Antecedents

The façade on Notre Dame that gave inspiration

The tale of the rabbit has a parallel in the early story of the Roman de Renart in which
a foe takes hubristic pride in his defeat of a ferocious hare:[1]

Si li crachait en mi le vis
Et escopi par grant vertu[2]

The idea for the rabbit in the movie was taken from the façade of the cathedral of
Notre Dame de Paris. This illustrates the weakness of cowardice by showing a knight
fleeing from a rabbit.[3]

Cultural impact
The rabbit is now used as a metaphor for something ostensibly harmless which is, in
fact, deadly.[4] Such hidden but real risks may even arise from similarly cuddly

1
J. R. Simpson (1996). Animal Body, Literary Corpus: The Old French "Roman de Renart". Rodopi.
pp. 156–157. ISBN 90-5183-976-6.
2
Le Roman de Renart, Ernest Martin, ed., vol. 2, Strasbourg: Trubner, 1887, p. 199
3
Alan Parker; Mick O'Shea (2006). And Now for Something Completely Digital. New York:
Disinformation. p. 66. ISBN 1-932857-31-1.
animals.[5] The humour of the scene comes from this inversion of the usual framework
by which safety and danger are judged.[6] Four years after the release of the movie,
Killer Rabbit was the term used widely by the press to describe the swamp rabbit that
"attacked" the U.S. President Jimmy Carter while he was fishing on a farm pond.[7]

In Apple Inc.'s iOS system, Siri may say that the "Rabbit of Caerbannog" is its
favorite animal when asked.[8][9]

Video games
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citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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In Dragon's Crown, the Killer Rabbit is the boss of the B Route of the Lost Woods
stage, which also features a forest hermit that looks similar to Tim the Enchanter.

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there is a hidden cave near Benek (location of quest
"Hidden in the stars"), in whose entrance will be a pile of skulls, bodies, blood
spatters, and a single snow hare.

In Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, a powerful level 22 killer rabbit will spawn after the
player has killed a certain number of rabbits in the game, which can easily overwhelm
low-level players.

In Warlock: Master of the Arcane, there is a lord you can obtain that in immune to
physical damage with the appearance of a bunny with red eyes, named a cruel
creature.[29]

Monsters known as "vorpal bunnies" are capable of instantly killing player characters
with critical hits in the Wizardry series of role-playing games.

In The Madness of Little Emma, there is an item named Beast of Caerbannog,

described on collection as having "A vicious streak a mile wide!" and via the in-game
item list as "Summons a deadly beast on activation".[30]

4
William W. Betteridge; James F. Niss; Michael T. Pledge (1975). "Competition in Regulated Industries:
Essays on Economic Issues". Center for Business and Economic Research, Western Illinois University.
5
Holger Breithaupt (2003). "Fierce creatures". EMBO Reports. 4 (10): 921–924.
doi:10.1038/sj.embor.embor949. PMC 1326407  . PMID 14528257.
6
R Simpson (September 1996). "Neither clear nor present: The social construction of safety and
danger". Sociological Forum. Springer. 11 (3).
7
Edward D. Berkowitz (2006). Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview of the
Seventies. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. p. 115. ISBN 0-231-12494-5.
8
@montypython (9 July 2015). "Has anyone ever asked Siri what's it's favourite animal
is?!#killerrabbit #MontyPython" (Tweet). Retrieved 13 July 2017 – via Twitter.
9
"These Are The Five Most Disturbing Responses Siri Has To Certain Questions". Sick Chirpse. 2017-01-
24. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
Jimmy Carter rabbit incident
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The rabbit swimming away from the President

The Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, dubbed the "killer rabbit" attack by the press,
involved a swamp rabbit that swam toward then–U.S. President Jimmy Carter's
fishing boat on April 20, 1979. The incident caught the imagination of the media after
Carter's press secretary mentioned the event to a correspondent months later.

Background
President Carter had gone on a solo fishing expedition in his hometown of Plains,
Georgia. According to Carter a rabbit being chased by hounds "jumped in the water
and swam toward my boat. When he got almost there, I splashed some water with a
paddle."[10]

Upon returning to his office, Carter's staff did not believe his story, insisting that
rabbits could not swim, or that they would never approach a person threateningly.[11]
However, the incident was captured on footage taken by a White House
photographer.[12]

Media accounts and public perception

Jody Powell, Carter's press secretary, mentioned the event to Associated Press
correspondent Brooks Jackson on August 28, 1979, who filed the report with the wire
service the following day. The story, entitled "Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks
President", ran on August 30, 1979, and was carried on the front page of The
Washington Post, though the White House's refusal to release the photograph resulted
in the newspaper using a cartoon parody of the Jaws poster labeled "PAWS" as its

10
Combs, Cody (November 21, 2010). "Jimmy Carter explains ‘rabbit attack’". Political Ticker.
CNN.com. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
11
"President Carter and the Killer Rabbit". American Presidents Blog. January 17, 2008. Retrieved 6
August 2015.
12
"President Jimmy Carter and the "killer rabbit"". narsil.org. April 20, 1979. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
illustration.[13][14][15] The White House declined to release the photo to the media until
it turned up during the Reagan administration and the story saw a revival.

Carter shooing away the rabbit, at far right

In his 1986 book The Other Side of the Story, Powell recounted the story as follows:

Upon closer inspection, the animal turned out to be a rabbit. Not one of your cutesy,
Easter Bunny-type rabbits, but one of those big splay-footed things that we called
swamp rabbits when I was growing up.

The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to
having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite
conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large,
wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon
climbing into the Presidential boat.

The incident with the rabbit became fodder for political and ideological opponents
who wanted to frame Carter's presidency as hapless and enfeebled, although the
event's proximity to the U.S. release of the comedy feature film Monty Python and the
Holy Grail, which includes scenes of a killer rabbit slaying humans, led to some
people describing Carter as having "fended off a killer rabbit" instead.[16]

The incident was parodied in 1980 in a song by the folk singer Tom Paxton entitled "I
Don't Want a Bunny Wunny".[17]

Humor columnist Dave Barry has often referred to the "enormous swimming rabbit"
incident in his writings. In Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United
States, he names it the uncontested single most memorable event of Carter's
presidency.

13
"What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit?". The Straight Dope. November 10,
1995. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
14
Jackson, Brooks (August 30, 1979). "Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks President". Washington Post.
15
Zelizer, Julian E. (2010). "1: A Maverick Politician". Jimmy Carter. ISBN 9781429950756.
16
"Jimmy Carter's 'Killer Rabbit' – 1979". Feeding Frenzy. The Washington Post. Retrieved August 6,
2015.
17
Paxton, Tom. "I Don't Want a Bunny Wunny". Lyrics. www.mydfz.com.