The faux-French accented skunk was named after the Pepe Le Moko character (Charles Boyer) in Algiers (1938), who reportedly signaled his amorous intent to Hedy Lamar with the request "Come wiz me to ze Casbah" (although the line never appears in the movie).
Charles Boyer (1899-1978) was bisexual, by the way.
In Chuck Jones' hands, Pepe LePew became an amorous but odiferous skunk who mistakes a cat with a white paint stripe for another skunk and falls madly in love. His "odor de pew" and aggressive manner -- which today would signify sexual harassment, if not a a ful-fledged sexual assault -- compel his intended to flee, so he's off on a wild pursuit.
It's usually a female cat, but in 4 of his 17 cartoon appearances between 1945 and 1962, it's a male.
In Odor-Able Kitty (1945), it's a male cat. Pepe is not dissuaded.
In Scent-imental Over You (1947), it's a male dog.
In Scentimental Romeo (1951), Pepe follows the female cat into a Tunnel of Love, where he makes out with a human male by mistake.
That's 23%. Pepe is definitely bisexual.
In his later appearances, Pepe has occasionally noted an indifference to the gender of his romantic partners:
On an episode of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (1995-2000), Sylvester gets a white stripe down his back again, and is amorously pursued by a male skunk, who explains that he is Pepe's fourth cousin: "What can I say? It runs in the family."
Sylvester tries to explain that he is an inappropriate partner, not because of his gender, because of his species:
"You've got it all wrong. I'm not a skunk!"
Pepe responds: "Love can never be wrong."
Yeah, he falls into the "depraved" category by today's standards. Definitely a case of values dissonance. (Then again, portrayals of bisexuals have often been just the same 1950s moral panic stretched out for decades: Less effeminate, since we do have sex with women; more predator, since we're supposedly less discriminating.)
ReplyDeleteMost Looney Tunes are trickster figures (and the ones who aren't are usually villains), but none so summarize the archetype's more amorous tendencies.
Maye this why Pepe got "canceled"
ReplyDeleteWB decided the sequence about sexual harassment suits was unfunny..
DeleteThey're also moaning about Lola Bunny not being as sexy as in the original.
Older peeps help me out here: Did Generation X whine similarly about Starfire in 2003? I mean, there you have a costume switch, and bisexual foursome subtext (Raven has totally different ship tease that goes nowhere with Robin instead of unintentionally having a mental affair with him, Jericho is only seen for a couple episodes in season 5 and never really interacts with him.) removed. And of course Beast Boy and Kid Flash being sex offenders around Starfire (The 80s were a raunchy time, if hets-only.) was also removed.
No one took issue with Terry Long being removed.
Yeah, through modern eyes Pepe is super-creepy. So many women have had to deal with guys like him. He's the guy who won't take 'No' for an answer. Every possible response you can give, up to and including smashing him over the head with a club, he interprets as flirtatious. Worse, the cartoons usually end with the suggestion of imminent rape: Pepe has trapped Penelope somewhere she can't escape and it's obvious she'll eventually succumb to exhaustion and subsequently to him.
ReplyDeleteThere's even a cartoon where she's become his sex-slave; he's chained them both together so she can't get away and it's obvious he's been holding her captive for some time. And she frantically tries to file through the chains whenever Pepe's back is turned.
Yes, there were cartoons where Penelope turned the tables, but they were the exception.
One correction, though: I'm quite certain the little dog Pepe chased (that would be the Mexican Hairless who pasted fur on, right?) was female.
I thought the dog was the standard unnanmed LooneyTunes dog. I'll check youtube to see if the cartoon is available. I have box set of Looney Tunes cartoons, but they are all in random order, so you can never find any specific cartoon.
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