Coyote vs. Acme, the animated film Warner Bros. once shelved for a tax write-off before Ketchup Entertainment rescued it for release, features a pivotal character named Dr. Lorre who turns out to be directly inspired by the real Hollywood actor Peter Lorre. The character first appeared as an unnamed "Mad Scientist" in the 1946 Looney Tunes short "Hair-Raising Hare" and only later took the name Dr. Lorre, becoming part of a long-running tradition of animators caricaturing the distinctive actor.

Peter Lorre, born László Löwenstein in Hungary in 1904, rose to fame playing a child murderer in Fritz Lang's 1931 film M and went on to notable villainous roles in Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, despite never receiving an Oscar nomination. His bulbous eyes, high-pitched accented voice and menacing screen persona made him an enduring template for cartoonists, inspiring not only Dr. Lorre but also characters including Secret Squirrel's Morocco Mole, two Tim Burton figures, Anastasia's Bartok and SpongeBob SquarePants' Slappy Laszlo, among others.