Comedian and actor Gabriel Iglesias, who voices the popular Looney Tunes character Speedy Gonzales in the upcoming Space Jam sequel, mocked cancel culture following calls to “cancel” the famed Mexican mouse.
“I am the voice of Speedy Gonzales in the new Space Jam,” Does this mean they are gonna try to cancel Fluffy too?” the stand-up comic said, referencing his nickname. “U can’t catch me cancel culture. I’m the fastest mouse in all of Mexico.”
Iglesias’ remark followed an op-ed penned by a New York Times columnist, who praised Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to halt the publication of six books due to what has been described as “racist and insensitive imagery.”
But the columnist, Charles Blow, took it a step further, lambasting various popular cartoon characters, blaming them for what he described as perpetuating problematic stereotypes.
“Some of the first cartoons I can remember included Pepé Le Pew, who normalized rape culture; Speedy Gonzales, whose friends helped popularize the corrosive stereotype of the drunk and lethargic Mexicans; and Mammy Two Shoes, a heavyset Black maid who spoke in a heavy accent,” Blow wrote in the piece titled “Six Seuss Books Bore a Bias.”
“Racism must be exorcised from culture, including, or maybe especially, from children’s culture,” Blow concluded. “Teaching a child to hate or be ashamed of themselves is a sin against their innocence and a weight against their possibilities.”
Last week, President Biden effectively bent to left-wing cancel culture by erasing Dr. Seuss from his presidential proclamation marking Read Across America Day.
Pepé Le Pew is the latest casualty of cancel culture, getting slashed from the upcoming Space Jam sequel.
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