For anybody not familiar, he was a Loony Tune. His gimmick was he would fall helplessly in love with any black cat who happened to get white paint on her (or possibly his, not here to judge) back.
Pepé was very…self-imposing. To put it mildly. He would not last long in a “No means no” world. He’s like a 1930s cartoon version of Stiffler. With all the social wrongs of both eras.
I just thought about the whole pepe thing last week and i don’t really get it to be honest. I loved looney tunes as a kid, don’t really care for it now, and have no reason to defend pepe at all. But ifeel like removing him was just a weak ass attempt to pretend to be the good guys. He was certainty problematic and all, but that was the whole point. He was never the good guy, or the funny guy. Even as a child i realised that he was scummy and odd. I’m oly going off memory here from a show i watched over 30 years ago, but he was never really endorsed or bugs bunny never told him that he’s cool and he ahould just continue to force himaelf on that cat. He was a caricature of a slimebag that probably every girl and woman at least once in their lifetime encounters. Removing him is just like saying these people don’t exist, don’t worry. I know it’s not that deep, but to me it feels like when they removed the D&D episode from community where señor chan painted his face black because he was a dark elf and then felt good about themselves because they solved racism.
Imagine being a little girl growing up watching that. The message is that someone sexually harassing you and refusing to take a “no” is common and normal. Just an annoyance.
Back then it was common, and if not normal in all places, certainly something everyone just had to “deal with”.
Unfortunately a major political movement is normalizing it again now. Probably better to remember the trope and discuss it rather than bury it. But, it’s a kids show, so it doesn’t need to be in the rotation in every kid’s constantly running digital baby sitter I suppose.
The truth is, he just wasn’t that popular of a character. He had literally one gimmick and it got old, fast. I don’t think I ever heard anyone say he was their favorite. People skipped his episodes so they needed a reason to get rid of him and the whole “me too” thing was a good way to score political points with the public while also getting rid of a one-dimensional character most people didn’t care about.
I feel like Fifi from Tiny Tunes was supposed to be a more PC Pepe, but they had absolutely no ideas to make her more of a thing. Did she even have a gimmick? I just remember her name and that she was purple.
Pepe wasn’t meant to be a kids’ cartoon. When he was created cartoons ran in theaters before the main movie came on. The jokes were written on an adult level. The Tiny Toons were supposed to be for children. Kind of hard to put a nymphomaniac into a G-rated show.
Oh I knew that, I’ve seen it before getting to the age of 43 kiddo :)
I just never saw the French attitude because I was French (still is), hence the “merde”.
My name isn’t from that cartoon (Pépé le putois) but from a certain plant… I was a teenager when I choose it. Now that I’m an irresponsible adult I tell people that it’s Skunk the animal and I use cute skunks as profile pictures.
I wish I could remember the name of the novel. It’s pretty recent.
Author and hero are both gay men. The hero is fighting a vampire/zombie/cannibal cult. Book is full of massacres, torture, and about a dozen human sacrifices.
There’s a trigger warning about bad language at the start of the book.
One of the moms in my wife’s mom-clique…the one everyone talks about behind her back…is super religious (Catholic). Their kids all go to private school.
They went to go see a movie, I think it was Lightyear, and her daughter (who at 8 is already giving me “this girl will grow up to be a butch lesbian” vibes) asks about the part where a girl married another girl.
Which, if you ever saw the movie, was a huge deal to the religious right, even though it was literally the tiniest part of the whole movie (and ultimately unnecessary to the plot).
Anyways the mom immediately shot it down saying that girls can’t fall in love with other girls and they absolutely cannot marry each other.
I feel really bad for that girl. And their older son, who is very likely mildly autistic, an absolutely brilliant kid, but getting a true Catholic school education and will talk my ear off about the great flood. He’s getting pretty suspicious of creationism so maybe there’s hope for him yet.
But alas, I also don’t want to overstep as a parent.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
For anybody not familiar, he was a Loony Tune. His gimmick was he would fall helplessly in love with any black cat who happened to get white paint on her (or possibly his, not here to judge) back.
Pepé was very…self-imposing. To put it mildly. He would not last long in a “No means no” world. He’s like a 1930s cartoon version of Stiffler. With all the social wrongs of both eras.
FatVegan@leminal.space 1 month ago
I just thought about the whole pepe thing last week and i don’t really get it to be honest. I loved looney tunes as a kid, don’t really care for it now, and have no reason to defend pepe at all. But ifeel like removing him was just a weak ass attempt to pretend to be the good guys. He was certainty problematic and all, but that was the whole point. He was never the good guy, or the funny guy. Even as a child i realised that he was scummy and odd. I’m oly going off memory here from a show i watched over 30 years ago, but he was never really endorsed or bugs bunny never told him that he’s cool and he ahould just continue to force himaelf on that cat. He was a caricature of a slimebag that probably every girl and woman at least once in their lifetime encounters. Removing him is just like saying these people don’t exist, don’t worry. I know it’s not that deep, but to me it feels like when they removed the D&D episode from community where señor chan painted his face black because he was a dark elf and then felt good about themselves because they solved racism.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Imagine being a little girl growing up watching that. The message is that someone sexually harassing you and refusing to take a “no” is common and normal. Just an annoyance.
zarathustrad@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Back then it was common, and if not normal in all places, certainly something everyone just had to “deal with”.
Unfortunately a major political movement is normalizing it again now. Probably better to remember the trope and discuss it rather than bury it. But, it’s a kids show, so it doesn’t need to be in the rotation in every kid’s constantly running digital baby sitter I suppose.
nagaram@piefed.social 1 month ago
I want to believe a kid isn’t so dumb, but its also possible a boy see it and goes
“Oh wouldn’t it be funny to act like this to my crush?”
Which just reinforces the whole cycle.
Jarix@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s easier to erase than to fix
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 month ago
There is this whole whitewashing propaganda thing, like in a two wrongs and a rights, or visa versa.
Like, how do you even begin?
Dookieman12@piefed.social 1 month ago
The truth is, he just wasn’t that popular of a character. He had literally one gimmick and it got old, fast. I don’t think I ever heard anyone say he was their favorite. People skipped his episodes so they needed a reason to get rid of him and the whole “me too” thing was a good way to score political points with the public while also getting rid of a one-dimensional character most people didn’t care about.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 month ago
I feel like Fifi from Tiny Tunes was supposed to be a more PC Pepe, but they had absolutely no ideas to make her more of a thing. Did she even have a gimmick? I just remember her name and that she was purple.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 1 month ago
Pepe wasn’t meant to be a kids’ cartoon. When he was created cartoons ran in theaters before the main movie came on. The jokes were written on an adult level. The Tiny Toons were supposed to be for children. Kind of hard to put a nymphomaniac into a G-rated show.
Skunk@jlai.lu 1 month ago
Oh I knew that, I’ve seen it before getting to the age of 43 kiddo :)
I just never saw the French attitude because I was French (still is), hence the “merde”.
My name isn’t from that cartoon (Pépé le putois) but from a certain plant… I was a teenager when I choose it. Now that I’m an irresponsible adult I tell people that it’s Skunk the animal and I use cute skunks as profile pictures.
But that’s a lie, let it be our little secret 🤫
bilb@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Skunk profile picture? Weird
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 1 month ago
I wish I could remember the name of the novel. It’s pretty recent.
Author and hero are both gay men. The hero is fighting a vampire/zombie/cannibal cult. Book is full of massacres, torture, and about a dozen human sacrifices.
There’s a trigger warning about bad language at the start of the book.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
One of the moms in my wife’s mom-clique…the one everyone talks about behind her back…is super religious (Catholic). Their kids all go to private school.
They went to go see a movie, I think it was Lightyear, and her daughter (who at 8 is already giving me “this girl will grow up to be a butch lesbian” vibes) asks about the part where a girl married another girl.
Which, if you ever saw the movie, was a huge deal to the religious right, even though it was literally the tiniest part of the whole movie (and ultimately unnecessary to the plot).
Anyways the mom immediately shot it down saying that girls can’t fall in love with other girls and they absolutely cannot marry each other.
I feel really bad for that girl. And their older son, who is very likely mildly autistic, an absolutely brilliant kid, but getting a true Catholic school education and will talk my ear off about the great flood. He’s getting pretty suspicious of creationism so maybe there’s hope for him yet.
But alas, I also don’t want to overstep as a parent.