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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Leading the Freak Parade
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    55

    Tom and Jerry Must Quit Smoking

    Here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14452732/
    Turner Broadcasting is scouring more than 1,500 classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including old favorites Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, to edit out scenes that glamorize smoking.

    The review was triggered by a complaint to British media regulator Ofcom by one viewer who took offence to two episodes of Tom and Jerry shown on the Boomerang channel, part of Turner Broadcasting which itself belongs to Time Warner Inc.

    In the first, “Texas Tom”, the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the second, “Tennis Chumps”, Tom’s opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.

    Akindele said cartoons would only be modified “where smoking could be deemed to be cool or glamorized”, and that scenes where a villain was featured with a cigarette or cigar would not necessarily be cut. “These are historic cartoons, they were made well over 50 years ago in a different time and different place,” she added. “Our audience is children and we don’t want to be irresponsible.”
    …so let me get this straight: the rampant violence in Tom & Jerry cartoons is acceptable, but smoking is not? For the sake of argument, let’s say that kids are impressionable enough to imitate what they see on a cartoon. What is more immediately threatening to their health: smoking a cigarette or bashing someone over the head with a frying pan? PUH-leeeze!!!

    This isn’t the first time a classic cartoon has been mangled like this. I’ll never forgive Turner for hacking old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons to edit out violence. The Rabbit Season/Duck Season episode was practically unwatchable. After all, we can’t have Elmer Fudd blow the beak clean off of Daffy’s face with a shotgun!!!

    What’s next? Leaving all but 30 seconds of a Three Stooges film on the cutting room floor? The violence was part of the gag, and I have never bought into the notion that children are that impressionable. I grew up watching this stuff, and I didn’t suffer from delusions that I could fall off a cliff and live to tell the tale.

    BTW…the reason I bolded that one particular sentence from the story was to show that Turner isn’t above pushing a PC agenda with his editing. They will continue to allow smoking in cartoons so long as the villain is the only one who smokes. Holy Waterworld, Batman!!! I guess Mommy and Daddy are evil people!

    For crying out loud, leave the classics alone!!! If a cartoon is deemed inappropriate for children, so be it….save it for Adult Swim.
    Last edited by RavenMad2099; 08-22-2006 at 09:19 AM.
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