Bugs Bunny's "No" is a reaction image that crops in tight on Bugs' puckered face from the 1946 Looney Tunes short The Big Snooze, usually captioned with a flat "No." Tumblr user whyx3 put the frame back into circulation in 2015, and it broke out in April 2019 when Redditor asofi00 paired the close-up with the now-standard "No" caption.
Origin
The Big Snooze premiered in United States theaters on October 5th, 1946[1]. In one scene, Bugs Bunny drinks from a bottle of "Hare Tonic" to save himself from falling inside a dream sequence. Almost seven decades later, on February 14th, 2015, Tumblr user whyx3 posted a still from the cartoon rotated 90 degrees, catching Bugs in the moment right before he drinks[2]. That post picked up more than 11,600 likes and reblogs over four years and pushed the frame back into meme circulation[4].
- Platform: Tumblr / Reddit (viral spread)
- Creator: Unknown
- Date: 2019
Overview
Bugs Bunny's "No" is a reaction image built from a close-up frame of the Looney Tunes rabbit with his lips puckered and tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth[4]. The still comes from the 1946 short The Big Snooze, where Bugs is about to sip from a bottle labeled "Hare Tonic"[1]. Cropped tight and captioned with a flat "No," the face reads as blunt refusal, which is what pushed it into heavy use as a shutdown reaction on Reddit in April 2019[3].
How It Spread
Through 2017, the image bounced around Facebook meme pages, Twitter, and Funnyjunk as a general-purpose reaction[4]. A since-deleted Facebook post from March 4th, 2017 pulled over 80 likes, and on April 28th of that year the Dungeons and Dragons Memes page put up a version that picked up roughly 3,300 likes and 1,000 shares[5]. On August 21st, 2017, Tumblr user Zestyblog cropped in on Bugs' face as a standalone reply, and the post cleared 41,000 notes over the next two years[6].
The tighter close-up crop was archived to ShitpostBot 5000 on March 16th, 2018[7], but the format only broke out the following spring. On April 14th, 2019, Redditor asofi00 posted the earliest known version pairing the close-up with a stark "No" caption, and it pulled over 29,800 upvotes in five days[3]. From there the image spread across Reddit and jumped into Spanish-speaking meme communities.
How to Use
The template is typically a single-panel image of the tight Bugs Bunny face with the word "No" set above or below[3]. People commonly drop it as a flat refusal reaction to a request, take, or situation they find absurd. Some versions add a short line of context above the frame naming what's being refused.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Bugs Bunnys No?
It's a reaction image using a tight close-up of Bugs Bunny's puckered face from the 1946 Looney Tunes short The Big Snooze, paired with a flat "No" caption[4].
Where did Bugs Bunnys No come from?
The still is from The Big Snooze, which premiered on October 5th, 1946[1], and Tumblr user whyx3 reintroduced the frame as meme material on February 14th, 2015[2].
What does Bugs Bunnys No mean?
It's used as a blunt, unamused refusal, a way to shut down a request, take, or situation with a single-word "No"[3].
How do you use Bugs Bunnys No?
Post the tight Bugs Bunny face with "No" set above or below the image as a reply to whatever you're refusing[3].
Is Bugs Bunnys No still popular?
It's a classic 2019-era reaction image that stayed in wide rotation across Reddit and Spanish-speaking meme communities after asofi00's viral post[3].
