Editing Porky Pig (section)

==As a sidekick==
Porky's post at the pinnacle of the Warners' pantheon was short-lived. In 1937, the studio tried pairing Porky with various sidekicks, such as love interest [[Petunia Pig]], cantankerous foil [[Gabby Goat]], a [[Development of Bugs Bunny|manic white hare that would eventually evolve]] into [[Bugs Bunny]], and a screwy black duck, [[Daffy Duck|Daffy]]. Daffy Duck, the creation of Tex Avery, was by far the most popular in this role, eventually outshining even Porky. In fact, Friz Freleng satirized this phenomenon when he directed ''[[You Ought to Be in Pictures]]'' (1940), where Daffy convinces Porky to quit his job at Warner Bros. to find better-paying work elsewhere. Porky then convinces studio head [[Leon Schlesinger]] to release him from his contract. After a highly unsuccessful foray into the real world, Porky returns happily to the studio that created him. To this day, Porky remains as a loyal sidekick while Daffy refuses to be a second banana to Bugs, who eventually became Warners' signature character.

Porky always remained a sentimental favorite of the Warner directors. His mild-mannered nature and shy demeanor made him the perfect [[double act|straight man]] for zanier characters such as Daffy. He still starred in a few solo cartoons as well, such as [[Frank Tashlin]]'s ''[[Brother Brat]]''. Other cartoons dumbed Porky down and cast him as a duck hunter after Daffy, largely paralleling the [[Elmer Fudd]]/Bugs Bunny pairings. [[Chuck Jones]] perfected the Porky-as-straight man scenarios, pairing the pig with Daffy Duck in a series of film and television parodies such as ''[[Drip-Along Daffy]]'', ''[[Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century]]'', ''[[Rocket Squad]]'', ''[[Deduce, You Say!]]'', ''[[The Scarlet Pumpernickel]]'' and ''[[Robin Hood Daffy]]''. Jones also paired Porky with [[Sylvester the Cat|Sylvester]] in a series of cartoons in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in which Porky plays the curmudgeonly and naive owner of the cat and remains clueless that Sylvester is constantly saving him from homicidal mice, [[Extraterrestrial life|space aliens]] and other threats.