Smartass

File:Smarty 2.jpg

Smartass was one of the secondary antagonists of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He was one of Judge Doom's henchmen and the Toon Patrol's leader and boss.

Background

Physical Description

Smartass is ranked as a sergeant by Judge Doom. He has brown fur and wears a buttoned-up light pink double-breasted zoot suit jacket with a gold chain in the left pocket, white dress shirt with a hot pink bejeweled tie, matching hat, and spats on his feet. His weapon of choice is a revolver, though in the bar scene he is shown threatening Eddie with a switchblade. He does not appear to have a smoking addiction, like Wheezy, but he does occasionally smoke cigars, as shown in his first appearance.

Personality

Though very sarcastic and aggressive, Smartass is the straight-man of the group, possessing the most intelligence and self-control and the least "Toonish" attitude.

While he is very antagonistic in the film, he seems to care about the other members of the Toon Patrol, being the first one to warn them about what will happen to them if they do not control their laughter. However, like them, he still enjoys a good laugh himself, though he still remains the most serious member, despite his occasional wisecracking.

He commits frequent malapropisms, such as when he is first introduced and Judge Doom ask him if they found Roger, to which he reassures Doom that they will find him since they have “deferments” (“Informants“) all over Los Angeles, when he says that a tip on Roger's whereabouts has been "corrugated" ("corroborated") by several sources, ordering his henchmen to leave no stone "interned" ("unturned") when telling them to search Eddie's office for Roger, when he asks Judge Doom if they should "disresemble" ("disassemble") the bar in search of Roger, or when he asks Judge Doom if he should "repose" ("dispose") of Eddie.

Appearances

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

He is the third weasel to die at the end of the film, though not by losing control of his laughter like the others. Upon pointing out a mistake with the lyrics in the song Eddie "entertains" the weasels with, Eddie kicks him in the crotch, sending him flying into the mixer on the Dip machine, where he dissolves and dies. His boss himself would meet this fate shortly afterwards.

Disney Parks

In the related ride Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, here referred to under the bowdlerized name Wise Guy, he can be heard at two points discussing his plans to get rid of Roger Rabbit, such as when Smartass orders Psycho to head to the Toontown Cab Co. to put Benny the Cab out of "contrition" ("commission") to stop Roger from leaving Toontown. SmartAss also appears in the ride itself.

Trivia

• Smartass is the only weasel whose soul never appeared. This is because it is natural that when a toon dies in slapstick cartoons, their ghost would appear, but a Toon getting "dipped" would cause them to die the normal way, without a visible spirit, because all their paint would be lost, including that of a toon ghost.
• At one point in the movie, Smartass warned the other weasels that they will die laughing as a way to get them to stop. Aptly enough, this is exactly how Stupid, Wheezy, Greasy and Psycho end up dying.
• Despite Smartass's comparatively high intelligence, he commits malapropisms five times in the film and once on the ride. He either may not care or does not notice his misuse of words, or such usage was typical for gangsters of their period. He attempts to impress others with an "air of education," as few would actually know the proper words either.
• Smartass has the most dialogue of all the weasels.
• He bears some resemblance to Wacky Weasel from Bonkers who also wears similar clothing.