Tom and Jerry Censorship!

I just heard about this story on the Radio 2 news, apparently Tom and Jerry are going to be censored for smoking! Forget all the violence in the programmes, Tom is injured in horrendous ways in every episode, but you have to censor smoking!!! I couldn't believe it, so I had to look it up and here it is in black and white from the BBC website:

Smoke's no joke for Tom and Jerry

Children's TV channel Boomerang are to edit scenes from Tom and Jerry cartoons where characters are shown smoking.

The move follows an investigation by media watchdog Ofcom into a viewer's complaint that the vintage animations were not appropriate for young viewers.

The watchdog recognised the "historic" cartoons were made at a time "when smoking was more generally accepted".

However, Boomerang will only edit those cartoons where smoking appears to be "condoned, acceptable or glamorised".

Two such cartoons include Texas Tom from 1950 and Tennis Chumps from 1949.

'Stylised manner'

In the former Tom is shown trying to impress a female cat by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the latter, Tom's tennis opponent is seen smoking a large cigar.

"We note that in Tom and Jerry smoking usually appears in a stylised manner," said Ofcom.

However, it said that "the level of editorial justification required for the inclusion of smoking in such cartoons is necessarily high".

"Depictions of smoking may not be problematic given the context," it continued.

"But broadcasters need to make a judgement about the extent to which a particular scene may or may not genuinely influence children."