‘We’re not doing guns’—Looney Tunes remake loses Elmer Fudd’s iconic rifle

Sadly, it looks like Elmer Fudd’s gone and become a Fudd.

In response to recent concerns about gun violence in the United States, Warner Bros’ latest incarnation of the iconic Looney Tunes cartoon will carry over Elmer Fudd—albeit without his trademark double-barreled shotgun.

Nevertheless, the showrunners have announced that Fudd has not given up his 80-year long hunt for Bugs Bunny. Rather, he will instead use a scythe in his enduring feud with the pesky wabbit, in addition to a slew of other Looney Tunes-conventions like sticks of dynamite and Acme-made anvils.

Thank goodness, I feel safer already.

Of course, it could also be argued that Warner Bros’ latest change defeats the very purpose of the Elmer character.

The gag revolves around Fudd (who dresses near-exclusively in old-fashioned hunting gear) thinking he’ll be successful in chasing down his defenseless prey. As we all know, he fails every time as his rabbit rival outsmarts him at every turn. The humor is based on this reversal. With this in mind, it makes no sense for Fudd not to use a gun unless he’s no longer a hunter—the basis of Elmer and Bugs’ relationship to begin with.

Guns are, obviously, too violent, so Fudd will now be attempting to “humanely” run down Bugs with a gardening tool like the Grim Reaper.

This is but the latest example of politically correct, corporate virtue-signalling against gun ownership. Gun emojis were replaced with toy water pistols across all significant platforms back in 2018.

One cannot help but be reminded of Orwell’s terrifying Newspeak, where keywords are removed out of the English vocabulary that pertains to important ideas (liberty, individuality) so that these concepts become unthinkable in the minds of the population. Removing the capacity to express basic ideas, whether they are violent or not, is a clear affront to freedom of expression. 

While we are not in George Orwell’s dystopian setting, it is indisputable that our elites are (perhaps unknowingly) sowing the seeds for something similar.

The realistic depiction of a gun—even one as mundane as a hunter’s shotgun—has become taboo. Our Prime Minister has announced a ban on “assault weapons,” a buzzword so meaningless and vague it could include every ‘spooky black gun with the shoulder thing that goes up,’ even though mass gun violence in Canada is near-unheard of.

Quickly but quietly, Canada (and the United States) are undergoing anti-gun social engineering from the corporate sector and the state alike. One worries to think how far this will proceed.