Even Tom and Jerry Can't Smoke

Usually when political correctness and historical revisionism collide, it's a case of some group ignoring or redacting some comments out of their beloved leader's newly discovered manuscripts or letters to contemporaries. You must have ideological purity, even if the founder of your movement did not. But, how do feel about cartoons? A British cable company has decided to bow to public pressure to edit scenes of smoking out of Tom and Jerry cartoons. Okay, never mind that the public pressure amounted to one letter sent to the company, this is Great Britain! People smoke like chimneys over there. When I studied at Oxford for a semester abroad, I spent a lot of time in cafes and bars, and I can tell you, my eyes did not become bloodshot by too much drinking. And this corporate entity is concerned "that smoking on television may normalize smoking," because the cartoon's primary viewership is school-age children. How about the normalized smoking that occurs when the poor tykes see their parents lighting up? Oh, the hypocrisy! What about normalizing ax-wielding, bomb-throwing, bat-swinging, and shotgun-shooting? And all those could occur in just one episode of Tom and Jerry, meanwhile the viewer who sent the letter is concerned about rolling a cigarette and cigar smoking. It's good to know the brits have their priorities straight.