Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. The name is inspired by Yosemite National Park. He is commonly depicted as an extremely grouchy gunslinging prospector, outlaw, pirate, or cowboy with a hair-trigger temper and an intense hatred of rabbits, Bugs particularly. While Sam’s basic character is that of a cowboy, he wears a black mask (or actually, just a wide black outline on the outer sides of his eyes) to show that he’s an outlaw. This is so associated with his persona that he wears the mask even when dressed as a duke, a riff, a pirate, or a Viking.
The role of Yosemite Sam was originated by the Warners’ principal voiceman, Mel Blanc. In his autobiography, Blanc said he had a difficult time coming up with the voice. He tried giving Sam a small voice, but didn’t feel that it worked. One day, he decided to simply yell at the top of his voice, which was inspired by a fit of road rage he had that day. It fit perfectly with the blustery character, but also took a toll on Mel. He always made it a point to record Sam’s lines at the end of a recording session so he wouldn’t have to play other characters with a hoarse voice.
Yosemite Sam was the cartoon icon of the similarly-mustachioed Pittsburgh Pirates player Phil Garner [not me!!] in the late 1970s.
Sam say…
“Say yer prayers ya long eared galoot!”
“Oooooo! I hate that rabbit!”
“Ok rabbit … you forced me to use force”