If you haven't, I'll break it down for you. The show's producers, including Sam "Cash" Register and Peter Browngardt (Uncle Grandpa), decided that Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam would no longer be allowed to carry firearms. Elmer, in fact, has been depicted as carrying, of all things, a scythe, while chasing Bugs Bunny.
SAY WHAT?
A scythe? Are they serious?
Before I continue, lemme give ya some classic Elmer, from "Rabbit Fire" and YouTube:
Edit, 10/24/21: Had to change the video to a montage from the "Rabbit" trilogy.
Seems there are some Looney Tunes snobs who think it's not cool. Like, this is the 21st century, people! Elmer & Sam haven't had guns in their possession in several years. All the snobs want to do is throw shade on the new show.
The Looney Tunes Show tried to give us a domesticated Sam, as a next door neighbor to Bugs and his on-again, off-again housemate, Daffy Duck. Taking Sam back to the old west ain't going to happen, apparently.
As for Elmer, well, since he's a hunter, what's wrong with substituting a bow & arrow for a rifle? Hunters use bows & arrows, too, ya know. A scythe is asking for trouble. Elmer rarely, if ever, catches his prey, anyway, and he'd wear himself out faster swinging a scythe.
What the snobs fail to understand is that the producers are responding to what's happening in the real world in the 21st century. Kids get shot with stray bullets. There was a recent case of that here in the home district over the weekend. A bullet got through a wall, and hit a little toddler in his home. We don't want kids being innocent victims of gun violence on our streets, especially if they have no clue as to why they've been shot.
On one hand, we salute Browngardt & Register for taking the guns out, but the scythe has to go, too.
Seems there are some Looney Tunes snobs who think it's not cool. Like, this is the 21st century, people! Elmer & Sam haven't had guns in their possession in several years. All the snobs want to do is throw shade on the new show.
The Looney Tunes Show tried to give us a domesticated Sam, as a next door neighbor to Bugs and his on-again, off-again housemate, Daffy Duck. Taking Sam back to the old west ain't going to happen, apparently.
As for Elmer, well, since he's a hunter, what's wrong with substituting a bow & arrow for a rifle? Hunters use bows & arrows, too, ya know. A scythe is asking for trouble. Elmer rarely, if ever, catches his prey, anyway, and he'd wear himself out faster swinging a scythe.
What the snobs fail to understand is that the producers are responding to what's happening in the real world in the 21st century. Kids get shot with stray bullets. There was a recent case of that here in the home district over the weekend. A bullet got through a wall, and hit a little toddler in his home. We don't want kids being innocent victims of gun violence on our streets, especially if they have no clue as to why they've been shot.
On one hand, we salute Browngardt & Register for taking the guns out, but the scythe has to go, too.
17 comments:
News flash, kids: Elmer and Sam haven't wielded firearms on TV since the 1980's. This is not news.
I agree Fudd wielding a scythe is a silly idea, but it's also not something you're likely to see a kid grabbing a hold of either. As long as we still get the old-fashioned cartoon chaos that has long since been baked into the Looney Tunes' DNA and the shorts are entertaining, I really don't care about this non-issue. I personally don't think Sam and Elmer's guns needed to be removed, but them not having them isn't a deal-breaker for me.
Also, Sam has returned to a Wild West environment in one LTC short, but there he was flexing his muscles (literally) by arm-wrestling the local populace into submission rather than by filling 'em full of lead.
Exactly. There have been far too many gun related deaths in the last five years alone, so it only makes sense that Kid Vid producers would want to shy away from characters using firearms.
Instead of being angry at "PC culture" or "them dern lib'ruls", these folks should be angry at the trigger happy lunatics who made gun culture problematic problem in the first place.
Anyway, it's not like Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam need to have guns in order to be funny. Elmer's a dope and Sam is a diminutive, impulsive hothead. Elmer hasn't fired off a "real" rifle on TV since the 1980s. This is such a non-issue.
Yeah, if WB doesn't want Elmer using a rifle, then a bow and arrows or a crossbow would be good substitutes, since hunters actually use those things. Or how about a giant mallet? Giant mallets are always funny.
Let's not forget that they wielded guns in movies, specifically Space Jam (1996) and Back in Action (2003). For the sake of everyone's safety, I'm all for alternative weaponry in cartoons.
Oh, and also that CG short of Daffy Duck singing his Rhapsody. One of these days, the lyrics to that song might have to be altered.
@Silverstar: That's why I suggested a bow & arrow. They're reserving the giant mallet for Harley Quinn, you know.
@Mr. Sig: I saw Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Last time either one has carried firearms, although there was that GEICO commercial with Elmer.......
I smell hypocracy. Scythes are okay, but guns, pistols, and rifles aren't? Does that qualify for hypocracy to you, hobbyfan?
A scythe is a little too extreme, and could traumatize the kiddo's, Steven. We live now in an era where gun violence is worse than ever, hence removing firearms from the picture. That's not hypocrisy, but rather, common sense on the part of the producers.
@Steven Dolce: I agree that a scythe is a little out there, but then again, a kid isn't likely to find a scythe in their father's sock drawer and start playing with it.
Some outraged fan on Twitter said this: "Taking a rifle away from Elmer Fudd is like taking spinach away from Popeye!" Ah...no. You see, no one ever went on a killing spree after eating a can of spinach, so it's really not like that at all, now is it?
Besides, as was mentioned previously, it's not like this is something that just started happening. Fudd and Sam didn't wield guns on either of the 2 previous Looney Tunes series, "The Looney Tunes Show" and "Wabbit/New Looney Tunes"; in fact, they haven't regularly been shown brandishing firearms on TV for going on 3 decades now, save for that one Geico ad Hobbyfan cited. A kid isn't likely bring a stack of dynamite to school, but WB can't chance having some kid fill another kid full of holes or turn someone's feet into Swiss cheese because they saw Yosemite Sam or Elmer Fudd do it on TV. It's just another needless tragedy and potential lawsuit waiting to happen.
Anyways, it's not like holding guns is all there is to Elmer's and Sam's characters. You can do plenty of stuff with them which doesn't involve them shooting things, as this new crop of cartoons have shown. These cartoons are still funny and well done, so nothing of value has been lost.
This feels like the whole Gargoyles Deadly Force controversey all over again.
Like Silverstar said, there's still cartoon bombs, dynamite, mallets, falling anvils and other forms of cartoon chaos, so I honestly don't see a problem here. It's only a big deal if people *make* it a big deal.
Yeah, from my standpoint this is just a big nothing burger that some people have chosen to jump on and blow out of proportion for some reason. I'll bet most or a great deal of the folks throwing a tantrum about this have never even seen the HBO Max series nor have they been keeping up with the Looney Tunes franchise beyond the original theatrical shorts which they saw as kids, because this really isn't anything new or controversial. They just read "They took our guns!" (whoever "they" are) and decided to throw a hissy fit about it. It's a shame, because Looney Tunes Cartoons is one of THE best adaptations of Looney Tunes that I've seen in a long time, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed "New Looney Tunes". We just can't have nice things, it seems.
I'm not conspiracy minded, but this almost seems like some rival company's attempt to bring down HBO Max and Looney Tunes Cartoons by appealing to gun-loving conservatives ("See? SEE!? The liberals are trying to take our guns away! This is why no one should vote Democrat!!!!!"). And even if this isn't the case, I'm sure that some RWNJs are taking this story and running with this narrative anyway.
I'm not saying that I believe this, but it's a known fact that today's Republicans aren't above fighting dirty in order to spread their right wing agenda. Or it could simply be that the press is starving for a story at this point and will take any nugget that they can get.
@Goldstar: It does sound like a slow news day item.
As far as conspiracy theories go, I'm surprised President Pampers hasn't gotten on the bandwagon......
To be fair, the scythe’s only been in Dynamite Dance as far as I know. Most of the shorts have him using the usual stuff, no guns
In other words, they were testing the waters with the scythe. The bow & arrow's still an option, then.
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