Tom and Jerry can race around town trying various degrees of violence on each other, but the two have to be strict non-smokers, at least as far as British television goes. UK's media watchdog Ofcom directed a channel Boomerang to slice off the smoking scenes in
Tom and Jerry cartoons like
Texas Tom and
Tennis Chumps, where cats are shown smoking.
In the first cartoon, Tom tries to impress a female cat by donning the garb of a cowboy and shooting a cigarette to light it up. In the second, he is shown playing tennis with another cool cat who has a cigar in his mouth.
After the cartoons aired on the channel, a viewer called Ofcom to express concern about the impression that smoking in the episodes made on youngsters. The viewer felt that showing smoking as a cool thing to do might push youngsters to try it themselves. Following the complaint, Ofcom took action and directed the channel to sanitize the cartoons.
“We recognize that these are historic cartoons, most of them having been produced in the 1940s, 50s or 60s, at a time when smoking was more generally accepted. We note that, in
Tom and Jerry, smoking usually appears in a stylized manner and is frequently not condoned. However, while we appreciate the historic integrity of the animation, the level of editorial justification required for the inclusion of smoking in such cartoons is necessarily high,” Ofcom said.
Also under the scanner are around 1,500 classic favorites including
The Jetsons,
Scooby Doo, and
The Flintstones, scenes of which might be edited out by Turner Broadcasting, which owns Boomerang, to remove on-screen smoking. Boomerang caters to the age group of four to 14 years.
“(Turner) has ... proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorized or where it might encourage imitation,” Ofcom said.
Turner Europe spokesperson Yinka Akindele said that the editors would go through the entire catalogue for such scenes. “This is a voluntary step we've taken in light of the changing times. These are historic cartoons, they were made well over 50 years ago in a different time and different place. Our audience is children and we don't want to be irresponsible,” she said, adding that the scenes where the villain is a smoker might be retained.
Creative lobbies and cartoon connoisseurs, however, have slammed the censorship. “It's so obviously ridiculous... Do these kids actually watch
Tom and Jerry for moral instruction, seeking to model their actions on the antics of an animated cat? Of course not. It's just mindless fun. No kid is going to jump off a bridge or smack someone over the head with a frying pan in emulation of a cartoon cat or mouse,” wrote blogger Chris Tryhorn on the
Guardian Unlimited Web site. A spokesperson for anti-smoking group ASH also admitted that the move was 'a bit excessive'. “We don't want to rewrite history,” she said.
What began in 1941 with
The Midnight Snack went on to become one of the biggest selling cartoon series in history. For 65 years, the cat, Tom, and his nemesis, Jerry the mouse, have enthralled children and adults alike globally. Several episodes of the cartoon, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbara, went on to win Oscars in the short subject category in 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1951, and 1952. However, this isn't the first time they were censored. In the 1990s, the cartoons were edited for racist connotations, with scenes showing a blackfaced Jerry and a black housemaid being removed to maintain political correctness. It is not clear if Popeye will also have to give up his pipe.
