BrianHimes

I apologize for writing two posts about smoking in one week but have you seen the news that Tom and Jerry, a cartoon cat and mouse, are no longer allowed to smoke? After receiving complaints from parents, a British television station has decided to remove all instances where the cat and mouse are seen smoking in the 50 year old cartoon series. Never mind the mindless violent nature of the cartoon; we need to remove all smoking.

Now, if Tom was a chain-smoker I could see this course of action as a necessary intervention, but I do not think that is the case. The truth is we are only talking about a handful of scenes. I think the real danger in Tom and Jerry, if there is any, is in teaching children that you can hit your friend over the head with a mallet without causing them much harm. I move that we ban all cartoons that feature mallet wielding characters. Also, while we are at it, what about those pesky Roadrunner cartoons where the coyote runs off a cliff. What does that teach our children? Let’s ban those too; or better yet, edit out the part where he falls. I think that will help our children to grow into healthy adults.