Although Elmer has been known to hunt other game, he is most often found creeping through the woods with his double-barreled shotgun "hunting wabbits".

He nearly always vocalizes "L" and "R" incorrectly, pronouncing them as "W" instead, a trait he shares with Tweety Bird. The writers sometimes gave him lines filled with these letters, such as "Wisten to the whythmic whythm of the woodwinds" or "Oh you dubbuh-cwossing wabbit! You tweachewous miscweant!"

Laramore first appeared in To Duck or Not to Duck (1943). He was voiced by Mel Blanc.

In his earliest appearances, Elmer actually "wikes wabbits", either attempting to take photos of Bugs, or adopting Bugs as his pet. But the rascally rabbit torments poor Fudd so much that there is little wonder why Elmer later becomes a hunter and in some cases actually proclaims, "I hate wittle gway wabbits!" after pumping buckshot down a rabbit hole.

What's Opera, Doc? is a parody of 19th-century classical composer Richard Wagner's operas. As the demigod Siegfried, Elmer "stwikes de wabbit" down, but regrets it afterward and tearfully carries Bugs off to Valhalla.

He declares himself a vegetarian, hunting for sport only (although in previous appearances, it has been stated that he was hunting Bugs for rabbit stew).

In 1937, Fred Avery introduced a new character in his cartoon short Egghead Rides Again. Egghead was initially depicted as having a bulbous nose, funny/eccentric clothing and a bald, egg-shaped head. Over a period of several years, many cartoon historians believe that Egghead evolved into Elmer, but as animation historian Michael Barrier asserts, "The Egghead-Elmer story is actually a little messy, my sense being that most of the people involved, whether they were making the films or publicizing them, not only had trouble telling the characters apart but had no idea why they should bother trying."

Elmer's appearance was modified for five cartoons: Wabbit Twouble, The Wacky Wabbit, The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, Any Bonds Today? and Fresh Hare. He became a heavy-set, beer-bellied character, patterned after voice actor Arthur Q. Bryan. But audiences didn't accept the fat Fudd, so ultimately the slimmer version returned for good.

His full name is Elmer J. Fudd. No one knows what the "J" stands for.

Mother Fudd was an evil alien that spread a disease that caused all affected by it to stand around laughing like Elmer.