Conspicuously displaying their elevated, ever-evolving state of social consciousness, HBO has decided that Elmer Fudd’s gun is now beyond the pale. Instead, in their upcoming reboot of the Warner cartoon classic, Elmer will hunt wascawy wabbits with…a scythe. Because beheading woodland creatures with a swipe of a razor-sharp curved implement is far less violent and more humane. Allegedly.
There’s no word yet on whether HBO intends to allow Elmer to keep his trademark rhotacism, or if it’s been decided that voice-shaming Mr. Fudd would also be contrary to HBO’s high standards.
Peter Browngardt, the series executive producer and showrunner, told the outlet, “We’re not doing guns.”
“But we can do cartoony violence — TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in,” Browngardt told the outlet.
Elmer Fudd is regularly foiled trying to hunt Bugs Bunny on the show. In the new series, the character will carry a scythe.
However, comics artist Johnny Ryan, who worked on the show, noted to the Times that he believes “We’re going through this wave of anti-bullying, everybody needs to be friends, everybody needs to get along.”
– Marina Pitofsky in Elmer Fudd will not have a gun in ‘Looney Tunes’ reboot
