Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Home > Pepe Le Pew
In a series of Warner Brothers' cartoons, Pepe Le Pew (voiced by Mel Blanc imitating Charles Boyer's Pepe le Moko from the film of that name) is a French skunk who always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of love. Pepe would like to fall in love, as well. However, he has two huge turnoffs to any prospective mates: his malodorous scent and the fact that he comes on too strong. Normally, Pepe's romantic interests should include female skunks ("petite femme skunk"), but each episode invariably revolves around Pepe pursuing a "skunk", who, unbeknowst to him, is usually a hapless black cat that inadvertently gets a white stripe painted down her back. She does not, however, reciprocate his amorous feelings, especially since his smell is rather offensive to all who encounter it. (Although they may smell a little musty, real skunks do not smell awful until they release the odor, usually in self-protection.) Chuck Jones, Pepe's creator, says that Pepe was based (loosely) on the personality of his Warner Bros. colleague, writer Tedd Pierce , who reportedly always assumed that his infatuations were requited. Eddie Selter, producer--and Jones' bitterest foe--at Warners then, once commented that no one would laugh at those cartoons. (He actually used a much less pleasant term.) However, this did not keep Selter from accepting an award for one of Pepe's pictures several years later.
In the shorts, " French" is spoken and written primarily by adding "le" to English words, or by more creative mangling of French expressions with English ones, such as "Sacre Maroon!", "my sweet peanut of brittle", or "Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?". The writer responsible for these often-brilliant malapropisms was Michael Maltese.
Maltese transcribed some dialog from the short "For Scent-imental Reasons", for which Jones was awarded an Oscar in 1949:
- Skunk: (sings) Affair d'amour? Affair d'coeur? Je ne say quois ... je vis en espoir. (Sniffs) Mmmm m mm ... un smella voo feenay ... (Hums)
- Gendarme: Le kittee kel terriblay odeur!! Pard'm was ... Jo-seph ... apray midi le fudge is burning!
- Proprietor: Allay Gendarme!! Allay!! Return'mwa!! This instonce!! Oh, pauvre mwa, I am ze banrupt ... (Sobs)
- Cat: Le mew ? Le purrrrrrr.
- Proprietor: A-a-ahhh. Le pussee ferocious! Remove zot skunk! Zot cat-pole from ze premises!! Avec!!
- Cat: (Smells skunk) Sniff, sniff, sniff-sniff, sniff-sniff.
- Skunk: Quel es? ... Ahhh ... la belle femme skunk fatale!! Tch-tch.
In recent years, the shorts featuring his character have been more and more downplayed and even banned as his relentless pursuit of clearly unappreciative females comes across more as stalking. Not that it was entirely one-sided: one cartoon ended with an accidentally painted (and now terrified) Pepe being romantically pursued by a female cat with a cold!
See also Fifi Le Fume
In the French version of Pepe le Pew, Pépé le putois, Pépé is an Italian skunk with a strong Italian accent. Most of the dialog is in French, though some Italian words and expressions are also used, such as, mon petit farfalle, mon petit ravioli e pesto when talking to the cat, or c'est le moment de la mise amore.
Johnny Depp drew upon Pepe (along with guitarist Keith RichardsKeith Richards (born December 18, 1943) is rhythm and occasional lead guitarist for The Rolling Stones, the band he founded with vocalist Mick Jagger and Brian Jones in 1962. Jagger and Richards share songwriting duties for the Stones. In addition to his) for his characterization of Captain Jack SparrowCaptain Jack Sparrow is a main character in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and was played by Johnny Depp. Jack Sparrow is a pirate. He used to command the Black Pearl searching for a legendary cache of Aztec gold but his crew in the film .
Read more »