Home Entertainment Unwoke Once Again: Elmer Fudd Gets His Gun Back

Unwoke Once Again: Elmer Fudd Gets His Gun Back

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Looney Tunes has been some of the least woke and most entertaining television content to occupy young skulls full of mush over the last half century or so. Yosemite Sam’s six-shooters and Elmer Fudd’s rifle were Saturday morning fixtures. Kids watched and loved them because they were dumb and funny, constantly outsmarted by their smart-assed prey.

 

But that wasn’t good enough for the people Warner Brothers animation. Last year, as Americans were buying record numbers of guns and ammo, corporate America was buying into the idea that toxic masculinity, the patriarchy, and white supremacy were what really ail this country. So WB’s wokesters decided that cartoon characters with guns just wasn’t in keeping with modern sensibilities.

The decision was made to do away with the ballistics and give ol’ Elmer a scythe instead. Because dismembering Bugs with a razor-sharp blade is far less damaging to young psyches than shooting the adorable bunny with a gun. Right?

elmer fudd no gun
Courtesy Warner Media

Anyway, that was then…this is now. When the latest season of Looney Tunes Cartoons reappeared on HBO Max last week, there was Elmer chasing Bugs as he always had, boomstick back in hand.

The folks at movieweb.com don’t seem sure about the decision . . .

For better or for worse, the decision was made to give Mr. Fudd his guns back, and it wasn’t long before he put them to use. In the “Rotund Rabbit” segment of the season’s sixth episode, Elmer Fudd goes back to his roots by chasing after Bugs Bunny with his old hunting rifle. He shoots at the speedy rabbit, but because Bugs is so fast, the bullet stops itself in midair before announcing, “That’s it, I quit!” The bullet then puts on a hat and storms off with its briefcase.

Oh, the humanity!

It seems like only yesterday that series producer Pete Browngardt announced that “We’re not doing guns.” Apparently, we are again.

Maybe it was the metric f@ck-tons of ridicule that were heaped on Warner Brothers and HBO for disarming one of popular culture’s most-loved characters. Or maybe the stupidity of a hunter carrying a farming implement as he chased rabbits and ducks was too much even for seven-year-olds…and they decided to watch something else. Nothing changes corporate moral preening attitudes faster than a sudden drop in revenue.

Whatever altered the wokenistas’ minds at Warner, it’s good to see Elmer back tromping through the flora, rifle in hand once again. He isn’t any more likely to bag himself a wise-cracking wascally wabbit or a duck with a slight speech impediment, but it’s good to know he’s still trying. And doing it with the right tool for the job.

 

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Funny how loss of revenue manages to reset those moral compasses…
    Just make sure we keep Bugs as gender fluid as he always has been.

      • It’s *slightly* possible the tide may be turning.

        It wasn’t long back (a few months?) that ‘Whole Foods’ announced they weren’t about to cave to the calls for them to drop their ‘ethnic’ food lines…

  2. How did Elmer Fudd’s shotgun magically transform into a rifle that fires bullets?
    I guess Fudd’s gun is as gender fluid as Bugs Bunny.

    • It’s bi-ammunition compatible.

      It’s still interesting they changed back, sorta.

      I guess they will go the ‘Terminator 2’ and ‘The A-Team’, where mountains of ‘metal messengers’ get fired, and no one gets hit.

      (Tip ‘o the hat to Haz,for the ‘metal messengers’ line…;) )

    • Yes – Elmer also makes his single shot fire semi-auto. Quite skillful, IMO. I cannot load my Henry Single Shot that quickly after years of experience.

  3. Elmer and Bugs doing Wagner’s Siegfreid and Elmer: one of the funniest sequences in Looney Toones history.

  4. Unfortunately Looney Tunes are starring next to LeBron James in the new Space Jam movie so they’re still on board with his brand of bullshit.

    • When did the first one with Michael Jordan come out? 1994? I dunno…haven’t seen a single minute of any of them and don’t know what the heck they’re even supposed to be about (other than blatant marketing crossover), and I’m actually rather proud of that fact.

  5. My grandpa had Jackrabbits on his Ranch and they were considered pests.
    He would kill any he found on his property.
    they became food for his Border Collie
    This was in the 1950’s
    Dogs lived much longer back then being fed raw food

    • We feed our cat raw chicken, mixed with a vitamin powder made from organic vegetables. It is designed to provide the nutrients wild cats get from the food their prey had eaten. Once we switched to this feed, she was happier and healthier.

      • My cat came in the window with a sparrow, then later on a baby bullfrog. I dont mind the frogs, but when the cat and I go to fighting over who gets the birds theres feathers and fur all over the house.

        • “I dont mind the frogs, but when the cat and I go to fighting over who gets the birds theres feathers and fur all over the house.”

          And *this* is what makes TTAG fun to read… 😉

          (Along with watching my incompetent troll step on his un-used dick…)

  6. ” The bullet then puts on a hat and storms off with its briefcase.”

    Now this is simply the bullet shwing good business sense. Rather than be malformed going thru the wabbit, the bullet is rushing home to put itself on sale on GunBroker. Probably make a ton more money that way!

  7. I’m suddenly reminded of that Robin Williams Jumanji movie. Where the hunter has to trade his antique rifle for a Daewoo USAS-12. I say Elmer should get a similar upgrade. :p

  8. Diznee did similar to the Simpson’s. Can’t have the chillen see the Michael Jackson episode after he was accquited of diddling little boy’s. Or Kevin Spacey erased from human memory everywhere…bring back the Redskins!

  9. In a future episode a David Chipman look a like grabs Elmer’s gunm and shoves him over a cliff.
    Bugs yells, ” Long Live Freedom Doc. ”
    Then the David Chipman lookalike shoots Bugs with Elmer’s gunm, runs over him with a tank and sets fire to Warner Bros. studios.

  10. I bought the WB cartoon collection DVD set. My son loved the cartoons and understood there were cultural references to the times they were made. He liked the Road Runner stories the most.

  11. Not animated, but the original Three Stooges w/Curly beat them all.

    Best Curly quote: “If at first you don’t succeed, keep on on sucking ’til you do succeed.” Pretty good advice.

  12. Lets be real here

    How many kids now days are watching elmer fudd?

    Zero. That’s the truth. They might watch the new space jam, but Elmer fudd or care to understand the history of looney tunes? no. Not one single bit.

    Looney tunes has not aged like Mickey mouse here.

  13. Not good enough for me. Elmer should be totin’ America’s gun today with a 7 inch barrel and folding stock and a bunch of ATF agents trying to shoot his ass.

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