Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny

just listened to this amazing Radiolab short on the man behind the myth- Mel Blanc, the voice actor of Bugs Bunny and about 500 other iconic cartoon voices

Totally awesome, and totally reminds me that I need to start working on the epic epitaph that will one day grace my own tombstone...

But what I wanted to tell you about Mel Blanc was this-- something I learned on a RadioLab short about his life. By the time he reached middle age his repertoire had grown to hundreds of voices, each with distinct personality and character and substance.

He got into a terrible, terrible car accident and was in a coma, unresponsive to "hey dad" or "can you hear me Mel" for three weeks. Miraculously and totally by accident, one of the doctors entered the room and said, "what's up doc?" to him

and, from somewhere deep within his broken body, far below the silent surface of his coma... Bugs Bunny answered.