By :
A SOCIAL JUSTICE PETITIONDrafted by Doug Mortimer
Target: Time Warner
Region: USA
Theme: Toxic Masculinity
During World War II, Warner Bros. cartoons played a key role in the fight against fascism. Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, et al took on the Nazis and bested them in numerous cartoons. Also to their credit, Warner Bros. produced a number of cartoons in which Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and other characters broke free of gender stereotypes and donned attire more often associated with the “opposite” sex. Despite this enlightenment – exceedingly rare in those days – Warner Bros. gave birth to one of the most noxious cartoon characters ever created. We refer to the despicable Pepé Le Pew.
Longtime Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones introduced Pepé Le Pew in a cartoon called “Odor-Able Kitty” in 1945. Since that was the year Nazi Germany was defeated, one wonders what role Pepé Le Pew played during the Nazi occupation of France. Pepé began to appear in movies just as the war was ending, so one cannot help but wonder if his movie career was the payoff for collaborating with the enemy? Was Pepé Le Pew literally a Nazi?