Today is Bugs Bunny’s 83rd birthday — it was on this day in history, July 27, 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in "A Wild Hare," a short animated film released by Warner Brothers.  

The cotton-tailed friend has become known in pop culture for his iconic question: "What’s up, Doc?"

The basic plot of "A Wild Hare" chronicles Elmer Fudd's fruitless pursuit of the much smarter Bugs Bunny. 

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Elmer Fudd peers down rabbit holes, taunts Bugs with carrots and tries (unsuccessfully) to catch him. 

"Finally, the frustrated Elmer, driven to distraction by the rabbit's antics, walks away sobbing … Bugs then begins to play his carrot like a fife, playing the tune ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me,' and marches with one stiff leg toward his rabbit hole," according to the Looney Tunes Fandom site. 

The short film was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Short Subject: Cartoons," according to the Warner Brothers official website.

Bugs Bunny was conceived at Leon Schlesinger’s animation unit at Warner Brothers studios, noted Britannica.com. 

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The creative unit boasted a variety of top names in animation, including Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Friz Freleng, as well as renowned voice artist Mel Blanc and musician Carl Stalling, the same source indicated. 

There had been earlier variations of Bug Bunny, the affable and wisecracking rabbit, who was voiced by Mel Blanc.

Bugs Bunny first made an appearance in the 1938 "Porky’s Hare Hunt," although the character’s speech patterns and look were quite different, Variety reported.  

Over the next few years, Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons featured other cartoon rabbits, multiple sources noted.

But it was in 1940 with the short film "A Wild Hare" that Bugs Bunny looked like himself and sounded like himself — and, significantly, according to Variety, it was the first time he uttered the immortal words, "What’s up, Doc?"

Only Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse rivals Bugs Bunny as the most popular cartoon character of all time, Britannica.com said.  

From time to time, Bugs Bunny appeared with other animated protagonists such as Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, and most frequently his nemeses were Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam, the same source recounted.

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Classic Bugs Bunny cartoons include "Hare Tonic" (1945), "The Big Snooze" (1946), "Hair-Raising Hare" (1946), "Buccaneer Bunny" (1948), "Mississippi Hare" (1949), "Mutiny on the Bunny" (1950), "What’s Up, Doc?" (1950), "The Rabbit of Seville" (1950) and the Oscar-winning "Knighty-Knight Bugs" (1958). 

The animated stand-out "What’s Opera, Doc?" (1957), which featured Bugs and Elmer Fudd in the roles of Brunhild and Siegfried, created a tweaked adaptation of Richard Wagner’s "The Ring of the Nibelung" — acclaimed as the first cartoon short to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1992, noted Britannica.com.

In 1987, many decades after his debut, "The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show" was ABC’s No. 1 kids’ TV show, under the headline "Wabbit Wins Watings Wace," according to Variety.

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Bugs Bunny has garnered other achievements over the years. 

He has appeared in over 150 films, earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — and was the first animated character to get his face on a postage stamp.

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TV Guide also ranked him No. 1 atop a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters, according to Smithsonian Magazine. 

The cartoon trickster also appeared in the feature films "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" (1988), "Space Jam" (1996) starring Michael Jordan, and "Space Jam: A New Legacy" (2021). 

MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend suggested she had a bad experience working for her ex-boss, Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Sanders-Townsend, who served as chief spokesperson and senior adviser for Harris before joining MSNBC in 2022, appeared with fellow Biden administration veteran-turned-fellow MSNBC host Jen Psaki to discuss the attacks against the new presumptive Democratic nominee and how she handles them.

"The thing about being the first is because you're the first- whether you're the first woman, first person of color, so on and so forth, folks just sometimes don't know how to deal with you. They don't know how to process it," Sanders-Townsend began Thursday. "And so they resort to, unfortunately, sometimes racist, sexist tropes and memes and stereotypes."

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The liberal MSNBC host then pivoted to her own personal experience working with Harris. 

"It was new for me when I worked for her because I never worked for a high-profile woman before. I had only ever worked for men," Sanders-Townsend told Psaki. 

She continued, "There was one day at work where I was like 'Ma'am, you might be the last woman I work for because this is- it's a lot that we got to deal with over in here."

"There's a story there," Psaki said with a chuckle. 

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"But she was always aware of the criticism of her, right?" Sanders-Townsend said. "When I worked there, we didn't hide it from her. But it did not deter her. It was something though that I think any candidate, any candidate, any person in power needs to be aware of the criticism. 

"Because when you're not aware, the last thing you want is your candidate, your principal, the vice president of the United States of America to be out there and someone says something and they're like ‘Well what’s that all about?' ‘Well, ma’am, we discussed that this morning at 10 a.m.'" she added.

"Yeah," Psaki agreed. "I mean, it's important for them to be aware, which is such an interesting thing. It's how they respond to it."

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During her time as vice president, Harris has faced multiple rounds of staff exoduses from her office, fueling criticism of a high turnover rate within her orbit. 

Harris swiftly became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Biden announced his exit from the 2024 race.