Joseph Barbera and Hanna worked alongside animator Tex Avery, who had created Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny for Warner Bros. and directed "Droopy" cartoons at MGM. In 1940, Hanna and Barbera jointly directed "Puss Gets the Boot", which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject. The studio wanted a diversified cartoon portfolio, so despite the success of "Puss Gets the Boot", Barbera and Hanna's supervisor, Fred Quimby, did not want to produce more cat and mouse cartoons believing that there were already enough cartoons of those in existence. Surprised by the success of "Puss Gets the Boot", Barbera
Daffy Duck prize given out by his favorite TV show and "This Is a Life?" Daffy tries to upstage Bugs Bunny in order to be the guest of honor on the show; in all four of these cartoons Daffy ends up a loser because of his own over-emotional personality (which impairs Daffy's common sense and reasoning ability) and his craving for attention. Film critic Steve Schneider calls Jones' version of Daffy "a kind of unleashed id." Jones said that his version of the character "expresses all of the things we're afraid to express." This is evident in Jones' "Duck Amuck" (1953), "one