Gossamer is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The character is a hairy, orange monster.
His rectangular body is perched on two giant tennis shoes, and his heart-shaped face is composed of only two oval eyes and a wide mouth, with two hulking arms ending in dirty, clawed fingers. The monster's main trait, however, is bright uncombed red hair. In fact, a gag in the 1980 short Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century lampoons this by revealing that Gossamer is, in fact, composed entirely of hair.
He was originally voiced by Mel Blanc and has been voiced by Joe Alaskey and Jim Cummings. The word "Gossamer" is derived from the Middle English gossomer, from "gos" meaning goose & "somer" meaning summer, which translates to something light, delicate, or insubstantial. The name is meant to be ironic, since the character is large, menacing, and destructive.
Animator Chuck Jones introduced the monster character in the 1946 film Hair-Raising Hare. In it, Bugs Bunny is lured to the lair of a mad scientist as food for Gossamer. The monster (unnamed here) serves as the scientist's henchman.
Part of this plot was repeated in the 1952 Jones short Water, Water Every Hare, in which the character was referred to as "Rudolph". The monster would remain dormant for decades until Jones used the character once more in Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century in 1980. This is the first cartoon where the character is called "Gossamer", and is so named by Marvin the Martian.
Jones gave the monster this name "because he's the opposite looking of gossamer. He's a big, hairy thing."