Tom and Jerry censorship

[duckorange]

Yesterday, I was channel surfing out of sheer boredom, and came across a Tom and Jerry short on Boomerang which I swear I have never seen before in all my 41 years:

Safety Second, in which Tom, Jerry and Jerry's little cousin Nibbles (or Tuffy, or George. Whatever) do their level best to blow each other up with vast quantities of fireworks.

It made me do several LOLs and a ROFFLE.

Having never seen this one before - almost certainly to do with a reluctance by UK broadcasters to show kids arsing about with fireworks - it makes me wonder: are there any other 1940s & 1950s cartoon shorts out there that we've never seen on our screens?

Did Popeye and Bluto ever get it together?

[Deadman97]

are there any other 1940s & 1950s cartoon shorts out there that we've never seen on our screens?

There's a fantastic thread somewhere (from Lt. Plonker I believe?) dealing with some "lost" Disney features, I think other cartoons got covered too.

[duckorange]

Ta.

There were news items recently on how they're re-editing certain shorts to take out smoking and Mammy Two-Shoes. I didn't realise that some were already on the not-for-broadcast list.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

There are fucking loads of racist cartoons that don't get shown any more, and some wonderful ones from the war that can probably be found on Youtube by now - not that I've looked, as I've already got them all it seems.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Indeed, the most freely available cartoons these days are the 'banned' ones.

[weirdbeard]

Ta.

There were news items recently on how they're re-editing certain shorts to take out smoking and Mammy Two-Shoes.

Which is a joke in itself.  The smoking there is an argument for, although I personally wouldn't censor it out.  But not once in watching any of those cartoons as I child did I think anything other than "Oh, the mommy, the owner the of the house, is angry at Tom".  In fact, I don't think I even viewed her as black, just one of those bear-like creatures (like Yogi Bear) that typically populated cartoons of the time.   And I bet most kids thought the same as well.

[JesusAndYourBush]

But not once in watching any of those cartoons as I child did I think anything other than "Oh, the mommy, the owner the of the house, is angry at Tom".

Plus how is it racist anyway?  She's the owner of the house, and not a servant/slave.
I did read somewhere that the voice was redubbed in some more recent showings of the cartoon.

[Ambient Sheep]

But not once in watching any of those cartoons as I child did I think anything other than "Oh, the mommy, the owner the of the house, is angry at Tom".

Plus how is it racist anyway?  She's the owner of the house, and not a servant/slave.

Nope...I do believe that she's a black maid.

But as a kid, I had no idea about that.  Like you and weirdbeard, I just thought she was the owner of the house.  It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I realised that actually she was supposed to be the hired help.

[Notlob]

^ Yup, ditto. As a kid, I thought she was just a rather stupid person whose socks kept falling down - it didn't occur to me that it was racist. I think it's because you never actually see her face, so the colour aspect is never that obvious, mayhap.

[Dark Sky]

The ever knowledgeable and joyously passionate dfbrook is the gentleman you need for this thread.

[Catalogue Trousers]

difbrook is indeed yer man - here's hoping that he shows up on this thread soon!

In the meantime, have this link to loads of "banned" cartoons - some of which genuinely were, some of which I strongly suspect weren't...

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22banned+cartoon%22&search=Search

[duckorange]

By the miracle of YouTube:

Tom & Jerry - Safety Second - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT810jpxTm4

[non capisco]

^ Yup, ditto. As a kid, I thought she was just a rather stupid person whose socks kept falling down - it didn't occur to me that it was racist. I think it's because you never actually see her face, so the colour aspect is never that obvious, mayhap.

I also thought she was some kind of bear as a kid, as her feet looked like the way Biffo the Bear's were drawn in the Beano. I seem to remember the ones she was in were better than the later ones with a white suburban housewife's legs getting annoyed at Tom.

The really late period Tom and Jerry cartoons are fucking grim. From memory they have horrible atonal soundtracks and seem to last years. 'Dickie Moe', the Moby Dick pisstake one, garnered something of a reputation as being particularly unwatchable. I saw it not long ago and it really is tortuous.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Dickie Moe actually preceded the later Chuck Jones ones (which had massive traces of Roadrunner throughout), and was produced in Czechoslavakia by the acclaimed animator Gene Deitch (all Tom and Jerrys were, between 1960 and 1962). Lots of leftover 50s jazz-style stuff going on.

Arguably, Tom and Jerry had started their downhill journey well before MGM stopped producing them in-house in 1957 - but then we're all aware of TV's dramatic effect on virtually all cinematic animation houses.

[SOTS]

Thanks for the link to all the banned cartoons. I have been watching them and sitting open mouthed at a few, and wondering why or if they are banned at a couple of others.

Here's a few videos... one is a selection of clips from cartoons from the past featuring the various things that some cartoon makers actually used to include in cartoons, and a long section with the Seven Dwarves (starts at 1.54 and finishes at 0.26) which seems to have no relevance at all. Not one bit of Tom and Jerry though.

And a fairly famous one called "Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Me_Mama_with_a_Boogie_Beat)

[weirdbeard]

Bear evidence #1

What kind of human has hands like that?

[weirdbeard]

Safety Second, in which Tom, Jerry and Jerry's little cousin Nibbles (or Tuffy, or George. Whatever) do their level best to blow each other up with vast quantities of fireworks.

That's such an ace description of a Tom & Jerry cartoon.  I was watching one the other day called Jerry's Cousin, which features an hilarious bit where Tom aims a gun at Jerry' s cousin face, who then blows down the barrel, expelling the bullets into each of Tom's eyes.  He then proceeds to grab a hammer and then jump up behind Tom's head smacking it hard, practically blowing his eyes out.  The next scene begins with Tom wearing a pair of glasses. The expression on his face never fails to have me howling with laughter.

Ah, YouTube, I love you so.  2:21 (remaining) for the scene I'm on about.   Brilliant.

[Notlob]

^ Yup, ditto. As a kid, I thought she was just a rather stupid person whose socks kept falling down - it didn't occur to me that it was racist. I think it's because you never actually see her face, so the colour aspect is never that obvious, mayhap.

I also thought she was some kind of bear as a kid, as her feet looked like the way Biffo the Bear's were drawn in the Beano..

Yes! Gosh, I haven't thought of that since I was about four - enumerating the characters in T&J - Tom, Jerry, Jerry's cousin, Spike, Spike's kid, strange bear-maid...

Ah, those were the days.

[Catalogue Trousers]

SOTS wrote:

a long section with the Seven Dwarves (starts at 1.54 and finishes at 0.26) which seems to have no relevance at all.

I'd guess that it was included because it's the Dwarves exhorting cinema-goers to buy War Bonds to support the war effort, just as Bugs Bunny (and possibly other cartoon characters?) did. While not vastly offensive, it's probably in there to show how popular cartoon characters can be used for propaganda purposes.

Excellent collection of clips, though. Thanks for the link!

[Ambient Sheep]

Yesterday, I was channel surfing out of sheer boredom, and came across a Tom and Jerry short on Boomerang which I swear I have never seen before in all my 41 years...
::
::
...By the miracle of YouTube:

Tom & Jerry - Safety Second - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT810jpxTm4

I'm a year older than you, and I do remember seeing that on the Beeb once or twice in the early 70s, but not after that as you say.  Thanks for the link, was nice to see it again!

[Marv Orange]

A still from one of their elary flicks before the became famous.

[trotsky assortment]

But not once in watching any of those cartoons as I child did I think anything other than "Oh, the mommy, the owner the of the house, is angry at Tom".

Plus how is it racist anyway?  She's the owner of the house, and not a servant/slave.

Nope...I do believe that she's a black maid.

But as a kid, I had no idea about that.  Like you and weirdbeard, I just thought she was the owner of the house.  It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I realised that actually she was supposed to be the hired help.

It's ridiculous they'd want to censor Mammy Twolegs.  She was created in homage to Hattie MacDaniel.  Are they gong to edit Hattie out of 'Gone With The Wind' too?