Cartoon Humor Under Fire

All types of people saw cartoons in the early 20th century. They would see shorts before seeing a film in theaters. Eventually, most of these would find a home on television and video. Once the 1950s came along, did the stigma of being for kids came into play. That is something that will come into play when the modern generation cry about humor that was done from before their time. This is in response to the hoopla surrounding Looney Tunes and its Pepe Le Pew character.

Quick backstory, The New York Times ran an article by Charles Blow (real name, by the way) about how the skunk was responsible for rape culture. I'll add that this guy is an agenda seeking person and will do anything to skew it into a political spiel. The thing is, this is not new. You hear rumblings at times. Dave Chappelle did a bit for a stand up special in 2000 regarding Pepe. Also coming out is him getting cut from the new Space Jam sequel, which I'll get to.

I'm not the hugest on these cartoons of Pepe, but Blow is "les incompetent". I get it, but it's never him winning. He always got comeuppance in the end. And it's not like Warner Brothers stuck to this formula every time, either. You can evolve a character. The Space Jam 2 scene is something I don't get. It was supposed to show, according to reports, him getting beaten up for hitting on a woman and told a lesson. Given how LeBron James is with his "activism", you'd think he would have fought for that. Makes no sense. 

Was anyone ever inspired to be like Pepe? Or even Fifi from Tiny Toon Adventures? Even if you don't care for the cartoons, it's a parody of French lovers. It's built on stereotypes seen in various forms of media. Granted, it's humor that hasn't aged well, but Blow doesn't grasp the exaggeration. There's no real way to use the character and change him to a different type of parody. With that in mind, he should not be banned. If that does happen, it opens up a whole new can of worms because there are tons of cartoons from different studios that are for kids, but have some "risque" stuff that wouldn't fly by with today's group of snowflakes.

We can't erase every "bad thing" about the 20th century. But we can learn on how to improve and to change for the better. This whole Pepe situation comes at a really bad time. I understand the issue, but we also lose sight of what the original intentions were back in the 40s and 50s. Let him disappear for a while until WB thinks its safe to use him again. Until the stigma dies off, cartoons will always be looked at as kids programming. Not everything has to be a lesson like a PBS show.