Hubie and Bertie's cameo in Bah, Humduck!
Hubie and Bertie are a pair of cartoon mice created by Chuck Jones for the Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon shorts in 1943. Introduced in the short The Aristo-Cat, the template for their cartoons typically had them tormenting a larger, yet naive character, usually Claude Cat. The distinguishing characteristics between the two lie in their designs and voices - Hubie speaks with a Brooklyn accent, while Bertie has large buck teeth and frequently responds "Yeah-yeah, sure-sure!" to his companion. Jones ultimately made only seven films with the characters from 1943 to 1951, but like many of his creations, Hubie and Bertie would reappear in various later Looney Tunes projects long after the original shorts ceased production.
Appearances in Christmas specials
Hubie and Bertie's first and most prominent appearance in a Christmas special was in "It Happened One Night Before Christmas", the first Christmas-themed episode of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. This episode features them as the pets of Granny's previously-unmentioned brother, Willie Daily (a parody of Billy Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life). When Willie loses the $8,000 he was supposed to deposit at the bank on Christmas Eve, Hubie and Bertie decide to help him, showing him his sister's Christmas card and giving him the idea to call her for help. When Granny arrives with her pets, Sylvester naturally keeps trying to eat them along with Tweety, and fails each time. Eventually, Hubie, Bertie, and Tweety find out that Willie's deposit was, in fact, stolen by the bank's owner, Freddy T. Totter (a parody of the movie's Mr. Potter). The mice and Tweety thus send Sylvester and Hector (Granny's bulldog), disguised as Santa Claus, into Totter's office to nab evidence of Totter stealing the money. At the end of the episode, when Sylvester chases after Tweety again, Hubie and Bertie stop him in his tracks by tossing a brick in his mouth.
Hubie and Bertie also make a brief cameo in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas. At the very end of this direct-to-video special, they can be briefly seen taking part in the party Daffy Duck throws for his employees.