In response to gun violence, showrunner Peter Browngardt confirms that the infamous rabbit hunter will no longer brandish his cartoon rifle as he chases down Bugs Bunny.
- June 9, 2020
AceShowbiz - Iconic "Looney Tunes" character Elmer Fudd has retired his rifle for HBO Max's "Looney Tunes Cartoons", a reboot of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons.
According to the New York Times, the infamous rabbit hunter will no longer brandish his cartoon rifle as he chases down his foe Bugs Bunny, a modification in response to U.S. gun violence.
In one short viewed by the publication, "Dynamite Dance", Elmer Fudd instead wields a scythe, an attack stopped by the hare who jams a stick of lit dynamite into Elmer's mouth.
"We're not doing guns," Peter Browngardt, the series executive producer and showrunner, told the New York Times. "But we can do cartoony violence -- TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in."
Despite the lack of guns for Elmer and character Yosemite Sam, Browngardt vowed to recreate the original feel of the classic cartoons.
"I always thought, 'What if Warner Bros. had never stopped making 'Looney Tunes' cartoons?'," said Browngardt. "As much as we possibly could, we treated the production in that way."
