About halfway through the live action Looney Tunes: back in action, the camera pans through a Hollywood restaurant as stars discuss their careers. Shaggy and Scooby shake off Matthew Lillard before his performance in the Scooby Doo movieBugs talks to the Vice President of the WB, and at another table, Mexican firecracker Speedy Gonzales and stuttering Porky Pig discuss…political correctness.
But luckily for the pig and rodent respectively, neither has been “cancelled” like a certain black and white peer of theirs, Pepe Le Pew.
Cancel culture in animation
Canceling people and characters has become a disturbingly hot trend in our current media-obsessed world. Instead of giving certain stars or media outlets a second chance, people for better or for worse are now downright dejected online and will probably never work again. Take the release of the trailer for Wes Anderson’s latest movie, for example. With his star-packed cast, an eternal entity in Anderson’s filmography, Bill Murray, was nowhere to be seen following claims of impropriety on another film set.
Voice actor Justin Roiland was very publicly thrown out by the cartoon shows he worked for after allegations of abuse. Elsewhere, recent rewrites of various Dr. Seuss books now what’s considered more current and up-to-date language, and quite frankly it raises a question of censorship and a sense of keyboard-hammering lynch mobs just outside the door.
And (ridiculously) this abolition of all wrong does not stop with flesh and blood people either. First they came for a fellow Pepe, Pepe the Frog. The big-eyed, big-lipped amphibian had somehow changed to look like Adolf Hitler and a hooded KKK member. Retweeted firsthand by Trump’s personal Twitter at the time (for some reason) in support of himself, Clinton’s rival press team would release a legitimate statement which read “that cartoon frog is more sinister than you may realize.”
EXT. PARIS, FRANCE – DAY
Pepé Le Pew’s shtick was always the same. In Paris, a black cat would trip on wet paint (or something similar) that would cause a streak to appear down her back that would make her look like a skunk. There, the legit skunk (and heavily French stereotype), Pepé Le Pew, smoked cigarettes and spent the rest of the episode lusting after the girl as she denied his advances and escaped his scent in the most cartoonish ways (hammers to the head , clubs, etc.).
Outrage over the character officially began on March 3, 2021, following an op-ed by Charles M. Blow in his The New York Times article titled “Six Seuss Books Bore a Bias.” In it, he mentions growing up with cartoons, including Pepé Le Pew, and how it “normalized rape culture” and, along with Speedy Gonzales’ friends, “helped popularize the caustic stereotype of the drunk and lethargic Mexicans.”
And honestly? He wasn’t wrong, albeit for the times when the tables were turned and Penelope Pussycat finally lusted after Pepé. But then again, you could argue that that was just Stockholm Syndrome at the time. Pepé was already over sixty at the time and his stench lingered. With a new one Space Jam movie on the go – where the Looney Tunes would of course play a major role – something had to be done.
Space jam and cheating
Literally carrying since the first movie came out in 1996, a Space Jam sequel starring LeBron James had since been mooted online with fans of the first movie going off that somehow still live original site, and not much else. The original movie (coincidentally, also starring Bill Murray) was supposed to be the Looney Tunes characters enlist basketball superstar Michael Jordan to help them play a game against would-be alien slave traders. With the introduction of one Lola Bunny, all melodies got his fair share on screen, including Pepé Le Pew.
Sent way too late in the game, Space Jam: A New Legacy arrived after the first movie a whole 25 years later. Michael Jordan is now fully retired and the Looney Tunes are all but forgotten from current pop culture.
On March 7, before the release of A new legacy, deadline reported that a scene with Pepé Le Pew was shot – then cut from the finished film. Regardless of Blow’s words, it would have come with the transition of former director Terence Nance and his replacement Malcolm D. Lee. deadline wrote the following.
Pepe would appear in black and white Casablancalike Rick’s Cafe range. Pepe, playing a bartender, starts hitting on a woman at the bar where the game is being played [actress Greici] Santo. He starts kissing her arm, which she pulls back, then throws Pepe against the chair next to hers.
She then pours her drink over Pepe and slaps him hard, spinning him around in a crutch, which is then restrained by LeBron James’ hand. James and Bugs Bunny are looking for Lola and Pepe knows where she is. Pepe then tells the boys that Penelope Cat has filed a restraining order against him. James makes a comment in the script that Pepe can’t take other Tunes without their permission.
As reported by Deadline, the actress’ representation made comments about the situation.
This was so important for Greice to be in this movie. Even though Pepe is a cartoon character, if someone was going to hit a sexual harasser like him, Greice wished it would be her. Now the scene is cut and has no power to influence the world through younger generations who will watch Space Jam 2, to let younger girls and younger boys know that Pepe’s behavior is unacceptable.
Other pieces by women writers in Julie DiCaro and Tatiana Tenreyro repeat the same message about being excluded from the scene as a missed opportunity to learn about proper consent in the future. DiCaro, in her excellent piece for dead spinwrote the following.
This would have been a great lesson for Pepe, as well as for the many kids who will be flocking to this movie. What a brilliant way to educate the public about consent. And good for Penelope, she should have gone to the police a long time ago for help with Pepe’s stalking.
Literally and figuratively, the character always smelled a bit. And if he is sacrificed and never seen again, then Pepé Le Pew is no loss. Follow the trend of fictional characters Although the Pepe name is being canceled, that glove puppet shrimp’s time must only be ticking away…