Trivia / Pepé Le Pew

• Exiled from Continuity: In 2021, Warner Bros. reported they have no plans to use the character in future Looney Tunes media following a controversy. He was removed from Space Jam: A New Legacy (though he was featured in a scene cut from the film), and the Annecy remake of "Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!" from Looney Tunes Cartoons removed him from the short.
  • Lampshaded in Animaniacs (2020) in which Pepé is being erased by an animator, begging not to get sent into "the void".^note According to producer Gabe Swarr, "Yakko Amakko" was written before the controversy and it may be considered satire among viewers when the episode premiered.
  • However, it's unclear if it's a definitive move or just a provisional decision, especially considering that both characters are still featured in Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem, with Penelope getting two more personas a few months after the controversy sparked.
  • Pepé has been represented by an Easter Egg or a Mythology Gag in the following...
    • Looney Tunes Cartoons: His name, "Le Pew", appears on a tombstone with other Looney Tunes character names including Speedy, Foxy, Bosko, and Sniffles in the short, “Graveyard Goofs”.
    • Tiny Toons Looniversity: In the episode, "Freshman Orientoontion", silhouettes of him appear with other Looney Tunes characters when Bugs Bunny presents the Freshman Hall of Fame to the students at ACME Looniversity.
    • Bugs Bunny Builders: In "Looneyburg Lights", Daffy holds up three French skunks which are clearly references to Pepé Le Pew.
  • Despite being cut from Space Jam: A New Legacy, Penelope Pussycat made a recent major appearance in Bugs Bunny Builders as a fashion designer. Penelope also received her first major speaking role since Carrotblanca as she is given a French accent like Pepé.
• The Other Darrin: Post-Mel Blanc, other voice actors have portrayed the womanizing French skunk: Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey, Billy West, Keith Scott, Maurice LaMarche, Bruce Lanoil, Jeff Bennett, René Auberjonois, Eric Bauza, and Greg Burson, just to name a few.
• Referenced by...: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• What Could Have Been: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Writer Revolt: Bored with characters who only wanted to kill and/or eat each other, Chuck Jones created Pepé because he "wanted to do a character who just wants to get laid."
• Write Who You Know: In one of Chuck Jones' autobiographies, he states that animation writer Tedd Pierce was this Casanova Wannabe type guy who would always hit on women and chalk up their rejection of him as "She's flirting" or "She's playing hard to get." Some sources point to the character also being a Stealth Insult to an unnamed WB executive in the '50s who was constantly harassing his secretaries. This, coupled with exaggerating the stereotype of "zee great French lovair" and Chuck Jones's own insecurities about picking up women, is the basis of Pepé's persona.

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