New evidence has been uncovered that proves that beloved cartoon character Bugs Bunny was actually a hare.

“Hollywood in the 1940s was ‘rabbit-crazy’.  Rabbits were all the rage.  If you were a rabbit you were guaranteed a job and access to all the hip clubs” states James Wilson, author of “Hares and Hollywood:  A Shocking History.”

“Yet hares were not welcome.  Hares were segregated to ‘Hareland’ in L.A.  They could not find work.  This is the environment that Bugs Bunny came to.  Is it any wonder he changed his name and tried to pass himself off as a rabbit?”

Bugs adopted the stage name “Bunny” and soon was the most popular actor in Hollywood.   There were always rumors of his hare blood however.  Bugs had large ears, a common hare trait.  Rabbits have smaller ears.  When asked about this by a muckraking reporter Bugs claimed that his large ears were a result of a childhood accident involving a threshing machine and Rogers Hornsby.

Also Bugs displayed marked ‘Hare” behavior.  Unlike other rabbits in the popular rabbit enclaves of ’40s Hollywood Bugs did not live below ground but made his home in a flattened nest of grass.  Again, when asked about this uncommon rabbit behavior Bugs told reporters that he cannot live below ground because of “acute claustrophobia.”

There is evidence that Bugs was torn by his decision to hide his ethnic roots.

“Once at a party Bugs got really drunk and challenged Humphrey Bogart to a fight.  He kept screaming ‘You took Lauren  Bacall away from me because you don’t like hares!’  We had to pull him away and take him home” said Daffy Duck, who himself had hidden his true ethnic identity as a goose.

Such behavior was common in Hollywood’s golden era and continues to this day.

“Look at Arnold Schwarzeneger who is actually a Klingon disguised as an Austrian who disguised himself as a Democrat disguised as a Republican” says Wilson.

During the hare civil rights movement of the ’60s Bugs chose to remain closeted as a bunny despite pleas from hares to reveal his true identity.  Hares never forgave him for this and to this day Bugs Bunny is very unpopular in the hare community.

“Bugs was a sellout.  He worked for the ‘man’ “ according to many hares.  “He was all hare on the outside but bunny on the inside.”

Wilson’s book is due out at Thanksgiving.

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