by 
Spixxy
ANSWERS: 6
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There really isn't much story behind the phrase "what's up, doc?" besides that it was simply an invented catch phrase to add to the characterization. Just as Buddy Layman in the play "The Diviners" repeatedly would refer to himself as "him", and Gary Coleman would bust out a "what you talkin' bout!?", repitition helps to add originality to a character on stage or screen. Mel Blanc (original voice of most characters for WB) decided to help out the Bugs character by adding the phrase "What's up doc?" and other things to other characters. For example Tweety saying "I tawt I taw a putty tat".
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The 'Doc' portion can be attributed most likely to the Brooklyn/Bronx slang of the day, but in the 1990-1991 book 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare by Joe Adamson, it was said that the comment was first used as a gag, wherein Bugs faced a villain (the classic example in the book for his personality is a lion, but I believe specifically it was Elmer and his shotgun) and was confronted with dire peril most other cartoons (and people) of the time would be taken aback by, and a response such as "What's up, Doc?" went over as utter hilarity because here he is in mortal danger and he responds with nothing but the calmest calm, like a slap in the face to whomever he's dealing with. It is not a catch phrase so much as it was a running joke.
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Tex Avery (one of the early Warner directors) apparently called everyone Doc. Likely, he either came up with or inspired the line.
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He's just curious.
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He was looney.... get it? hahaha!
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In an interview that I recently saw, Tex Avery explains that this was a local phrase that he and his friends used often. He said that he threw it in at one time as a gag, not thinking much of it, and it just kind of stuck becoming the bunny's catch phrase.
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