Pepé Le Pew

## Pepé

**Pepé Le Pew** is a cartoon character in the Warner Bros. *Looney Tunes* and *Merrie Melodies* series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own. However, he has two huge turnoffs to any prospective mates: his malodorous scent, and his refusal to take 'no' for an answer, blissfully convinced that the girl is flirting with him, even when she rejects his advances to the point of physically assaulting him. Pepé is stereotypically French in the way Speedy Gonzales is stereotypically Mexican, speaking with an exaggerated accent.

## Premise

Pepé Le Pew storylines typically involve Pepé in pursuit of what appears to be a female skunk ("la belle femme skunk fatale"). But the supposed female skunk is usually a black cat (retroactively named Penelope Pussycat) who has had a white stripe painted down her back, often by accident (as by squeezing under a fence with wet white paint). Usually Penelope runs away from him because of his putrid odor, or because of his overly aggressive manner, or both. As Penelope frantically races to get away from Pepé, he hops after her at a leisurely pace.

## Reversals

In a role-reversal, the Academy Award-winning 1949 short *For Scent-imental Reasons* ended with an accidentally painted (and now terrified) Pepé being aggressively pursued by a madly smitten Penelope (who has been dunked in dirty water, leaving her with a ratty appearance and a developing head cold, completely clogging up her nose). It turns out that Pepe's new color is just right for her. Penelope locks him up inside a perfume shop, hiding the key down her chest, and proceeds to chase the now imprisoned and effectively odorless Pepé.

In another short, *Little Beau Pepé*, Pepé, attempting to find the most arousing cologne with which to impress Penelope, sprays a combination of perfumes and colognes upon himself. This resulted in something close to a love-potion, leading Penelope to fall madly in love with Pepé in an explosion of hearts. Pepé is revealed to be extremely frightened of overly-affectionate women ("But Madame!"), much to his dismay, as Penelope quickly captures him and smothers him in more love than even he could imagine.

And yet again, in *Really Scent*, Pepé removes his odor by locking himself in a deodorant plant so Penelope (or known as "Fabrette", in this instance a black cat with an unfortunate birthmark) would like him (this is also the only episode that Pepé is acutely aware of his own odor, having checked the word Pew in the dictionary). However, Penelope (who in this picture is actually trying to have a relationship with Pepé because all the male cats of New Orleans take her to be a skunk and run like blazes, but is appalled by his odor) had decided to make her own odor match her appearance and had locked herself in a Limburger cheese factory. Now more forceful and demanding, Penelope quickly corners the terrified Pepé, who, after smelling her new stench, wants nothing more than to escape the amorous female cat. Unfortunately, she will not take "no" for an answer and proceeds to chase Pepé off into the distance, with no intention of letting him escape (credited to Abe Levitow, this cartoon is the only short in the Pepé Le Pew series not directed by Chuck Jones, save the debatable *Odor of the Day*—see below).

Although Pepé usually mistakes Penelope for a female skunk, in *Past Perfumance*, he realizes that she is a cat when her stripe washes off. Undeterred, he proceeds to cover his white stripe with black paint, taking the appearance of a cat before resuming the chase.

To emphasise Pepé's cheerful dominance of the situation, Penelope is always mute (or more precisely, only makes natural cat sounds) in these stories; only the self-deluded Pepé speaks (several non-recurring human characters are given minimal dialogue, often nothing more than a repulsed, "Le pew!").

## Variations

Sometimes this formula is varied. In his initial cartoon, *Odor-able Kitty*, Pepé (technically he is a different character because he is eventually revealed to be an American-accented family man named Henry) unwittingly pursues a *male* cat who has deliberately disguised himself as a skunk (complete with the scent of Limburger cheese) in order to scare off a bunch of characters who have mistreated him. *Scent-imental Over You* has Pepé pursuing a female *dog* who has donned a skunk pelt (mistaking it for a fur coat). In the end, she removes her pelt, revealing that she's a dog. Pepé then "reveals" himself as another dog and the two embrace. However, he then reveals to the audience that he's still a skunk. In *Wild Over You*, Pepé attempts to seduce a wild cat that has escaped a zoo (during what is called "Le grande tour du Zoo" at a 1900 exhibition), and painted herself to look like a skunk to escape her keepers. This cartoon is notable for not only diverging from the Pepé/female-black-cat dynamic, but also rather cheekily showing that Pepé likes to be beaten up, considering the wild cat thrashes him numerous times. *Really Scent* is also a subversion with Penelope (here called "Fabrette") attracted to him from the beginning, removing the need for Pepé to chase her as she goes to him. But Pepé's scent still causes a problem for her as they try to build a relationship.

## Production

Chuck Jones, Pepé's creator, wrote that Pepé was based (loosely) on the personality of his Termite Terrace colleague, writer Tedd Pierce, a self-styled "ladies' man" who reportedly always assumed that his infatuations were requited. Pepé's voice, provided by Mel Blanc, was based on Charles Boyer's Pépé le Moko from *Algiers* (1938), a remake of the 1937 French film *Pépé le Moko*. Eddie Selzer, animation producer—and Jones' bitterest foe—at Warners then once profanely commented that no one would laugh at those cartoons. However, this did not keep Selzer from accepting an award for one of Pepé's pictures several years later. There have been theories that Pepé was based on Maurice Chevalier. However, in the short film, *Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood*, Jones says Pepé was actually based on himself, but that he was very shy with girls, and Pepé obviously was not. A prototype Pepé appears in 1947's *Bugs Bunny Rides Again*, but sounds similar to Porky Pig.

In the shorts, a kind of pseudo-French or Franglais is spoken and written primarily by adding "le" to English words (example: "le skunk de pew"), or by more creative mangling of French expressions with English ones, such as *"Sacre Maroon!"*, *"My sweet peanut of brittle"*, *"Come to me, my little melon-baby collie!"* or *"Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?"*, and *"It is love at sight first!"* The writer responsible for these malapropisms was Michael Maltese.

Some transcribed dialogue by Maltese from the Oscar-winning 1949 short *For Scent-imental Reasons*:

**Pepé:** (sings) Affaire d'amour? Affaire de coeur? Je ne sais quoi … je vive en espoir. (Sniffs) Mmmm m mm ... un smella vous finez ... (Hums)
**Gendarme:** Le kittee quel terrible odeur!!
**Proprietor:** Allez Gendarme!! Allez!! Retournez-moi!! This instonce!! Oh, pauvre moi, I am ze bankrupt ... (Sobs)
**Cat/Penelope:** Le mew? Le purrrrrrr.
**Proprietor:** A-a-ahhh. Le pussy ferocious! Remove zot skunk! Zot cat-pole from ze premises!! Avec!!
**Cat/Penelope:** (Smells skunk) Sniff, sniff, sniff-sniff, sniff-sniff.
**Pepé:** Quel est? \*notices cat\* Ahh...le belle femme skunk fatale...\*clicks tongue twice\*
Blanc's voice for the character closely resembles the one he used for "Professor Le Blanc", the harried violin instructor on *The Jack Benny Program*.

Pepé Le Pew's cartoons were dubbed in French; in the French version, Pepé speaks with a heavy Italian accent. His voice is a parody of Yves Montand.

## Cameo appearances

Chuck Jones first introduced the character (originally named **Stinky**) in the 1945 short *Odor-able Kitty* (see "Variations"). For the remaining cartoons Jones directed, Pepé retained his accent, nationality, and bachelor status throughout, and the object of his pursuit was nearly always female.

A possible second cameo appearance is at the end of *Fair and Worm-er* (Chuck Jones, 1946). This skunk doesn't speak, but looks identical (or is a close relation) and shares the same mode of travel and a slight variation of Pepé's hopping music. His function here is to chase a string of characters who had all been chasing each other (à la "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly").

A skunk often identified as Pepé appears in the Art Davis-directed cartoon *Odor of the Day* (1948); in this entry, the theme of romantic pursuit is missing as the skunk (in a non-speaking role, save for a shared "Gesundheit!" at the finish) vies with a male dog for lodging accommodations on a cold winter day. This should be noted as one of the two cartoons where the character, if this is indeed Pepé, uses his scent-spray as a deliberate weapon: shot from his tail as if it were a machine gun. The other one is *Touché and Go*, where he frees himself from the jaws of a shark by releasing his odor into the shark's mouth.

Pepé makes a more obvious cameo in *Dog Pounded* (1954), where he is attracted to Sylvester after the latter tried to get around a pack of guard dogs, in his latest attempt to capture and eat Tweety, by painting a white stripe down his back (in Pepé's only appearance in a Freleng short).

Pepé possibly makes a small appearance as a baby skunk in *Mouse-Placed Kitten* (1959), where he is reluctantly adopted by a mouse couple at the cartoon end.

## Later appearances

Pepé was going to have a cameo in *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*, but was later dropped for reasons unknown.

Pepé made several cameo appearances on the 1990 series *Tiny Toon Adventures* as a professor at Acme Looniversity and the mentor to the female skunk character Fifi La Fume. He appeared briefly in "The Looney Beginning" and had a more extended cameo in "It's a Wonderful Tiny Toon Adventures Christmas Special". The segment "Out of Odor" from the episode "Viewer Mail Day" saw character Elmyra disguise herself as Pepé in an attempt to lure Fifi into a trap, only to have Fifi begin aggressively wooing her.

Pepé also made a cameo appearances in the *Histeria!* episode "When America Was Young" and in the Goodfeathers segment, "We're No Pigeons", on *Animaniacs*.

In the 1995 animated short *Carrotblanca*, a parody/homage of the classic film *Casablanca*, both Pepé and Penelope appear: Pepé (voiced by Greg Burson) as Captain Renault and Penelope (voiced by Tress MacNeille) as "Kitty Ketty" (modeled after Ingrid Bergman's performance as Ilsa). Unlike the character's other appearances in cartoons, Penelope (as Kitty) has extensive speaking parts in *Carrotblanca*.

In *The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries*, in the episode, "Platinum Wheel of Fortune", when Sylvester gets a white stripe on his back, a skunk immediately falls in love with him. This is not Pepé, but a similar character identified as "Pitu Le Pew". However, he does say, "What can I say, Pepé Le Pew is my third cousin. It runs in the family". Pepé would later appear in the episode "Paris is Stinking", where he pursues Sylvester who is unintentionally dressed in drag. Pepé would appear once more in *Tweety's High-Flying Adventure*, falling in love with both Sylvester and Penelope (Sylvester had gotten a white stripe on his back from Penelope as they fought over Tweety), actually showing a preference for Sylvester.

Pepé was, at one point, integral to the storyline for the movie *Looney Tunes: Back in Action*. Originally, once Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, DJ, and Kate arrived in Paris, Pepé was to give them a mission briefing inside a gift shop. Perhaps because of the group receiving their equipment in Area 52, Pepé's scene was cut, and in the final film, he plays only a bit part, dressed like a police officer, who tries to help DJ (played by Brendan Fraser) after Kate (played by Jenna Elfman) is kidnapped. However, some unused animation of him and Penelope appears during the end credits, thus giving viewers a rare glimpse at his cut scene, and his cut scene appears in the movie's print adaptations. Pepé also appears in *Space Jam*, where his voice has curiously been changed into an approximation of Maurice Chevalier, as opposed to more traditional vocalization.

In *Loonatics Unleashed*, a human based on Pepé Le Pew called Pierre Le Pew (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) has appeared as one of the villains of the second season of the show. Additionally, Pepé and Penelope Pussycat appear as cameos in a display of Otto the Odd in the episode "The Hunter." In the episode "The World is My Circus," Lexi Bunny complains that "this Pepé Le Pew look is definitely not me" after being mutated into a skunk-like creature.

A 2009 Valentine's Day-themed AT&T commercial brings Pepé and Penelope's relationship up to date, depicting Penelope not as repulsed by Pepé, but madly in love with him. The commercial begins with Penelope deliberately painting a white stripe on her own back; when her cell phone rings and displays Pepé's picture, Penelope's lovestruck beating heart bulges beneath her chest in a classic cartoon image.

A baby version of Pepé Le Pew appeared in *Baby Looney Tunes*. In the episode "New Cat in Town," everyone thought that he was a cat. Sylvester was the only one who knew the truth. When Daffy was playing with a laptop, Sylvester removed the battery. Because he was afraid that everybody would avoid him. We also see a grown up version of him on the laptop. In another episode, titled "Stop and Smell Up the Flowers", Pepé Le Pew is shown to be good friends with a baby Gossamer, and seemed slightly older than his previous appearance.

Pepé Le Pew has appeared in the *The Looney Tunes Show* episode "Members Only" voiced by René Auberjonois in Season One and by Jeff Bergman in Season Two. He was present at the arranged marriage of Bugs Bunny and Lola Bunny. Of course Lola eventually fell in love with Pepé Le Pew. He also made a short cameo appearance with Penelope Pussycat in the *Merrie Melodies* segment "Cock of the Walk" sung by Foghorn Leghorn. He appeared in his own music video "Skunk Funk" in the 16th episode "That's My Baby". He also appeared again in another *Merrie Melodies* segment "You Like/I Like" sung by Mac and Tosh. His first appearance in the second season was in the second episode, entitled, "You've Got Hate Mail", reading a hate-filled email accidentally sent by Daffy Duck. He also had a short appearance "A Christmas Carol" where he takes part in the song "Christmas Rules." In "Gribbler's Quest," Pepé Le Pew is shown to be in the same group therapy with Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian, and Yosemite Sam.

Pepé Le Pew made a cameo in a *MetLife* commercial in 2012 titled, "Everyone". In it, he was shown hopping along in the forest and when he sees his love interest Penelope Pussycat uptop the back of Battle Cat, he immediately hops after her.

Pepé Le Pew appeared in the video games, *Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3*, *Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal*, *The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout*, *Looney Tunes: Back in Action*, *Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage*, and *Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 4*.

## Film

In October 2010, it was announced that Mike Myers will voice Pepé Le Pew in a feature-length live action film based on the character. As of 2015 no further information has been released about the film.

Pepé Le Pew was part of the inspiration – in combination with the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards – behind Johnny Depp's characterization of his role as Captain Jack Sparrow.

## Gallery

*Main article: Pepé Le Pew/Gallery*

*Looney Tunes* & *Merrie Melodies*

**Shorts**
1929–1939 • 1940–1949 • 1950–1959 • 1960–1969 • 1970–present and miscellaneous • Blue Ribbon reissues • Censored Eleven • Unreleased
**Television series**
*The Bugs Bunny Show* • *The Road Runner Show* • *The Porky Pig Show* • *Tiny Toon Adventures* • *Taz-Mania* • *The Plucky Duck Show* • *The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries* • *Baby Looney Tunes* • *Duck Dodgers* • *Loonatics Unleashed* • *The Looney Tunes Show* • *Wabbit* • Specials
Characters
**Main cast**

**Other characters**
Barnyard Dawg • Goofy Gophers • Gossamer • Granny • Henery Hawk • Marc Antony & Pussyfoot • Melissa Duck • Penelope Pussycat • Petunia Pig • Ralph Wolf • Sam Sheepdog • Witch Hazel • Yosemite Sam
Feature films
**Compilations**
*The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie* • *The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie* • *Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales* • *Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island* • *Daffy Duck's Quackbusters* • *The Looney Tunes Hall of Fame*
**Live action/animation**
*Space Jam* • *Looney Tunes: Back in Action*
**Made for video**
*Tweety's High-Flying Adventure* • *Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas* • *Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run*
**Documentaries**
*Bugs Bunny: Superstar* • *Chuck Amuck: The Movie*
Music/Songs
"Merrily We Roll Along" • "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" • "Powerhouse" • "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" • "Camptown Races"
Music/SongsOther
Video games