Pepe Le Pew Headcanons
Pepe, you did NOT deserve to be "cancelled." So I'm giving you the justice you deserve in the form of these headcanons.
-Pepe is big on felt clothes. The few times you DO see him wear clothes, it is always something of the felt variety. He prefers robes in particular…partly because they don’t require much effort to maintain and partly because they’re comfortable to wear.
-Pepe prefers to wash his possessions by hand rather than use a drying and/or washing machine. In fact, one can say Pepe himself is a bit of a luddite…even for Toons. He doesn’t use any form of technology at all.
-Pepe is a smoker. He primarily smokes cigars as he doesn’t like the taste of cigarettes nor does he like the bubbly texture of long smoking pipes. He mainly smokes when stressed and needing to calm down.
-Pepe’s “stench” isn’t smellable to a human. Toons CAN smell it but how bad the stench actually is depends on what mood Pepe is in. Now, Pepe knows how to control his stench quite fine now but he did have some trouble in his earlier years as he was a lot more anxious and nervous. When Pepe is truly depressed, the stench fades to pretty much nothing.
-Very good at sniffing out relationships amongst the Looney Tunes. If he senses a budding relationship/romance, he’ll happily encourage it and even help in his own way.
-He’s also a heavy shipper. He has an entire map of the Looney Tunes and their relationships with each other, working or romantic. He’s very fluid in who he pairs with someone.
-Doesn’t actually truly like romance novels/movies. Often, he feels like they get the romantic tension all wrong/exaggerate it to wildly unrealistic levels. He often writes essays on romance movies and novels and how they can do better.
-However, Pepe is a HUGE fan of Jane Austen and her works. He believes she is one of the few writers who actually knows how to write a decent romantic novel. His favorite novel by her? The 1817 novel Persuasion. He does like Pride and Prejudice but generally considers it overrated.
- Pepe has a surprising fondness for gothic themes in art and literature. He’s especially fond of the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
-Moving off of that headcanon, Pepe also has a guilty pleasure for topics one considers “dark” and “edgy.” What I mean by that is that he’s secretly into goth culture as a whole, specifically romantic and Victorian gothicism. He listens to melancholic romantic music, reads darkly cheesy Victorian era novels and poetry, and sometimes puts on expressive dark makeup that he claims makes him “stand in ze public eye more.”
-Pepe studies the language of flowers for fun. He's also a rather good gardener. Every flower he gives is grown by himself. He keeps his garden slightly private.
-Pepe collects vases. Not just to put flowers in, but also vases to put different objects in. He pretty much has a vase for everything and anything. This ranges from cheap vases for simple stuff (or handy as improvised weapons) and the most beautiful and intricate expensive vases for his hand-grown flowers.
-Pepe refuses to wear perfume nor does he like when people use it. He understands it makes people smell better, but he insists a good shower is all you should need.
-Pepe works hard to correct French stereotypes. He will call someone out the minute they make a French joke.
-Pepe tones down his theatrics with the more socially awkward members of the Looney Tunes crew (examples being Wile E. and Marvin). Not because he hates them....it's out of respect and because he doesn't want to push them away.
-You'd THINK that as the most romantic minded of the Looney Tunes, Pepe would be fond of sex jokes and innuendos...he's actually not all that into them! He's flirtatious, not sexual or lustful. There’s a difference. He feels that crossing that line breaks his brand of humor. It may work for others but it doesn’t work for him.
-Pepe’s biggest fear is heartbreak. He's in a happy relationship with Penelope Pussycat now...but what if she leaves him? What if she finds someone better? What will happen to him then? It’s the biggest reason why he was so nervous when Penelope reciprocated his affections.
-Pepe has a habit of “overgiving.” Not love bombing exactly, but he gives a LOT of gifts…sometimes even when unnecessary. This is because he reasons that if people (human or Toon) love material possessions so much, they’ll like him back as well…right? Penelope has been trying to slowly coax Pepe out of this habit.
-Thanks to his “cancellation” in 2021, Pepe has a DEEP fear that he’s “too much.” Sometimes he’ll subconsciously scale WAY back or even act entirely subdued. This deeply worries the rest of the Looney Tunes, especially Penelope and Sylvester.
-Going off of that, Warner Bros “cancelling” Pepe in 2021 hit Pepe HARD. It felt like something broke inside him when he heard the news. He questioned himself for days. What had he done wrong? Could he go back and fix it? Were his critics…right? Was he truly just as bad as the common lowlife stalker? While he’s back with the Looney Tunes now, Pepe still has a lot of doubts about himself.
-However, even with his cancellation, Pepe remains one of the kinder and more forgiving of Looney Tunes towards humans. He genuinely appreciates human culture and creativity so even with his cancellation having been primarily caused by humans, he cannot bring himself to truly be angered. Getting angered at certain circumstances does nothing after all. The best you can do is pick yourself up and keep moving forward.
-Has been dating Penelope Pussycat since the 1970s and they’re very happy together. His chase is his love language to Penelope. Sometimes, he’ll exaggerate his movements and speech just to make her laugh. He’s seriously planning on proposing to her but chickens out every time he thinks he’s going to go through with it. He resolves to one day work up the courage to do it.
-A little story about Pepe and Penelope: The first time Pepe met Penelope as newly developing co-stars, the directors tried to pass her off as a female skunk. Pepe, however, instantly knew Penelope was not a female skunk (he's not as dumb as the cartoons make him out to be, as Toon female skunks have their own natural smell essence). And to his own surprise, he didn't care. He was instantly charmed by Penelope and as he got to know her more, found himself slowly falling in love.
-Pepe’s relationship with his created 4th cousin, Pitu Le Pew is…surprisingly close! Pepe ADORED the idea of having a family member created just for him and quickly took to the task of showing Pitu the ropes of how the Looney Tunes worked. Pepe sees himself as a guide to Pitu and though Pitu is…not the brightest, Pepe doesn’t begrudge him for it. Recently though, Pitu has been showing signs of fading and this has been DEEPLY worrying Pepe, who has been slowly increasing efforts to keep Pitu in the public eye.
-Is close friends with Sylvester! Outside of Penelope, Sylvester is probably the closest Toon to him in the Looney Tunes circle. Either they’ll go for drinks together or spend time at Pepe’s house (Sylvester gets embarrassed at people going to his house because of how messy it is). The two did briefly date for a short period in the 60s, but they had different life goals that they couldn't reconcile, so they broke it off. While it was awkward between them for a couple months, they managed to get past it and now joke about their past relationship
-Pepe is good friends with Speedy Gonzales. They bond and laugh over being hated by conservative groups (which they’ll sometimes troll for fun and enrichment).
-Outside of the Warner Bros lot, Pepe is good friends with the Pink Panther! They have similar aesthetic tastes so it’s only natural they’d get along. When Pepe’s having a rough time, he’ll go over to Pink Panther’s house to decompress and recharge.
-Pepe isn't fond of Snagglepuss. He doesn't hate him per say, but feels like Snagglepuss is a bit too theatrical even for his taste. He and Pink Panther bond over this shared distaste.
-He straight up refuses to name or define his sexuality. He insists his love is for everyone, regardless of gender or orientation.
