DAFFY DUCK'S NAME ORIGIN?

Whattyamean I'm crazy??? I dose everyday!!

C and I were watching the recent version of Vanity Fair the other night and reference was made to "Daffy's". I asked C about it and she said that this was a very popular patent medicine in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and is also mentioned in Dickens' Oliver Twist. Reminiscent of a recipe from our beloved, goateed Colonel, it is a mixture of a number of herbs and spices and brandy, sometimes augmented with gin. It began as a stomach remedy and laxative, often used to help teething infants and later was marketed as an all-around cure for most ailments. Being in an unregulated industry, inevitably after numerous outbreaks of poisonings and deaths due to cheaper knockoffs, Daffy's Elixir became a poster child for what was popularly termed quack medicine.

We wondered if this was the basis for the Looney Tunes character Daffy Duck. Someone in Tex Avery's crew must have come across Daffy's and thought it was a perfect name for this new character. It fits! Daff is bonkers, aggressive, unreasonable, paranoid, selfish and you have to wonder if the writers experiences with unstable alcoholics help give an air of authenticity to the little black quack.