Waking a sleeping rabbit with an air horn

This tiny pet black dutch bunny rabbit loves waking up sleeping humans. It's one of his favorite activities, really. So, for ONCE in his life, we thought we would wake him up. So, here he is taking a nap. We sneak up on him with an air horn, but don't blow the air horn. We use it to flick his ear, then rub his head. Neither elicits a response - he is dead to the world. We thought for sure we'd wake him up when we touched his tail but, though his tail responded (and came to attention!) he still didn't move.