It’s a new era for the “Looney Tunes.”
A new series of short episodes featuring the classic cartoon characters will not include guns, executive producer Peter Browngardt told The New York Times.
“We’re not doing guns,” Browngardt told the newspaper. “But we can do cartoony violence — TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in.”
Characters such as Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam have often carried guns in past iterations of the animated franchise, which kicked off during the 1930s.
The series of shorts, which is titled “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” recently launched on the HBO Max streaming service. It features episodes that are each around one to six minutes in length, with characters like Bugs Bunny back in action.
In a series of tweets Sunday, animator Michael Ruocco further explained the decision to eliminate guns in the series.
“Do you guys SERIOUSLY care whether or not Elmer Fudd has a gun in our shorts?” Ruocco wrote. “You know how many gags we can do with guns? Fairly few. And the best were already done by the old guys. It’s limiting. It was never about the gun, it was about Elmer’s flawed, challenged masculinity.”
Also, think about context about what’s going on in the world, and how long ago our show started production. Late 2017, early 2018. Right on the heels of a record number of mass shootings, particularly the horrific one in Las Vegas. NOBODY wanted to touch guns working in media.
— Michael Ruocco (@AGuyWhoDraws) June 7, 2020
He continued: “Also, think about context about what’s going on in the world, and how long ago our show started production. Late 2017, early 2018. Right on the heels of a record number of mass shootings, particularly the horrific one in Las Vegas. NOBODY wanted to touch guns working in media.”
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