Pepe Le Pew

Chuck Jones, Pepe's creator, says that Pepe was based (loosely) on the personality of his Warner Bros colleague, writer Tedd Pierce, who reportedly always assumed that his infatuations were requited. Eddie Selter, producer--and Jones' bitterest foe--at Warners then, once commented that no one would laugh at those cartoons. (He actually used a much less pleasant term.) However, this did not keep Selter from accepting an award for one of Pepe's pictures several years later.

In the shorts, "French" is spoken and written primarily by adding "le" to English words, or by more creative mangling of French expressions with English ones, such as "Sacre Maroon!", "my sweet peanut of brittle", or "Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?". The writer responsible for these often-brilliant malapropisms was Michael Maltese.

Maltese transcribed some dialog from the short "For Scent-imental Reasons", for which Jones was awarded an Oscar in 1949:

Skunk: (sings) Affair d'amour? Affair d'coeur? Je ne say quois ... je vis en espoir. (Sniffs) Mmmm m mm ... un smella voo feenay ... (Hums)
:Gendarme: Le kittee kel terriblay odeur!! Pard'm was ... Jo-seph ... apray midi le fudge is burning!
:Proprietor: Allay Gendarme!! Allay!! Return'mwa!! This instonce!! Oh, pauvre mwa, I am ze banrupt ... (Sobs)
:Cat: Le mew ? Le purrrrrrr.
:Proprietor: A-a-ahhh. Le pussee ferocious! Remove zot skunk! Zot cat-pole from ze premises!! Avec!!
:Cat: (Smells skunk) Sniff, sniff, sniff-sniff, sniff-sniff.
:Skunk: Quel es? ... Ahhh ... la belle femme skunk fatale!! Tch-tch.

See also Fifi Le Fume

In the French version of Pepe le Pew, Pépé le putois, Pépé is an Italian skunk with a strong Italian accent. Most of the dialog is in French, though some Italian words and expressions are also used, such as, mon petit farfalle, mon petit ravioli e pesto when talking to the cat, or c'est le moment de la mise amore.

Johnny Depp drew upon Pepe (along with guitarist Keith Richards) for his characterization of Captain Jack Sparrow in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

Filmography of Pepe le Pew