Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
I don't understand why the creators of Looney Tunes creations are changing their cartoon characters because of the loud voices of a few. I have never felt offended by any of the Looney Tunes Cartoons.
I have always thought that Pepe Le Pew, the sophisticated-if-too-fresh French Skunk, was a caricature of an over the top Frenchman. It served me well later in life when I met a real-life Frenchman who was definitely more forward than a unsophisticated Minnesota teenager was ready for. Because of watching Pepe Le Pew as a child, I knew enough to never be alone with such a “scary” hands-on Frenchman.
What is interesting about our new culture of constantly being offended is, that there is no end and there cannot be an end. In Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Three, Whoopi Goldberg issues a warning about the characters she felt could hurt women and/or people of color. I never did believe that Looney Tunes was in the business of representing positive images of anyone. In my opinion people of non-color are not portrayed in a very positive way either. Take for instance, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam. However, you do see positive images of ducks of color, roadrunners of color, and tweety birds of color. I think it is a reach to call any of these cartoons racist or sexist or accuse them of being anything but entertainment.
How crazy is it when they take away Elmer Fudd's shotgun and give him a scythe? Really, a scythe? What hunter carries a scythe? Actually, it looks just as violent and potentially more bloody for Bugs Bunny. It seems the “woke crowd” has no problems with violence, but draw the line on guns. They even took away Yosemite Sam's pistols, which seems to lose the whole point of the character, as it is hard to imagine an old-time prospector without a gun. He will apparently carry a “grass hook”! How useful is that when he has to fend off a claim jumper? Since this is a cartoon, if they are looking to bring him into the modern-day world, I would rather they give him a lightsaber. That is why I painted an image of Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam with lightsabers, having a down-and-out-talk with Pepe Le Pew about his too amorous advances to Penelope Pussycat!
Regarding guns, as a child, all the cowboys had cap guns and our indians had bows and arrows. (Girls were allowed to be cowboys and/or Indians with no explanations necessary). Sometimes the indians stole the guns, but usually they didn't bother as they liked the idea of scalping the cowboys. Now, we were all white kids and to my knowledge, not one person in our neighborhood ever shot anyone or scalped a person as an adult. Sorry, this has nothing to do with cartoons, but the subject is reminding me of my own unsafe, freewheeling childhood that I miraculously lived through.
Daffy Duck, Road Runner, Wile E Coyote, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird and Yosemite Sam only exist because of their crazy out-of-control activity. They hunt, they eat and try to kill over and over, in the desert, in the forest, on the mountain or in the backyard. One day, they'll all be banned, so treasure them while you can.
As a child, I knew the difference between a cartoon and real life. I knew that animals could not talk. I knew that it was all “just silly”, and the point of the cartoon was to make me laugh. Why can't the “woke adult” of today figure that out? We must expose how counter-productive it is to remake a 90-year-old cartoon.
I always thought Speedy Gonzales was a very positive caricature of a Mexican, as the only other Mexicans we saw on the big screen were drug dealers. Don't know why this guy is biting the dust, guess he was just not quite fast enough...
The other reason I noticed the “woke crowd” found for erasing Yosemite Sam, was that he was always shoving dynamite down his pants. The “woke crowd” decided that could make children consider suicide. Just show me one kid in the past 90 years who blew himself up with dynamite after watching Yosemite Sam and I will concede that they have a point. I have noticed that in the Looney Tunes World everyone had dynamite, even Tweety Bird always had a cache of dynamite available to put in the jaw of Sylvester the Cat.
So, what are we to do? Nothing is perfect! The problem I have with rewriting everything is that what is replacing our past is not necessarily better. Please contact your libraries, teachers and media outlets to put a stop to this assault on our past. When you hunt “wabbits”, you need a gun, when a prospector confronts a claim jumper, he needs his six guns. A scythe or a grass hook, or even a lightsaber doesn't do it.
Let's get back to common sense and stop letting the constantly-offended control what our children read and watch.