Let’s hope it is completely clean! Speedy Gonzales’ new voice for Space Jam says the cancellation culture will NEVER catch you after the NYTimes report criticized the old Looney Tunes cartoons for racial stereotypes
- The comedian accessed Twitter on Saturday to announce ‘cancel culture’
- Speedy Gonzales was mentioned by name in an opinion column in the New York Times that addressed various children’s drawings and stories about racial stereotypes
- Pepe Le Pew was previously removed from Space Jam: A New Legacy
- Iglesias’ comments came as the conversation about ‘canceling culture’ grew
Comedian Gabriel Iglesias is defending his turn as Speedy Gonzales while aiming to ‘cancel the culture’.
Iglesias is voicing Speedy Gonzales, a well-known Looney Tunes character, in the upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy film.
The Looney Tunes have drawn the ire of some in the past few days, however, after Charles Blow wrote an opinion column examining stereotypes in cartoon characters for the New York Times.
The latest discussion about ‘canceling culture’ was triggered by Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to stop publishing six books that featured racial stereotypes.
Gabriel Iglesias, who is voicing Speedy Gonzales in the new Space Jam, is defending the character from the ‘cancel culture’ shouts that have given name to several Looney Tunes
In the column, Blow made specific mention of Speedy Gonzales, saying that ‘the character’s friends helped popularize the corrosive stereotype of drunken and lethargic Mexicans’.
Blow also claimed Pepé Le Pew as a character who ‘normalized the culture of rape’. Le Pew was a loving skunk who took no for an answer from a weasel who always tried to escape.
On Saturday, Iglesias, an American of Mexican descent, jumped on Twitter, apparently in response to the opinion column to call on critics.
‘I am the voice of Speedy Gonzales in the new Space Jam’, Iglesias posted on Twitter. ‘Does that mean they’ll try to cancel Fluffy too? you [sic] you can’t catch me canceling culture. I am the fastest mouse in all of Mexico. ‘
Accompanying the tweet is a GIF by Speedy Gonzales. ‘Fofo’ is the nickname of Iglesias. The tweet generated more than 25,000 likes in three days.
Speedy Gonzales is known for wearing a yellow sombrero, speaking with an exaggerated Mexican accent, and occasionally speaking Spanish in addition to English.
The character was voiced by Mel Blanc, a Russian Jewish immigrant, for several decades.
Other notable actors who have given voice to the cartoon include Billy West and Fred Armisen.
Charles Blow of the New York Times wrote that Speedy Gonzales’ friends helped popularize the corrosive stereotype of drunken and lethargic Mexicans.
Space Jam: A New Legacy, a sequel to the 1996 original starring Michael Jordan and featuring the Looney Tunes in a live-action / animation hybrid, is scheduled to be released on July 16.
There are precedents for controversies regarding the character’s representation, as Cartoon Network kept the films with the character off the air for years after acquiring the rights to broadcast them in 1999.
Deadline reports that Pepé Le Pew was previously cut from the film and was never animated in any scene.
The character was initially set to appear in a scene, however, where Pepé Le Pew plays a bartender who hits a woman and even kisses her arm before the character hits a chair and receives a lesson on consent from LeBron James.
The actress of the scene, Greice Santo, was disappointed with the exclusion of the scene, because she wanted to show the women facing sexual harassment and the skunk facing the consequences.