New Looney Tunes Is A Blast From Past — With One Big Exception

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety Bird, Pepe Le Pew and Porky Pig are back.

The classic Warner Bros. series Looney Tunes began streaming new episodes in May on HBO Max. While its usual plot lines and general mayhem continue, one thing will be missing: firearms.

According to a report in The New York Times, neither acclaimed wasckly-wabbit hunter Elmer Fudd nor gunslinging outlaw Yosemite Sam will carry their trademark pistols and rifles.

Peter Browngardt, the showrunner and executive producer for the series' reboot, told the Times, "We’re not doing guns.”

Looney Tunes purists shouldn't fear, however. Browngardt said the show's explosives aren't going anywhere.

Warner Bros. released a teaser titled "Dynamite Dance" for the new series in June 2019, showing Fudd with a scythe instead of a gun. Apparently, trying to butcher the Bronx bunny with a blade is more acceptable than trying to blow him away.

There's no word on how Yosemite Sam, whose main function once seemed to have been shooting up the land o' Lunes, will survive without pistols.

The removal of firearms from the classic cartoon was met with some backlash, but one show writer, Michael Ruocco, defended the decision on Twitter.

"Also, think about context about what's going on in the world, and how long ago our show started production," Ruocco wrote. "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."

Do you guys SERIOUSLY care whether or not Elmer Fudd has a gun in our shorts? 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.
— Michael Ruocco (@AGuyWhoDraws) June 7, 2020

Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for a comment regarding the removal of firearms from its Looney Tunes series.

Although Warner is altering its content moving forward, the new Looney Tunes series does not mark the company's first attempt at correcting problematic themes.

The Washington Post reports that Warner has been using a disclaimer before some of its shows, including Looney Tunes, to warn viewers about outdated racial prejudices.

“The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time,” the disclaimer reads, according to the Washington Post. “They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.”

Disney took a similar approach in November when it launched Disney+, its on-demand streaming platform. Some Disney classics — including "Lady And The Tramp" and "Dumbo," among others — now include a warning of “outdated cultural depictions,” alerting views to depictions of tobacco use and racially biased themes.

In 2018, Ohio State University professor of communication Brad J. Bushman wrote in Psychology Today that mass media depictions that include guns can influence how children handle unsecured guns in the home.

Similarly, Bushman stated that research shows children who see movie characters smoke and drink alcohol are more likely to do so themselves.

The first 10 episodes of the new Looney Tunes series are now available to stream on HBO Max. Each episode is around 12 minutes long.

On HBO Max's website, the series' episodes are described as "updated stories for the new millennium — and beyond!"