Today I received an email from G., a KOTCB regular reader with this dreadful news item.
Smoking ban for `Tom & Jerry' in Britain
"You've got to be kidding me", I thought "Perhaps G. has fabricated this hoax knowing it would get under my skin". But no, after some review via the internet I have learned that smoking in cartoons is now outlawed at Turner Broadcasting UK.
"We have now pledged to view Boomerang's entire library of favorite cartoons and remove all other references that could be seen as glamorizing smoking in all our shows," said Cecilia Persson, vice president of programming, acquisitions and presentation for Boomerang's parent, Turner Broadcasting UK.
Well, I'm going to start smoking again based on this article. How do you like that Ms. Persson? You are now responsible for adding one more smoker to the world and I encourage all KOTCB readers to "light up" in solidarity with Tom, Jerry and me.
Of course this cartoon smoking ban demands that we address the deeper question that G. posed in his email to me - "Hollywood and others lefties have always said that sex in movies doesn't provoke copy-cat behavior among teenage or youthful viewers. but lefties have always criticized war movies and other violent movies as being "bad" for immature viewers." So what gives? Does a kid who views a cartoon cat smoking promote the idea of smoking? Does an adolescent who watches other adolescents have sex promote the idea of having sex? If there was no smoking or sex in the cartoons or movies would it all just stop? If teen smoking and the adolescent sex drive were eliminated would life be worth living? If Tom & Jerry are bad, what the hell are we going to do with the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote? Talk about a slippery slope to cartoon totalitarianism! The leadership of Turner Broadcasting UK must be overturned.
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