Saturday Night Live‘s latest cold open takes on the Pepe LePew “cancel culture” controversy. The cold open has Brittany Spears, played by Chloe Fineman, hosting a talk show titled Oops, You Did It Again, where she interviews people caught up in controversy to see whether they deserve forgiveness. She begins by interviewing Little Nas X, played by Chris Redd, about his recent controversy and closes by interviewing Congressman Matt Gaetz, played by Pete Davidson. In between, she speaks to Pepe, played by Kate McKinnon in a skunk suit, about his controversy, with McKinnon playing Pepe as a down on his luck actor. You can watch the bit below.
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Pepe LePew’s scene was cut from Space Jam: A New Legacy. The scene would have caught up with Pepe tending bar at a black-and-white, Casablanca-style establishment. He would then try to hit on a woman played by Greice Santo, who rejects his advances violently. LeBron James and Bugs Bunny would then get information about Lola Bunny’s whereabouts from Pepe before giving him a mini-lecture about consent.
Santo was disappointed to learn her role had been cut from the movie. A spokesperson for the actress told Deadline, “This was such a big deal for Greice to be in this movie. Even though Pepe is a cartoon character, if anyone was going to slap a sexual harasser like him, Greice wished it would be her. Now the scene is cut, and she doesn’t have that power to influence the world through younger generations who’ll be watching Space Jam 2, to let younger girls and younger boys know that Pepe’s behavior is unacceptable.”
The news of Pepe’s removal from the film came after The New York Times published an opinion piece criticizing the cartoon skunk for normalizing rape culture. Warner Bros. told The Hollywood Reporter the decision to remove him from the film was made over a year before that piece was published, and that they have no current plans for him to appear in upcoming television shows.
Speaking to TMZ, Linda Jones — the daughter of Chuck Jones, the seminal animator who created Pepe — said “strongly disagrees with the notion the suave skunk contributed to rape culture” and that “she doesn’t think anyone who ever watched Pepe was inspired to go out and rape, or even harass, people,” while admitting “Pepe’s grabby approach toward Penelope Pussycat certainly doesn’t look good by today’s standards.”
What do you think of Saturday Night Live‘s take on Pepe LePew? Let us know what you think in the comments section. Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Space Jam: A New Legacy opens in theaters and streams on HBO Max on July 16th.
