The BBC reports that Boomerang is editing Tom and Jerry cartoons where animals are seen smoking. Think about that for a moment: anthropomorphic animals who beat the living shit out of each other for laughs occasionally smoke–and people are worried that kids will be so detached from reality that the smoking will warp their minds.
We all grew up watching these unedited cartoons–when was the last time somebody you knew confided that they started smoking because of a cat and a mouse? That’s right, we all started smoking right after we ordered a green Bat-suit from the Acme Catalog and then drew a tunnel on the wall so that Accelleratii Incredibus could run into it.
Well, at least the huge numbers of people who bitched are happy now. Or probably not, since I can’t imagine people like that ever being happy with their station in life.
The move follows an investigation by media watchdog Ofcom into a viewer’s complaint that the vintage animations were not appropriate for young viewers.
Wait…a viewer? A viewer? A single viewer? Vintage, classic animation is being fucked with because one viewer is afraid that Tom and Jerry have more influence over their kids than they do? Wait, we don’t even know if this single, unnamed viewer has kids, do we? Un-fucking-believable.
Smoking is not the only thing they are editing. The black maid that has appeared in several of the cartoons will now be portrayed as a young skinny amide. NPR reported this.
My neice who is 4, loves Tom and Jerry so I watch it with her and did notice something amiss with the maidand thought that character looked a bit different. I have seen plenty these cartoons growing up and know them pretty well.
you comment counter does not seem to work.
Rox: What’s a “comment counter”?
This is so lame that they are editing it. If we all grew up fine then our kids will too.