He is a large, anthropomorphic adult rooster with a strong southern accent and a penchant for mischief. He first appeared in 1946 in a Henery Hawk film entitled Walky Talky Hawky. All of the motion picture Foghorn Leghorn cartoons were directed by Robert McKimson, and he vies with the Tasmanian Devil as the most popular character associated with the director.

Many of the gags involved Foghorn and a canine nemesis (informally known as the "Barnyard Dawg", though on early model sheets his name is given as George P. Dog) engaging in one-upmanship through a series of pranks. Most common among them was Leghorn's taking up a plank of wood, while ambling along humming "Camptown Races," (the only intelligible words being "Doo-DAH! Doo-DAH!") and, coming to the sleeping Dawg with his front half inside his doghouse, picking up his tail and rapidly whacking (almost always with eight strokes) his exposed rear end. The dog would give chase, usually with his leash still attached to his collar, until it was stretched taut and his barking was replaced by an anguished shriek. This gag was passed down to the Leghorn's grandson in Feather Bluster, where Foghorn was puzzled as to why the kid was behaving that way and the Dog was all too happy to remind him: "Ain't nothin' wrong with 'im, Foggy, 'cept that he takes after you."


"That boy's as sharp as a sack of wet mice!"