Lucky Rabbit's Foot

Taking "You make your own luck" literally.

"Do not rely on a rabbit's foot for luck. After all, it didn't work out too well for the rabbit."

Lucky Rabbit's Foot refers to the association between rabbits and luck. A variety of cultures use the foot of a rabbit as a good luck charm. In some traditions, the rabbit from which the foot is obtained must have certain properties and be killed in a certain way. However, in other practices, just any old rabbit foot will do.

The practice of using a lucky rabbit's foot is usually depicted as something that only applies to people owning the feet of dead rabbits. Sometimes humans attempting to obtain a lucky rabbit's foot may lead to a chase because the rabbit would prefer to keep his feet. If he's a Rascally Rabbit, then the human can be the unlucky one as the rabbit uses his trickery to defend himself.

More benign examples of this trope include a live rabbit that benefits from the luck of his own feet, or is able to give luck to people without being killed himself.

Another superstition that associates rabbits and luck is that saying "Rabbit Rabbit" or "White Rabbits" at the beginning of the month will bring luck. It is also considered good luck for a rabbit to cross your path.

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Examples of Lucky Rabbit's Foot include:

Comic Books

• A very superstitious general in the Lucky Luke Spin-Off Rantanplan has this, of course. And then, Rantanplan eats it, thinking it was a snack.

Film

• Hollis P. Wood in Nineteen Forty One has one. It is mistaken for a whistle on the Japanese submarine.

Live Action TV

• Supernatural had an episode centered on a cursed rabbit's foot. If you touched it, as long as you had it in your possession, you had phenomenally good luck. As soon as you lost it, your luck would turn and soon you would die through sheer bad luck.
• Dennis the Menace had an episode called "The Lucky Rabbit's Foot". In it, Dennis has what he thinks is a lucky rabbit's foot. With recent bad luck Mr. Wilson has been having, Dennis offers to let him borrow the foot. Mr. Wilson, however, doesn't believe in such superstition and doesn't take the foot. Immediately thereafter, his bad luck continues when something jams his lawnmower, and he runs over his garden hose with the mower.
• Used on Gilligans Island where the castaways found a robot, eventually programmed it with a rescue message, and sent it out. The robot's message was messed up by a rabbit's foot that Gilligan gave it for good luck.

Music

• The rabbit's foot is mentioned in the American folk song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", once popular in minstrel shows. One line goes: "And you've got a rabbit's foot / To keep away de hoo-doo."
• The cover to Rabbit Foot Blues, a blues song by Blind Lemon Jefferson, links the rabbit's foot tradition with the bones of the dead.
• Hooverville has an album called "Lucky Rabbit's Foot".

Newspaper Comics

• Non Sequitur had one strip with Kate gushing about the lucky rabbit's foot keychain she just acquired. Danae points out that if she got another one, she'd be twice as lucky. And that if she got two more, she'd be... almost as lucky as the rabbit.
• The PreHistory of The Far Side=], a compilation/history of The Far Side, includes one of Gary Larson's earlier comics, which shows an inversion: a rabbit wearing a severed human foot on a chain around his neck, with the caption "I heard it was good luck."

Tabletop Games

• In Arkham Horror, Lucky Rabbit's Foot is a common item. You can exhaust it to get a +1 to a luck check.
• Basic Dungeons & Dragons supplement Book of Marvelous Magic. A magical Rabbit's Foot gave a +1 bonus to all saving throws. However, all herbivores seeing it took an instant dislike to the wearer (−2 reaction penalty).

Video Games

• In Video games, a rabbit's foot is sometimes used as a power-up: a boost to "Luck" stat, or a Power-Up Magnet
• Touhou Project has Tewi, an unabashed prankster whose explicit power is giving people good luck.
• True Neutral mage and sorcerer heroes in Baldur's Gate can summon a rabbit as a familiar. They can also be chosen as familiars by mages in Neverwinter Nights 2, where they provide a +1 luck bonus to all saving throws.
• In the Tie in Novels to the Gears of War series, Bernie gives Hoffman one of these from a rabbit she killed to make a stew. in the fourth novel, Hoffman comments that it isn't working.
• In RuneScape, a strung rabbit foot—also known as a rabbit foot necklace—is an item that gives players a better chance of getting a bird's nest when cutting trees or ivy; it also gives them a better chance of getting long and curved bones in combat.
• The 2010 reboot of Medal of Honor has a player-character who goes by the name of Rabbit. Late in the game, he has to make a Leap of Faith, and the player gets a POV shot of him looking at a Lucky Rabbit's Foot. In the game's epilogue, one of the other characters is contemplating the rabbit's foot while mourning Rabbit's death.
• A rabbit's foot appears in the Tales (series) series as an accessory that increases the wearer's Luck Stat.
• In Kingdom of Loathing, the Lucky Rabbit's Foot increases item drop and money drops.
• In King's Quest VI, an out-of-work ferryman has a rabbit's foot, which he notes isn't doing him any good. With the right prompting, he will give it to Alexander, who can use it to save his skin later. At no point does it noticeably improve anyone's luck.

Western Animation

• Lucky Seven Sampson from Schoolhouse Rock has a lucky foot with a 7 on it.
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit invokes the association between luck and rabbits. In some shorts, he would even remove his foot and kiss it whenever he felt he needed a little more luck (see the page image).
• Looney Tunes references this trope from times to time, especially in relation to Bugs Bunny. For example, in "Bowery Bugs", a character called Steve Brody decides he needs a rabbit foot for luck, so he goes after Bugs. Bugs also sometimes makes references to having lucky rabbit feet.
• Monterey Jack of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers has one among his many good luck charms. Bear in mind that he's a mouse, and the rabbit's foot is quite large in comparison to him. Chip comments that it couldn't have been very lucky for its previous owner...
• Lucky Jack from Home on the Range is a jackrabbit with a pegleg and incredibly bad luck, implying that someone took one of his feet, and with it all his good luck.
• On an episode of The Real Ghostbusters, the boys had to cross the river Styx. When Charon asked for payment, Winston offered him a rabbit's foot.
• One episode of Cyberchase had the Hacker kidnap a rabbit to complete his collection of lucky charms.
• In one episode of Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, Whiskers, upon hearing that rabbit's feet were lucky, felt he was the luckiest guy in the jungle. And he was...at first.
• When Pete on Goof Troop thought he had a streak of bad luck, one the lucky charms he got was a rabbit's foot complete with rabbit.

Real Life

• President Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography that he had been given a gold-mounted rabbit's foot by John L. Sullivan as well as a penholder made by Bob Fitzsimmons out of a horseshoe.
• Rabbit's feet, either authentic or imitation, are frequently sold by curio shops and vending machines. Often, these rabbit's feet have been dyed various colors, and they are often turned into keychains. Few of these rabbit's feet carry any warranty concerning their provenance, or any evidence that the preparers have made any effort to comply with the rituals required by the original tradition. Some may be confected from fake fur and latex "bones."
• Humorist R.E. Shay is credited with the witticism, "Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit."