Current Events > Did anyone grow up watching Pepé Le Pew and think...

(+) Yeah! (+)

"Wow, I wanna be just like him when I get older! Yup, these clearly-not-meant-to-be-taken-seriously cartoons are definitely trying to teach me real-life lessons on how to approach girls"

I'm just wondering why people suddenly think this character is going to negatively influence children, despite that it's never been the case for literally 70+ years and going. Do adults have less faith in children's intelligence these days?

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Nah i didnt like pepe. I preferred foghorn.

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i liked marvin the martian

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Yeah, we can certainly say the tone of the cartoon has not aged well and shouldn't be reproduced, but he was definitely always portrayed as being repugnant from what I remember.

It feeds into the "Keep aggressively chasing after a girl (regardless of her feelings) and eventually she might fall for you" cliche that some people take to heart.

That said I honestly am of the opinion that Pepe Le Pew shorts were "Eh" for the most part.

Like, is Pepe in anyone's top 5 Looney Tunes?

Top 10?

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Nemu posted...

Yeah, we can certainly say the tone of the cartoon has not aged well and shouldn't be reproduced, but he was definitely always portrayed as being repugnant from what I remember.

His conduct was disliked back than, and if anything taught kids to not be like that because his offending cartoons were always told from the POV of his victim.

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Umbreon posted...

It feeds into the "Keep aggressively chasing after a girl (regardless of her feelings) and eventually she might fall for you" cliche that some people take to heart.

Yep this is the issue

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These cartoons weren't about teaching kids anything.

If you wanted to teach kids a lesson you put on PBS, not Looney Tunes.

Naysaspace posted...

Nah i didnt like pepe. I preferred foghorn.

I didn't much care for Pep either, but that's not the point. The argument that he should be canceled because he sets a bad example is completely ignoring that people have been properly contextualizing the character since 1945, until now. What suddenly makes him "problematic" or whatever?

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I honestly thought he was weird even as a kid, but that may have been more tied to my aversion to PDA rather than the lack of consent on Penelope's part.

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Yes

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Even when I was 5, I knew what he was doing was wrong and that he was supposed to be seen as pathetic. I felt bad for the cat.

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Umbreon posted...

It feeds into the "Keep aggressively chasing after a girl (regardless of her feelings) and eventually she might fall for you" cliche that some people take to heart.

Fair enough.


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Did he ever get the girl tho?

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The issue is not kids wanting to act like a character, its normalizing the behavior so when you see it later in life its not abnormal.

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As a kid, I thought Pepe (and later Johnny Bravo) was hilarious with the constant failures. It didn't make me want to emulate that behavior.

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Umbreon posted...

It feeds into the "Keep aggressively chasing after a girl (regardless of her feelings) and eventually she might fall for you" cliche that some people take to heart.

That said I honestly am of the opinion that Pepe Le Pew shorts were "Eh" for the most part.

Like, is Pepe in anyone's top 5 Looney Tunes?

Top 10?

You're right about his cartoons being "meh". But in the end of each short he never got the cat and at least once it ended with pepe getting a bath or something and the cat started chasing him and he didn't like it

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superman 2000 posted...

I didn't much care for Pep either, but that's not the point. The argument that he should be canceled because he sets a bad example is completely ignoring that people have been properly contextualizing the character since 1945, until now. What suddenly makes him "problematic" or whatever?

Because the people saying it's problematic are ignorant of it making fun of 1940s romance movies.

Most Looney Tunes parodied or made fun of entertainment that existed back then.

superman 2000 posted...

What suddenly makes him "problematic" or whatever?!

Things is made. Society likes thing. Time marches on. Society doesnt like thing any more.

This isnt unique to Pepe le Pew. And losing a part via cutting a bit scene from a movie sequel nobody asked for is probably the lightest cancelling anything has ever faced, ever. >_>

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Umbreon posted...

Like, is Pepe in anyone's top 5 Looney Tunes?

Top 10?

Pepe's cartoons are generally really good, but he's just not that good of a character. Jones's direction, the storytelling, and the visuals and animation are the selling points for those cartoons. As a heel, he has limited potential. Contrasted to Taz, whose whopping three (iirc) cartoons are kinda lousy by comparison, but the character is great so everyone likes him, and he's by far the most admired and marketable of the major heels of the series.

The controversy over this garbage is nothing more than reactionary suckers inadvertantly helping to promote Space Jam 2.

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iPhone_7 posted...

Did he ever get the girl tho?

There was at least one cartoon that ended with Penelope falling for him for whatever reason...

At which point Pepe became freaked out

Honestly though, the dynamic is just a less funny Wile E Coyote bit. Think about it.

Both involve an antagonistic aggressor chasing after an unwilling target. Both involving going to absurd lengths to catch said target.

But Wile E has a lot more slapstick, has a more natural motivation (Predator chasing food), and tries to catch his target in multiple ways. Dude practically putting the kids of ACME employees through college singlehandedly.

Where as Pepe just short hops throughout most of his cartoons.

There's a reason people root for Wile E, even when we know he isn't going to win (except that one time).

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NoxObscuras posted...

As a kid, I thought Pepe (and later Johnny Bravo) was hilarious with the constant failures. It didn't make me want to emulate that behavior.

I loved me some Johnny Bravo.

Honestly maybe it's all in the slapstick? A character becomes more loveable when they regularly get hurt in a comedic way.

IShall_Run_Amok posted...

Pepe's cartoons are generally really good, but he's just not that good of a character. Jones's direction, the storytelling, and the visuals and animation are the selling points for those cartoons. As a heel, he has limited potential. Contrasted to Taz, whose whopping three (iirc) cartoons are kinda lousy by comparison, but the character is great so everyone likes him, and he's by far the most admired and marketable of the major heels of the series.

The controversy over this garbage is nothing more than reactionary suckers inadvertantly helping to promote Space Jam 2.

Taz really got that few? Man... Well, at least he got a dedicated series later on. Don't recall how good it was, but....

Honestly I feel like most people don't really care about Pepe's role in Space Jam 2. Wouldn't be surprised if some people were just grifting about it. Same with the Lola redesign vecause every show she appeared in after Space Jam... didn't look the same(Well Baby Looney Tunes is cheating I suppose).

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Umbreon posted...

It feeds into the "Keep aggressively chasing after a girl (regardless of her feelings) and eventually she might fall for you" cliche that some people take to heart.

No, it does the fucking opposite. It shows why you SHOULDN'T be doing that.

Umbreon posted...

Like, is Pepe in anyone's top 5 Looney Tunes?

Top 10?

Which is true of most Loony Tunes characters. Should we get rid of everybody except Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Porky Pig, and Tweety Bird?

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Good thing we can replace it with something like wet ass pussy

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Zeus posted...

Which is true of most Loony Tunes characters. Should we get rid of everybody except Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Porky Pig, and Tweety Bird?

I would be fine if they stop trying to reboot Looney Tunes all the damn time, personally, regardless of how rapey or non-rapey the character. Its fine to just not have new Looney Tunes shit for a bit.

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