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Pepé Le Pew Birthplace: Looney Tunes Warner Bros. Burbank, California Pepé Le Pew is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, introduced in 1945. Depicted as an anthropomorphic French striped skunk, Pepé is constantly in search of love and romance, but his offensive odor and often forceful kissing typically cause other characters to run away from him. He usually pursues a cat who has accidentally had a white stripe painted on her back and tail. Pepé Le Pew storylines typically involve Pepé in pursuit of a female black cat, whom Pepé mistakes for a skunk ("la belle femme skunk fatale"). The cat, who was retroactively named Penelope Pussycat, often has a white stripe painted down her back. Penelope frantically races to get away from him because of his putrid odor. Penelope Pussycat Penelope Pussycat is an animated cartoon character, featured with Pepé Le Pew. The character did not originally have a permanent name. She was alternately referred to as "Penelope", "Fifi", "Fabrette", and "Felice", and "Le Cat". The name Penelope Pussycat was created retroactively for Warner Bros. marketing. Penelope first appeared in the 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons, which won an Academy Award. While the skunk had been used in several earlier cartoons since Odor-able Kitty (1945), the addition of his main love interest in For Scent-imental Reasons solidified his characterization and the structure of all further Pepé films. Criticism The character has been criticized due to his antics being perceived as perpetuating stereotypes of French culture. Amber E. George, in her 2017 essay "Pride or Prejudice? Exploring Issues of Queerness, Speciesism, and Disability in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes", describes Pepé's actions towards Penelope Pussycat as "sexual harassment, stalking, and abuse" and noted that Pepé's qualities mock the French people and their culture. Certificate of Death In March 2021, as a result of controversy surrounding the character, Pepé Le Pew was reported to be removed from modern Warner Bros. projects until further notice. Warner Bros. removed Pepé Le Pew because his aggressive, non-consensual pursuit of female characters was widely criticized as promoting sexual harassment and "rape culture". While fans hold mixed opinions on whether the character should be evaluated as a product of his time, the studio decided his behavior is inappropriate for modern audiences.