Rocky and Mugsy
Looney Tunes character
Rocky (left) and Mugsy (right) in Bugs and Thugs
First appearance	Racketeer Rabbit (1946)/Rocky Bugs and Thugs (1954)/Mugsy
Created by	Friz Freleng
Voiced by	Mel Blanc (originally) Joe Alaskey (Both originally) Rob Paulsen and Jim Cummings (Rocky for present) Frank Welker, and Kevin Michael Richardson (Mugsy for present)
Information
Species	Humans
Gender	Both Males

Rocky and Mugsy are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. They were created by Friz Freleng.

As an animator, Friz Freleng enjoyed creating new adversaries for Warners' star Bugs Bunny, since he felt that Bugs' other nemeses, such as Beaky Buzzard and Elmer Fudd (who actually appeared in many more Freleng shorts than is commonly realized), were too stupid to give the rabbit any real challenge. Considered revolutionary for almost all of the late 1940s though he might have been, Freleng's own Yosemite Sam had not yet been proven capable of fully fulfilling his creator's intentions. Freleng introduced two of these more formidable opponents as a pair of gangsters in the 1946 film Racketeer Rabbit. In the film, Bugs decides to find himself a new home, but the one he chooses is unfortunately occupied by a duo of bank robbers. The characters here are called "Rocky" (drawn like movie gangster Edward G. Robinson) and "Hugo" (a caricatured Peter Lorre). Both gangsters are performed by the Warner studio's longtime chief voice actor, Mel Blanc.

Freleng liked the Mobster idea, and he used the concept again in the 1950 short Golden Yeggs. This time it's Porky Pig and Daffy Duck who run afoul of the Mob, only this time Rocky has not only one sidekick, but an entire gang. Freleng also redesigned Rocky for this short, making him a more generalized caricature of the "tough guy" gangster rather than Robinson in particular. Freleng used several of the same techniques that would make Sam, his other Bugs villain, such a humorous character: Despite Rocky's tough-guy demeanor, everlasting cigar (or cigarette) and foppish gangster dress, he really is little more than a dwarf in a much-too-large hat.