question about the rules of the Hays Office

[Cartman]

I caught a cartoon last night on the Tex Avery Show about a cat who learned to throw his voice in order to fool a dog. After the cat had lit a stick of dynamite under a barrel and threw his voice in that direction, the dog sits on the barrel and his fur falls off after the dynamite blasts. He covers himself with the barrel and the cat places a mirror behind him, revealing his bare buttocks.

This cartoon was probably made in the 50's. Was the Production Code of 1934 still in effect then? I don't think the Hays Office would have allowed the bare buttocks scene.

[Gossamer]

Originally posted by Cartman
I caught a cartoon last night on the Tex Avery Show about a cat who learned to throw his voice in order to fool a dog. After the cat had lit a stick of dynamite under a barrel and threw his voice in that direction, the dog sits on the barrel and his fur falls off after the dynamite blasts. He covers himself with the barrel and the cat places a mirror behind him, revealing his bare buttocks.

This cartoon was probably made in the 50's. Was the Production Code of 1934 still in effect then? I don't think the Hays Office would have allowed the bare buttocks scene.


Although I don't think Will Hays himself was still around when Ventriloquist Cat was done, The Production Code was still in force, though it was losing steam by then. The 1960s saw its demise. Cartoons in the 1950s doubtless were less rigidly scrutinized by Hollywood-leaving televison to begin censoring theatrical shorts, such as Walter Lantz's stuff, for broadcast in the 1950s.

[Jack]

Was there a butt crack? I don't remeber if that cartoon had one, but I read someplace a bare butt could be shown on a cartoon character, but you couldn't have a butt crack. You could have shading that indicates the cheeks, though. I think there's a Droopy cartoon like that.


Jack:D

[Brandon Pierce]

A bare butt complete with crack is shown in One Cab's Family. I thought that was odd.

[Jack]

Originally posted by Brandon Pierce
A bare butt complete with crack is shown in One Cab's Family. I thought that was odd.
forgot about that one, I guess that book twas wrong about yet another thing.


Jack:D

[Paul Penna]

Bare butt gags have abounded in cartoons from the very beginnings. Usually, they're "cute" bottoms, like those of cherubs, infants and small children. It's long been an unfair characterization of Walt Disney that he had a bottom fixation, due to the abundance of such gags in his cartoons, but in truth, everybody did it in the early days. Animators and gag men were just plain folks, in some cases almost literally right off the farm or out of the big-city gutters.

[DR. BELCH]

--the pig nipple scene in "Steamboat Willie". On a similar note, I'm told that Meowth and Cyndaquil are shown nursing off a cow Pokemon in one ep, which KWB may or may not cut...though they've shown a bug Pokemon attempt to suckle off Bulbasaur. As a dog owner, I've seen that sort of thing countless times, so I wouldn't be shocked by it (or by Dino raising his leg at the end of "On the Rocks" either, but that's a whole other thing).
And why cut blackface gags/caricatures of colored celebrities from sixty-year old cartoons when there's the humor of South Park or the obvioulsy ethnic Slab on The Ripping Friends? I don't get it. If I only were a drinking man...hoo boy. :rolleyes: