The violence, however, is perfectly fine :smack:
From cnn.com
They’re related to the people who decided that Speedy Gonzales is offensive to Hispanics, and to the ones who decided that Lucky Luke couldn’t smoke any more (the US editorial house didn’t want to see any smokes anywhere, being a kid’s series; it’s originally French).
Luke was designed with a cigarrete butt permanently dangling from his mouth; he would occasionally be shown lighting up a fresh one (sometimes, after landing in a through). As I read in an interview to Goscinny (who wrote the script for Luke for many years) “his mouth needed something there, we couldn’t just leave it empty!”. So they gave him a blade of grass instead. So in the older volumes he smokes and in the newer ones, he’s got a blade of grass.
It’s fine for kiddums to receive the example that it’s OK to chop characters in half with an ax, or smack them in the face with an anvil/skillet/piano, or shoot them in the head with a blunderbuss, run them over with a train, etc. etc. But heaven forbid that little precious should see a character smoking a cheroot!
If the kids can work out the violence is not to be emulated, why can’t they work out the smoking bit too?
What’s next? Will someone decide that Bugs Bunny is racist?
The irony there is that good ol’ Speedy is very popular in Hispanic countries.
The cartoons aren’t even worth watching anymore. They’ve been cut and hacked to pieces to the point where if I watch them I end up getting ticked off. I have them all pretty much memorized, and for me the cuts are obvious and pointless.
The cartoons were products of their times. We should no sooner chop out examples of our history then we should burn books.
Another fine CNN caption: Tom, right with hammer, chases Jerry.
Just in case you might have thought Tom was really a red armchair.
What I’m unclear on is if this is a special edit just for the Boomerang channel in the UK, or if this will be a global change.
There was some controversy early this year when HarperCollins Publishing edited a picture of Clement Hurd on the back of Goodnight Moon to remove a cigarette he was holding. I think this is rather silly.
As for Tom and Jerry shorts and Hanna-Barbera cartoons- although the televisied H-B cartoons have remained uncut over the years even though there are a few racist gags in some episodes, the theatrical shorts have been edited a number of times- to remove racist gags (blackface, etc.) and also to redub Mammy’s voice so she still sounds like a black person, but less stereotypical (her dialog is still the same, however- “One more peep outta you, Thomas, and it’s O-W-T, owt!”) Of course, during the '40s, '50s, and '60s, it wasn’t known that cigarettes were bad for you (a famous commercial for Winston features the Flintstones characters, as Winston was the show’s sponsor). But the cartoon which caused them to edit the smoking out is a cartoon in which Tom- a cat- is dressed as a cowboy. I guess cowboys smoke. But I don’t think kids are going to start smoking after seeing a cat dressed as a cowboy smoke. Maybe some of the less stable ones will put a cowboy hat on their cats and try to make them start smoking, but I don’t think a cowboy cat is really going to get anyone to start smoking. And heroes can’t smoke, but villians can? I guess that makes sense, but it’s still rather silly.
Porky Pig: F-f-first they told me to lose the stutter, now they tell me I’m not funny!
[sigh]
Porky Pig: It’s a pain in the butt being p-p-politically correct.
Speedy Gonzales: You’re telling me.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action - 2003
Okay, thing is . . . the one-handed cigarette roll in Texas Tom is a great bit!!!
Omigod!!! It’s one of the greatest bits in all of cartoon history! It’s so funny, such a great visual, and a brilliant parody of the “tough guy tries to impress girl while pretending he doesn’t really care” achetype. It is, in my mind, one of the most vivd images from the Tom and Jerry cartoons- possible just a close second to Tom playing bass and singing “Is you is or is you ain’t my baby”.
I take great comfort in knowing that the best of the cartoons are still available in all their original uncensored glory.
Warner Home Video admitted they goofed- two of the cartoons on Volume 1 are missing blackface gags, and a handful of cartoons on volume 2 accidentially used the dubbed Mammy version. Warner has announced a replacement program with Volume 2, and one with Volume 1 should presumably be on the way.
For those curious, this comes from one of Warner Bros.'s internal “Breakdowns” blooper reels of the late 30s-early 40s. All five “Breakdown” reels appear as special features on Warner Bros.'s “Tough Guys” DVD collection.
I have nothing substantive to add to the comments above, but I’d just like to say I watched all of these in my youth in all of their uncensored glory and they did not screw me up in any way.
I am as perfectly a normal axe murder/bomber/racist smoke-fetishist as you will ever find.
Not only that, I know how to run right through any wall and leave a perfect outline of myself behind!
No answers or comments, huh?
NOTHING, RIGHT!!!
Don’t any of you even LOOK AT ME tomorrow!!!
(I’ll know when you’re looking at me. I can tell by your jealous looks because the little voices in my head do NOT talk to you.)
So there!
Can I borrow your ACME catalog?
Am I supposed to be surprised the anti-smoking idiots have embraced the Memory Hole?