When I think back on old-school cartoons, I realize they were absolutely crawling with tricksters. I loved those characters—the ones who lied, schemed, disguised themselves, broke every rule in sight, embarrassed authority figures, and somehow still had me rooting for them anyway.

Some of the best trickster characters from cartoons of yesterday:

• Bugs Bunny — probably the king of cartoon tricksters. Bugs rarely starts the trouble, but once somebody bothers him, he becomes a psychological warfare specialist. Disguises, wordplay, manipulation, reverse psychology—poor Elmer Fudd never stood a chance.
• Woody Woodpecker — chaotic, mischievous, loud, and sometimes downright mean. Woody didn’t necessarily need a reason to cause trouble. Sometimes being a menace was the reason. 😂
• Daffy Duck — a different kind of trickster because his schemes often blow up in his own face. He’s greedy, jealous, dramatic, clever enough to start trouble and foolish enough to lose control of it.
• Jerry Mouse — tiny trickster versus the bigger, stronger Tom. Jerry survives through brains, traps, deception, and knowing exactly how to push Tom’s buttons.
• Tom Cat — although usually the victim of Jerry’s tricks, Tom becomes a schemer himself whenever he’s trying to catch Jerry, impress a lady cat, or avoid getting thrown out of the house.
• Tweety Bird — people forget Tweety could be slick. He looked innocent while Sylvester endured explosions, frying pans, bulldogs, and Granny’s wrath. That little yellow bird knew exactly what was going on.
• Road Runner — almost a silent trickster. Wile E. Coyote creates elaborate plans, but Road Runner survives through impossible timing, cartoon physics, and what sometimes feels like supernatural luck.
• Wile E. Coyote — ironically both trickster and fool. He’s endlessly inventive, but every trap becomes a trap for himself. He fits an ancient folklore pattern: the clever character whose arrogance defeats him.
• Foghorn Leghorn — a loudmouth trickster who loved playing practical jokes, especially on the Barnyard Dawg. Half of his comedy was watching two characters devise increasingly ridiculous revenge plots.
• Yogi Bear — “smarter than the average bear” because he figured out how to steal picnic baskets while dodging Ranger Smith. Yogi is basically the charming thief archetype wearing a necktie.
• Top Cat — the streetwise hustler. T.C. was constantly running some scheme, talking his friends into foolishness, and trying to outmaneuver Officer Dibble.
• Snagglepuss — less malicious, but constantly escaping situations through theatrical language, clever maneuvering, and pure personality.
• The Pink Panther — cool, quiet, surreal, and frequently able to manipulate the world around him without saying a word.
• Popeye’s Bluto/Brutus — more bully than classical trickster, but he frequently used deception, sabotage, disguises, and dirty tricks before Popeye opened that can of spinach and ended the discussion. 😹
• Rocky and Bullwinkle’s Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale — actual professional schemers. Their entire existence revolved around disguises, plots, espionage, and ridiculous plans that inevitably collapsed.
• The Grinch, especially in the classic animated special — very much the trickster archetype: disguise, deception, theft, social disruption, followed by transformation.

What makes these characters fascinating is that the trickster has existed in storytelling for thousands of years. Anansi, Loki, Coyote, Br’er Rabbit, Reynard the Fox—all belong to that tradition. Cartoons simply put white gloves, bow ties, funny voices, and sticks of dynamite on an ancient archetype.

And there were really two kinds of cartoon tricksters.

Bugs Bunny and Jerry represent the underdog trickster: smaller or seemingly weaker characters who defeat power through intelligence.

Woody Woodpecker and Daffy represent the chaos trickster: characters who sometimes create disorder simply because normal life is boring as hell.

That may be why those old cartoons remain funny. The trickster gets to do what ordinary people cannot: mock authority, ignore social rules, embarrass pompous people, and walk away whistling after the explosion.