Assholes in the news

[Rev. Rye]

I wouldn't have put the whole fracas about how Pepe le Pew got "cancelled" in this thread normally. Frankly, all the rapey shit aside, he was always a second-tier Looney Tune whose shorts were all just one joke (although, to be fair, he was apparently a parody of similarly lecherous protagonists in films from romantic comedies of the era, with the sort of reactions one would rationally expect from such horseshit that didn't appear in said films, and there were at least a few [too few] shorts where Pepe loses). What galls me is that the scene of his that was removed from the upcoming Space Jam movie is the exact sort of scene that would be necessary if you were to ever use him again:

Pepe was set to appear in a black-and-white Casablanca-like Rick’s Cafe sequence. Pepe, playing a bartender, starts hitting on a woman at the bar played by [Greice] Santo. He begins kissing her arm, which she pulls back, then slamming Pepe into the chair next to hers. She then pours her drink on Pepe, and slaps him hard, sending him spinning in a stool, which is then stopped by LeBron James’ hand. James and Bugs Bunny are looking for Lola, and Pepe knows her whereabouts. Pepe then tells the guys that Penelope cat has filed a restraining order against him. James makes a remark in the script that Pepe can’t grab other Tunes without their consent.

Quoth Greice Santo, who has become helped raise awareness for this sort of thing, “For me, it was so important to have this scene in a movie to inspire the younger generations, and also the older generations, so we can correct that behavior. I felt that this scene was a way to show kids that this kind of behavior is wrong.” She's offered $100,000 for any footage of the scene. And if this scene comes to light (and at most, it'll consist of footage of Santo and LeBron James and maybe some storyboards), well, it'll be a fitting epitaph for the character; a deconstruction of his entire schtick and an unambiguous repudiation thereof.

I'm not sure if it counts for this thread, but I'm not sure if there's another place for it and I'm not sure that it deserves its own thread. That said, fucking Hell, Warner Brothers drops a scene that might actually help alleviate rape culture a bit for the next generation, but Burger King goes forward with a "Women Belong In the Kitchen" ad campaign.