by In a week filled with Weinergate and the latest from the train wreck that is Paris Hilton, I have decided to take the cultural high road and talk about…cartoons.
More specifically, cartoons and censorship.
During my break from The Telegraph, I read an interesting piece about classic cartoons coming under fire. It seems that some channels and groups are trying to get old “Tom and Jerry” cartoons edited to remove scenes involving the smoking of cigarettes and the drinking of alcohol. This is just the latest in a string of attempts over the last 20 years to “clean up” cartoons from the 40s through the 70s, removing scenes perceived as “violent,” “prejudiced,” or otherwise deemed “offensive.”
It made me ask myself, when has political correctness gone too far?
I grew up watching uncut episodes of “Looney Tunes,” “Tom and Jerry,” “Popeye,” and “Heckle and Jeckle,” and I definitely did NOT end up racist in any way, shape or form. However, I admit I would not want my black friends subjected to or offended by “Mammie Two-Shoes” chasing Tom with a broom or cannibals in blackface dancing around Bugs Bunny in a cauldron.
But is it harmful?
I posted this question on my own Facebook page as well as The Telegraph’s Arts and Entertainment Facebook page and I got some very interesting responses from readers. Most people believed the cartoons should NOT be tampered with. I have included a sample of some of the social media comments this topic brought about:
“Editing history and art is straight out of ‘1984.’”
“Leave them alone. They represent the years they were created.”
“Just watch them with your kids and say, ‘Boy, look how stupid people acted back then.'”
“I saw a cartoon as a kid where a group of black men were portrayed as monkey-like and jet black with white around their mouths. I don’t want my nephew thinking that it’s okay to depict people who look like his Nana that way.”
“Instead of glamorizing it, it was more like the cigar-chomping jerk of a boss/bully or the drunkard who ran into trouble because of his drinking.”
So what do you think? Should these cartoons be edited for racial stereotyping? Edited for lifestyle choices such as smoking? Not edited at all?
There are what they are = history. Leave them along, don’t watch them or let your kids watch them if you don’t like them.
This is where our mindset was back into the 40’s – 70’s, not pretty…but hopefully we learned from our mistakes.
They should not be changed in any way. If someone is offended by them, then there is something wrong with that person.