Pepé Le Pew

Pepé Le Pew
'Ello, ma petit coquelicot…
Species	Stripped skunk
Gender	Male
Member of	Tune Squad
Affiliation	Penelope Pussycat Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Fifi La Fume
Father	Not Mentioned
Mother	Not Mentioned
Other relative(s)	One cousin, Pitu Le Pew, in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries
Marital status	Married at one point
First appearance	LT: Odor-able Kitty (1945)
Played by	Mel Blanc (1945-1989) Greg Burson (1990-1995) Maurice LaMarche (1996) Billy West (2000-2003) Joe Alaskey (2000-2010) Bruce Lanoil (2003) Jeff Bennett (2006-2009) René Auberjonois (2011) Jeff Bergman (2012-2015) Eric Bauza (since 2017)
Space Jam
File:BLT Pepé.png Baby Looney Tunes
File:BIA Pepé.png Looney Tunes: Back in Action
File:TLTS Pepé.png The Looney Tunes Show
File:NLT Pepé.png New Looney Tunes

Pepé Le Pew is an anthropomorphic French skunk and one of the recurring characters of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical shorts. He is a romantic, yet egotistical, Casanova who usually goes in constant search for romance, but his foul scent, self-delusion, and overly persistent mannerisms inhibit his efforts. Pepé's target of love is usually a female black cat (known currently as Penelope Pussycat), whom he mistakes for another skunk due to a white stripe painted on her back. His voice was originated by Mel Blanc using a French accent.

Pepé's protégé in Tiny Toon Adventures is Fifi La Fume.

Character description

Pepé is a black and white skunk defined by his amorous, yet narcassistic personality. Although he presents himself as a charming individual looking for "l'amor" (love), he is oblivious of his foul scent, which crops up as a running gag of his many apprarances; side characters encountering skunks (either Pepé, or any cat like Penelope) would run away from their smell and/or skunk-like appearances in a lot of his cartoons. Pepé's odor is one of the contrubiting factors of his constant rejections by Penelope (or "la belle femme skunk fatale," as Pepé to several times).

Apart from his stench, another weakness Pepé attributes is his persistance. His aggresive flirting and general overconfidence are opposite to the cat's refusal to be in a relationship with him. Pepé would attempt to use his romantic efforts onto Penelope, such as sharing his kisses at her, but would instead be treated with the cat escaping from his grasp; and sometimes, if rarely, get his own comeuppance through slapstick violence. As such, he either has no sign of narcissistic injury or never loses his motivation to pusure Penelope, no matter how many times he gets rebuffed.

Appearances

TV series

• The Bugs Bunny Show
• Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny & Friends
• Tiny Toon Adventures
• Animaniacs (1993)
• Bugs 'N' Daffy
• Baby Looney Tunes
• The Looney Tunes Show
• New Looney Tunes
• Animaniacs (2020)

Movies

• The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
• The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie
• Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island
• Space Jam
• Tweety's High-Flying Adventure
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action
• Bah Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas
• Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run

Shorts

• Looney Tunes
• Merrie Melodies
  • Odor-able Kitty
  • Scent-imental Over You
  • For Scent-imental Reasons
  • Scent-imental Romeo
  • Little Beau Pepé
  • Wild Over You
  • Dog Pounded (cameo)
  • The Cats Bah
  • Past Perfumance
  • Two Scent's Worth
  • Heaven Scent
  • Touché and Go
  • Really Scent
  • Who Scent You?
  • A Scent of the Matterhorn
  • Louvre, Come Back to Me!
  • Carrotblanca

Development

Pepé Le Pew was the creation of director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese; Jones loosely based his personality on his fellow Termite Terrace colleague and writer, Tedd Pierce, a self-styled "ladies' man" who reportedly always assumed that his infatuations would be reciprocated. In the short documentary, Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood, Jones told an interviewer (albiet jokingly) that he actually based Pepé on himself, except he explained that he was shy around girls.

When Pepé's personality was developed fully in his own cartoons, Mel Blanc based the skunk's voice on French actor Charles Boyer, who played the character Pepé le Moko in the film Algiers (1938); itself an adaptation of the French film Pepé le Moko (1937).

Gallery

Main article: Pepé Le Pew/Gallery

In popular culture

• In the Full House episode "Danny in Charge," Joey does an impression of Pepé Le Pew while speaking to a skunk that he and Jesse encounter with.
• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "Eyes on the Prize," when Will comes into the kitchen wearing a bathrobe after not being able to shower, Geoffrey asks him to stand downwind, to which Will apologises for smelling like Pepé Le Pew.
• In the Moesha episode "Labor Day Jammy," Moesha refers to her younger brother, Myles, as Pepé Le Pew.
• In the Gilmore Girls episode "Kill Me Now," Drella asked the French Michel for help by calling him Pepé Le Pew.
• In the audio commentary of the Stargate SG-1 episode "Unending," writer Robert C. Cooper nicknamed Teal'c Pepé Le Pew when he gained a white streak in his hair.
• In the My Dad the Rock Star episode "Call of the Wild," a skunk resembling Pepé appears inside of the Zilla mansion, when eldest sister Serenity notices that many wildlife animals have been living in her home.
• In the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode "Kimmy Makes Waffles!," idiot Randy discusses with a cat whether or not a skunk could be fooled by a white line painted across a cat.

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  My Dad the Rock Star