droopy is an animated cartoon character from the golden age of american animation: an anthropomorphic dog with a droopy face, hence the name droopy. he was created in 1943 by tex avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the metro-goldwyn-mayer cartoon studio. essentially the polar opposite of avery's other famous mgm character, the loud and wacky screwy squirrel, droopy moves slowly and lethargically, speaks in a jowly monotone voice, and—though hardly an imposing character—is shrewd enough to outwit his enemies. when finally roused to anger, often by a bad guy laughing heartily at him, droopy is capable of beating adversaries many times his size with a comical thrashing ("you know what? that makes me mad!").

the character first appeared, nameless, in avery's 1943 cartoon dumb-hounded. though he would not be called "droopy" onscreen until his fifth cartoon, señor droopy (1949), the character was officially first labeled happy hound, a name used in the character's appearances in our gang comics. after the demise of the droopy series in 1958, the character has been revived several times for new productions, often television shows also featuring mgm's other famous cartoon stars, tom and jerry.

in the cartoon northwest hounded police, droopy's last name was given as "mcpoodle". in the chump champ, it was given as "poodle". nevertheless, droopy is generally understood to be a basset hound.