Amazon adds Tom & Jerry to its online streaming service – but warns of racism

[garbon]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2776323/Amazon-adds-classic-Tom-Jerry-cartoons-online-streaming-service-warns-users-RACIST.html

Amazon adds Tom & Jerry to its online streaming service – but warns users the classic cartoons are RACIST

Fans of classic Tom and Jerry cartoons have been warned that episodes of the iconic show may depict scenes of 'ethnic and racial prejudice'.

Subscribers to Amazon Prime Instant Video are now met with a caution before viewing certain episodes of the long-running cartoon.

It follows concerns that the representation of a black maid on early episodes of the cartoon show - which made its first episodes in the 1940s - was an example of the era's prejudices.

Tom and Jerry: The Complete Second Volume is accompanied by the caution: 'Tom and Jerry shorts may depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.'

One fan took to Twitter to say: 'watched Tom and Jerry since the 60s this is the 1st time I've ever heard the R word in relation to it. PC madness!'

Another fan wrote: 'I loved Tom and Jerry as a kid and it never made me think poorly of ethnic minorities or want to smoke cigars.'

Cultural commentator and professor of sociology Frank Furedi, of the University of Kent, said that the warnings show a 'very sad' tendency to read history backwards by judging people in the past by our current-day values.

He said: 'These warnings caricature and misinterpret what 40 year old cartoons communicated.

'Through reading history backwards novels, films and cartoons can be denounced for the language they use and for communicating values that appear to violate those of today. 

Even Tom and Jerry cartoons are carefully vetted to warn the current generations about images and words that contradict 21st century sensibilities.'

'Amazon's warnings are in fact a performance of false piety,' he added. 'Its purpose is to indicate that Amazon is 'aware' and takes its responsibilities seriously.

'Instead of engaging with the moral predicament of our era it prefers to moralize about the attitudes expressed by Tom and Jerry.'

Never short of an opinion, self-styled social commentator Katie Hopkins also expressed outrage at the warnings.

She Tweeted: 'Old Tom and Jerry cartoons to carry warnings of 'racial prejudice'. Give me strength. I am a foreigner in a culture I no longer understand.'

Tom and Jerry was first produced by the MGM film studio in 1940 with a series of 114 shorts that ran until 1957.

The cartoons, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby, included slapstick comedy and chase scenes set in the homes and gardens of suburban America.

Since the there have been numerous re-launched television versions of the series with varying styles and in 1992 Tom and Jerry: The Movie became the series' first feature length film.

The original shorts have been subject to controversy on several occasions over themes including representation of women, the glamorization of smoking, racial stereotypes and even cannibalism.

In 2006, scenes that appeared to glamorize smoking were edited out of the cartoons following complaints to Ofcom, saying that they are not appropriate to be shown to children.

In Texas Tom, the cat tries to impress a female feline by making a rollup cigarette. Then in Tennis Chumps Tom's opponent is seen smoking a large cigar in a match.

In its ruling, Ofcom said: 'We recognise that these are historic cartoons, most of them having been produced in the 1940s, 50s and 60s at a time when smoking was more generally accepted.

'We note that in Tom and Jerry, smoking usually appears in a stylised manner and is frequently not condoned.'

Last year, Tom and Jerry fans were infuriated to hear that two 'inappropriate' episodes were removed from a new collection because they feature the cat and mouse 'blacked-up'

Warner Brothers' Golden Collection Volume Two was intended to be an uncut series of the popular animation in chronological order. But offending episodes Casanova Cat made in 1951 and Mouse Cleaning from 1948 were pulled.

In Casanova Cat Jerry's face is covered in cigar smoke before he is made to do a minstrel dance.

Fans posted angry messages on websites where you can pre-order the Blu-ray DVD such as Amazon explaining why they will not be buying the discs.

One message reads: 'Culture is always reflected in cartoons, and while this may not have been right, it existed.
'It is a shame to omit pieces of history in a collection simply due to PR getting shaky boots over the past.'

When a Looney Tunes Golden Collection was released in 2005, actress Whoopi Goldberg was asked to explain why certain episodes were kept in the collection.

She said at the time: 'Removing these inexcusable images and jokes from this collection would be the same as saying (these prejudices) never existed.

'So they are presented here to accurately reflect a part of our history that cannot and should not be ignored.'

[mongers]

Garbon can we have your view on the matter or is it instep with the Daily Mail's outrage? 


Oh course now it's been mentions, I'm gonna have to see some of the cartoons, as I've not seen one on tv in years. 

[Warspite]

Well, it's better than what they used to do, which was to take the maid out completely.

[garbon]

Garbon can we have your view on the matter or is it instep with the Daily Mail's outrage? 

No, I'm not enraged. I have no issue with them providing a warning. Much better than as Ark has noted, censorship.

[derspiess]

Well, it's better than what they used to do, which was to take the maid out completely.

Yeah, first they re-dubbed her as an Irish woman, and then they just cut her out. 

Overall I'm okay with the warning.  Huge segments of society are ready & willing to be offended by anything, so this is a way of telling them they were warned.

[mongers]

I think I have the Looney Tunes gold boxed sets, that iirc leave everything as it was, but just have a generic warning about content somewhere on the menus; I shall investigate.

This is what Wiki has to say on the matter, which seems like a sensible balanced approach:

Beginning with Volume 3, a warning was printed on the packaging explaining that the collection is intended for adults and the content may not be suitable for children. This goes along with Whoopi Goldberg's filmed introduction in Volume 3 that explains the history of ethnic imagery that frequently appears in cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with Volume 4, a singular disclaimer text card similar to Goldberg's spoken disclaimer precedes each disc's main menu.This is seen on the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collections and even on the back of the Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection discs (though they are from Universal, not Warner Bros.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes_Golden_Collection

[Ed Anger]

Trigger warning: Negro Maid, zoot suits

[CountDeMoney]

Racism hell, let's talk about speciesism, and how these kinds of cartoons for decades not only reinforced centuries' worth of negative stereotypes of cats in the Western world, but the portrayal of mice as the "good guys"--the destroyer of crops and the historical carriers of plague and other maladies for both man and livestock. 

So fuck Jerry and his mouse hole with its little Roman archway.

[Savonarola]

I think I have the Looney Tunes gold boxed sets, that iirc leave everything as it was, but just have a generic warning about content somewhere on the menus; I shall investigate.

This is what Wiki has to say on the matter, which seems like a sensible balanced approach:

Beginning with Volume 3, a warning was printed on the packaging explaining that the collection is intended for adults and the content may not be suitable for children. This goes along with Whoopi Goldberg's filmed introduction in Volume 3 that explains the history of ethnic imagery that frequently appears in cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with Volume 4, a singular disclaimer text card similar to Goldberg's spoken disclaimer precedes each disc's main menu.This is seen on the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collections and even on the back of the Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection discs (though they are from Universal, not Warner Bros.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes_Golden_Collection

There are certain cartoons that were deemed so racist that they weren't in in the Golden Collection; most notably "The Censored Eleven.':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censored_Eleven

The Wiki article says that Warner Brothers was planning to release them as their own disc; but as far as I know that hasn't happened yet.

(Of course you can find them all on YouTube.)

[derspiess]

Racism hell, let's talk about speciesism, and how these kinds of cartoons for decades not only reinforced centuries' worth of negative stereotypes of cats in the Western world, but the portrayal of mice as the "good guys"--the destroyer of crops and the historical carriers of plague and other maladies for both man and livestock. 

So fuck Jerry and his mouse hole with its little Roman archway.

I have to admit as a kid I did root for Tom to win.  He just could never catch a break except on those rare occasions where they teamed up.

[Ed Anger]

I hate that stupid duck from Tom and Jerry.

[CountDeMoney]

Trigger warning: Negro Maid, zoot suits

Some old Popeye cartoons have a shitload of racial imagery in them: cue up African tribesmen.

[Duque de Bragança]

Not a first for Warner, their Tex Avery boxed also censored Half Pint Pigmy and Uncle Tom's Cabaña. Quite a fuss ten years ago for Warner France.
People are still waiting for the release mentioned by Savonarola.

[CountDeMoney]

There are certain cartoons that were deemed so racist that they weren't in in the Golden Collection; most notably "The Censored Eleven.':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censored_Eleven

The Wiki article says that Warner Brothers was planning to release them as their own disc; but as far as I know that hasn't happened yet.

(Of course you can find them all on YouTube.)

Ed would tap Coal Black's ass for all dat molasses.

[Savonarola]

Trigger warning: Negro Maid, zoot suits

Some old Popeye cartoons have a shitload of racial imagery in them: cue up African tribesmen.

Some of the World War II vintage Popeye cartoons have some really virulent Japanese stereotypes.  My Dad remembers seeing them on television when he was very young; but by the mid-50s they had censored those.