Warner Brothers strips Elmer Fudd of his rifle

With the launch of HBO Max a little while back, the streaming giant offered up a huge variety of programming options to compete with Disney+. One of these was a cooperative effort with Warner Brothers, in which Executive Producer Peter Browngardt was asked to revive the franchise’s classic Looney Tunes characters for an extensive collection of shorts. Those all became available at launch, including one of their best-known pairings, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. But there’s one key difference between the new offerings and the original series of hilarious cartoons. Elmer Fudd is no longer carrying his trusty rifle while hunting the wascally wabbit. This is apparently a nod to the gun control movement. After all, you wouldn’t want poor old Elmer shooting someone, would you? (Washington Examiner)
Before we dig into this further, here’s a look at one of the Fudd/Bugs pairings with the charming, totally non-violent name of “Dynamite Dance.” (From the WB YouTube page.)

https://youtu.be/KK541L5x_IY

So if you watched that clip, you probably noticed one striking feature related to the change I mentioned above. In lieu of the long rifle he used to carry, Elmer is now chasing Bugs Bunny with… a scythe. Yes, that’s right. The same weapon carried by the Spectre of Death in all classic renditions of that grim figure. He swings the weapon wildly in a way that would surely result in one of the more gruesome murder scenes in the history of cinema were he ever able to make contact...MORE