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Has your attitude towards Looney Tunes character Pepé Le Pew changed over time? Children who first encountered Pepé might have dismissed the amorous skunk's adventures as “mushy stuff,” only to find a new appreciation for them later in life. Or perhaps you once viewed the little stinker as a harmless comic character, but now see him as an offensive ethnic stereotype or an irredeemable sexual predator. People's opinions of the faux-French sex fiend can be quite easily reversed, which is appropriate given the turbulent, yet fickle, passions that define his stories (...or story, since there's really only one).

Everybody is familiar with the standard Pepé Le Pew scenario. A female feline somehow winds up with a white stripe painted down the middle of her black tail, and immediately attracts the unwanted advances of a horny, fragrant suitor. Much chasing, smooching and escaping follows.

The skunk is named after Pepé Le Moko, a character played by Charles Boyer in the film Algiers (1938), and the distinctive “French” voice suggests a hint of Maurice Chevalier, both references typically lost on young viewers, who also might have trouble realizing that some of the lines aren't 100 per cent real French. (“Sacre Cerise! Le Kitty quel terriblé odair!”)

Watching the very first Pepé Le Pew cartoon, Odor-able Kitty (1945) is a slightly odd experience, because it deviates from the very formula that it put into motion. The protagonist here is a raggedy tomcat who disguises himself as a skunk in order to get some respect and some free food. Suddenly, the neighbourhood bulldog fears him, and all of the people abandon the butcher shop when he enters, allowing him to loot the place. All seems well until a certain French skunk happens along, and well, you know what happens next.

Uniquely, this cartoon has Pepé pursuing an obviously male victim. Is he gay? No, several of his lines indicate that he believes that his quarry is a female skunk. We can understand why he thinks this particular cat is a skunk, but where is he getting the “female” cues? Perhaps from the scent. (The cat has used Limburger cheese on himself to complete the illusion.)

More importantly, the ending of Odor-able Kitty changes the little skunk's identity completely. He is not actually “Pepé Le Pew,” but an American skunk named Henry, whose wife and children appear to drag him back home at the last minute. Henry immediately drops the French accent, and stammers out a string of phony excuses for his inappropriate behaviour.

“Henry” never appeared again, and in all subsequent cartoons, Pepé is clearly French, a bachelor and in pursuit of an obviously female inamorata, although he does attempt to seduce Sylvester the Cat in a brief throwaway gag in Dog Pounded (1954).

Over the years, Pepé has attempted to court a chihuahua wearing a skunk pelt (in Scent-imental Over You, 1947) and a New Orleans pussycat named “Fabrette” who actually returns his affections, but cannot stand his odour (in Really Scent, 1959). Pepé's most frequent co-star is Penelope Pussycat, a frantic, feminine character who wasn't even given a name until her “first speaking role” in Carrotblanca in 1995.

The Oscar-winning short For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) features a classic gag that often got cut during television broadcasts. Penelope takes refuge from Pepé in a locked glass cabinet and lounges happily while the little skunk angrily demands that she emerges. Penelope refuses, complaining of Pepé's terrible scent. (All of this “dialogue” is completely silent, with the characters reading one another's lips through the glass.) Heartbroken, Pepé puts a revolver to his head and wanders off camera, where a loud “Bang!” follows. Horrified, Penelope rushes out of the cabinet, straight into the arms of Pepé, who cheekily announces “I missed! Fortunately for you!” (Pepé Le Pew cartoons contain rather more suicide jokes than most Warner Bros. Cartoons, which themselves contain rather more suicide jokes than you probably remember.)

The cartoon ends with both animals plunging off a roof (“Viva la amour! We die together!”), with Pepé landing in a can of paint, and Penelope landing in a barrel of water. Now wet, straggly-looking and congested, Penelope is no longer recognizable to Pepé, but she notices and appreciates his physique now that she can no longer detect his stink. The tables are turned, and Pepé finds himself fleeing from unwanted sexual advances. That'll teach him. (At least until the next cartoon, when everything will start all over again.)