Airbrushing out smoking from popular culture
Everyone has read the tale about smoking being censored from Tom & Jerry, and further back the removal of Brunel's cigar from a photo, but it looks as though the culture wars are being broadened out, judging from an item in the Sydney Morning Herald. Now it is the Flintstones too, and here is the bone-chilling rationale: "proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorised or where it might encourage imitation," Ofcom said, adding that "Texas Tom" was one such example. Ms Akindele said scenes where a villain was featured with a cigarette or cigar would not necessarily be cut".
As has been noted elsewhere, the easily imitated violence in cartoons is deemed less dangerous by Big Nanny than the depiction of smoking. Just how is a small child supposed to develop a nicotine habit anyway? What this says to me is that the ebb tide of the age of reason is speeding up, and the joyless puritan who kicked this off has decided to blame 'society' rather than address the issues him or herself.
Within the next few years there *will* be digital re-editing of films to remove smoking scenes. Mark my words.
Everyone has read the tale about smoking being censored from Tom & Jerry, and further back the removal of Brunel's cigar from a photo, but it looks as though the culture wars are being broadened out, judging from an item in the Sydney Morning Herald. Now it is the Flintstones too, and here is the bone-chilling rationale: "proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorised or where it might encourage imitation," Ofcom said, adding that "Texas Tom" was one such example. Ms Akindele said scenes where a villain was featured with a cigarette or cigar would not necessarily be cut".
As has been noted elsewhere, the easily imitated violence in cartoons is deemed less dangerous by Big Nanny than the depiction of smoking. Just how is a small child supposed to develop a nicotine habit anyway? What this says to me is that the ebb tide of the age of reason is speeding up, and the joyless puritan who kicked this off has decided to blame 'society' rather than address the issues him or herself.
Within the next few years there *will* be digital re-editing of films to remove smoking scenes. Mark my words.
Labels: Big Nanny
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on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 at 9:18 am.
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And if they edit out all the violence from Tom and Jerry, there'll be nothing left but the credits.
It's about time that right-minded Tom and Jerry fans adopted some of the tactics we learned from that show and applied them to these nannying busybodies.
Pity you can't run a poll, Mr Croydonian, to find the most popular T&J moment of rank sadism (mine: his teeth slowly crazing and then shattering altogether after biting into a sandwich in which Jerry had slipped a shell).
Or maybe the immortal model train sequence as imitated in The Wrong Trousers.
Or maybe the time Tom learned to fly using a corset from the washing line.
Or maybe the time Spike said: "If my boy's under that bucket, I'll skin you alive," which he then proceeded to do.
Etcetera. Far too many to mention. Fred Quimby the producer of these gems. Ultra amazing 1940s animation. Brilliant orchestration. And just because Tom puffs on a fag in one episode the vandals are prepared to trash the whole thing.
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