Editing Tweety (section)

== Creation by Bob Clampett ==
[[Image:ataleoftwokitties restored.jpg|thumb|200px|Tweety's debut in ''[[A Tale of Two Kitties]]'', 1942]]
[[Bob Clampett]] created the character that would become Tweety in the 1942 short ''[[A Tale of Two Kitties]]'', pitting him against two hungry cats named [[Babbit and Catstello]] (based on the famous comedians [[Abbott and Costello]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Jerry |last2=Friedwald |first2=Will |title=Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons |date=1989 |publisher=Henry Holt and Co |isbn=0-8050-0894-2 |page=135}}</ref> On the original model sheet, Tweety was named Orson, which was also the name of a bird character from an earlier Clampett cartoon ''[[Wacky Blackout]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Jerry |title=I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety |date=1991 |publisher=Henry Holt and Co |location=New York |isbn=0-8050-1644-9 |pages=34–35}}</ref>

Tweety was originally created not as a [[Domestication|domestic]] canary, but as a generic (and wild) baby bird in an outdoor nest: naked (pink), jowly, and also far more aggressive and saucy, as opposed to the later, better-known version of him as a less hot-tempered (but still somewhat ornery) yellow canary. In the documentary ''[[Bugs Bunny: Superstar]]'', animator Clampett stated that Tweety had been based "on my own naked baby picture."<ref>[https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/bob-clampetts-a-tale-of-two-kitties-1942/ Bob Clampett's "A Tale Of Two Kitties" (1942)]</ref> Clampett did two more shorts with the "naked genius", as a [[Jimmy Durante]]-ish cat once called him in ''[[A Gruesome Twosome]]''. The second Tweety short, ''[[Birdy and the Beast]]'', finally bestowed the baby bird with his new name, and gave him his blue eyes. After the first three cartoons, censors declared that the character was nude, and they made the studio paint him yellow to make it look as if he was covered in feathers.<ref>[https://www.cartoonbrew.com/cartoon-study/cartoons-and-the-hays-code-study-225994.html How The Hays Code Censored Cartoons And How Animators Responded]</ref> The change made Tweety look like a regular yellow [[domestic canary]].<ref name=":1" />

Many of [[Mel Blanc]]'s characters are known for speech impediments. One of Tweety's most noticeable is that /s/, /k/, and /g/ are changed to /t/, /d/, or (final s) /θ/; for example, "pussy cat" comes out as "putty tat", later rendered "puddy tat", "Granny" comes out as "Dwanny" and "sweetie pie" comes out as "tweetie pie" (a phonological pattern referred to as 'fronting'), hence his name. He also has trouble with [[liquid consonant]]s: as with [[Elmer Fudd]], /l/ and /r/ come out as /w/. In ''[[Canary Row]]'' and ''[[Putty Tat Trouble]]'', he begins the cartoon by singing a song about himself, "I'm a tweet wittow biwd in a diwded tage; Tweety'th my name but I don't know my age, I don't have to wuwy and dat is dat; I'm tafe in hewe fwom dat ol' putty tat". (Translation: "I'm a sweet little bird in a gilded cage...") Aside from this speech impediment, Tweety's voice is that of [[Bugs Bunny]], one speed up (if ''[[The Old Grey Hare]]'', which depicts Bugs as an infant, is any indication of that); the only difference is that Bugs does not have trouble pronouncing /s/, /k/ and /g/ as mentioned above.