Question about the 12 Censored Bugs Bunny shorts

[Cartman]

Was it CN that banned these cartoons or was it WB that refused to give CN prints of them? I mean, CN normally shows a cartoon exactly the way WB gave them.

[The Dork Knight]

All This and Rabbit Stew has ALWAYS been banneed from CN.

[Tintin]

Also "Mississippi Hare" to Turner, "Which is Witch?" on Nick and "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips".

[Jon Cooke]

Yes, CN has prints of all those Bugs Bunny cartoons in their library.

-Jon

[mcanzoneri]

As a matter of fact, when CN made the announcement about the 12 banned cartoons, I went through my collection and found I that I had the following copies I taped from Nickelodeon:

Which is Witch?- edited
Bushy Hare- slightly edited
A feather in his Hare - unedited
Horse Hare - unedited
Frigid Hare - missing only the line about Bugs not having go back to work for six months

I got a copy of Mississippi Hare from WB, edited, but with the blackface banjo gag intact.

I also got these from CN, who only later decided that American Indians were un PC:
What's Cookin' Doc? - unedited
Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt - unedited

Interesting how things change, isn't it?

By the way, it was CN who decided not to air the cartoons. Originally they were going to show every Bugs cartoon ever made, but pressure from certain people high up and from Warner Bros. themselves gave them cold feet and shortly before broadcast they decided to pull them. :mad:

Michael

[Brandon Pierce]

Is there any possible way we can make a petition for next year's June Bugs about having CN play ever Bugs cartoon (with the exception of "All This and Rabbit Stew" and "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips".)

[Daniel P]

Can anyone give me a list of the "dirty dozen"?

Who owns all of these cartoons?

[David Gerstein]

I hope I don't sound like a ditz for saying this, but...
Please consider the difference between Cartoon Network and parent company Warner Bros. CN is free to do what they see fit in some cases, and some people within CN want to do it our way. Warner by contrast has a history of being indifferent to, or even hostile to, its fans, even if it means ignoring chances to make money.
Now apply this to two different controversies.
The Speedy Gonzales ban and petition, as a banned Bugs petition would obviously be modeled on, was a case where CN had the freedom to operate independently of Warner. Warner was, luckily for us, neutral; it didn't object to the ban, but it didn't object to Speedy's return either. So CN was free to respond to our petition by bringing Speedy back.
The Bugs ban is the result not of a CN decision, but of a Warner ruling from some extremely powerful executives. A petition urging the unbanning of Bugs cartoons would have to be directed at those executives. It can't succeed. In fact, it would likely backfire, causing WB to inspect yet more cartoons for controversial material and then level further dictates at CN.

[Jack]

Originally posted by dacp3
Can anyone give me a list of the "dirty dozen"?

Who owns all of these cartoons?
Here's the original list:

Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt
All This and Rabbit Stew
Any Bonds Today?
What's Cookin' Doc?
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
Herr Meets Hare
Mississippi Hare
Which is Witch?
A Feather In His Hare
Frigid Hare
Bushy Hare
Horse Hare

They were all originally banned from June Bugs 2001, but then "What's Cookin' Doc?" actually did end up airing. This year CN managed to get some more cartoons into the marathon, like "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt" and "Frigid Hare."

All Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons are owned by Warner Bros., and they like controlling what LTs and MMs CN can and cannot show. Originally CN was going to air the 12 Bugs cartoons late at night, WB found out, and pressured CN to pull the cartoons from the lineup.



Jack :D

[snowpeck]

"Herr Meets Hare" gets occasional airplay in the "Toonheads: Wartime Cartoons" special, and "Horse Hare" made it back into the rotation just this morning.



Greg

[Daniel P]

Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt - Indian stereotypes, however it pops up about twice a year on the Bugs & Daffy show

All This and Rabbit Stew - Black stereotypes, this would never air on CN

Any Bonds Today? - Black stereotypes, however an edited version (without the stereotypes) appears on "Toon Heads: The Lost Cartoons"

What's Cookin' Doc? - Indian stereotypes, but it is airing very soon

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips - Japanese stereotypes, this would never air on CN

Herr Meets Hare - Nazis, aired on "Toon Heads: The Wartime Cartoons"

Mississippi Hare - I don't know what's wrong with this one and I've never seen it

Which is Witch? - Bugs Bunny says, referring to ladies, "They're all witches inside, aren't they?". However, it airs quite often

A Feather In His Hare - I don't know what's wrong with this one and I've never seen it

Frigid Hare - Eskimo stereotypes, Bugs Bunny calls the Eskimo a "big baboon", but it's been starting to air more often

Bushy Hare - I don't recognize the title but I probably saw it a long time ago, because Cartoon Network New Zealand shows all T&J/WB un-edited and doesn't "hide" any of them

Horse Hare - Indian stereotypes, but CN doesn't mind hiding it in a bad time slot (just like all the Mammy T&J's)

Even so, CN seems to be loosening up about the Indians cartoons. "Slighty Daffy" was a great surprise last month (and it had a good time slot too). Maybe "Horse Hare" isn't fare behind.

But, June Bugs is just as much as a rip-off to me as the Tom & Jerry slamfest. When I heard about it, I was very excited, I had the day off, I could actually get EVERY T&J on tape. What happened? Some shorts aired more than once, Mammy's cartoons weren't there at all (except for Fraidy Cat, which was edited), the CinemaScope remakes were missing, and there were no Jones/Deitch cartoons! Jeez, they're not that politically incorrect! And I have not seen "The Lonesome Mouse", "Blue Cat Blues", and "Polka-Dot Puss" (my favorite) in ages... :mad: :(

[Daniel P]

Originally posted by Jack
They were all originally banned from June Bugs 2001, but then "What's Cookin' Doc?" actually did end up airing. This year CN managed to get some more cartoons into the marathon, like "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt" and "Frigid Hare."

All Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons are owned by Warner Bros., and they like controlling what LTs and MMs CN can and cannot show. Originally CN was going to air the 12 Bugs cartoons late at night, WB found out, and pressured CN to pull the cartoons from the lineup.
Jack :D
Does that mean CN has prints, but WB just won't let them air them? It must be the same with Bosko, Buddy, and the Censored 11.

[J Lee]

Mississippi Hare - I don't know what's wrong with this one and I've never seen it

It opens with blacks picking cotton (and Bugs' cottontail) out of a field for packagaing and shipping aboard the riverboat Col. Shuffle is on. It also has the colonel in "brownface" dancing while Bugs plays and sings "Camptown Ladies." The first scene was cut when ABC used to air the cartoon. CN could probably get away with airing that version, even though it doesn't explain how Bugs got on board the boat, but hypersensativity led to the axing of the second scene (even though t he standard stereotypical blackface images are not used) and once you cut that, the cartoon becomes incoherent to the point it's not worth airing.


Which is Witch? - Bugs Bunny says, referring to ladies, "They're all witches inside, aren't they?". However, it airs quite often

Actually, that was "Bewiotched Bunny" with Witch Hazel you're thinking of. This cartoon features Bugs versus an African witch doctor who needs a rabbit for his pressure cooker kettle.

Back in the 1960s, it was one of three post-48 Bugs that did not air regularly in the syndicated package on WNEW in New York ("Rabbit Rampage" and "Baton Bunny" were the other two, and I have no idea why), so I was pleasantly surprised when Nickelodeon aired this in the 1990s, even if the Ubangi gag was cut. That's probably because Bugs saves the witch doctor from the crocodile at the end of the cartoon (never mind the gay insinuation at the iris out); so CN's ban is just a reversion to the WNEW standards of 35 years ago.


A Feather In His Hare - I don't know what's wrong with this one and I've never seen it

Bugs versus a rabbit hunting Indian (voiced by Tedd Pierce). The dullard who banned this one (cough, cough Ted Turner cough, cough) couldn't even figure out that Jones, Maltese and Piere were making fun of Hollywood Indian stereotypes by making theirs a bookish-like nerd who has to go back after talking to Bugs the first time and give the obligatory "ugh" because that's what Indians in Hollywood westerns were supposed to say.

This one aired for years with no complaints, until Ted's Peachtree Street massacre of 1998. It did make a late night appearance on "Bugs and Daffy" last year, and like "Horse Hare" and "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt," figures to start popping up a little more frequently in the future.

[Jon Cooke]

Originally posted by J Lee
It opens with blacks picking cotton (and Bugs' cottontail) out of a field for packagaing and shipping aboard the riverboat Col. Shuffle is on. It also has the colonel in "brownface" dancing while Bugs plays and sings "Camptown Ladies." The first scene was cut when ABC used to air the cartoon. CN could probably get away with airing that version, even though it doesn't explain how Bugs got on board the boat, but hypersensativity led to the axing of the second scene (even though t he standard stereotypical blackface images are not used) and once you cut that, the cartoon becomes incoherent to the point it's not worth airing.

A slight correction: ABC used to leave the opening scene with the blacks picking cotton alone. However, they did remove the soft shoe dance with the Colonel in blackface. (Oddly, ABC aired the exact same "Mississippi Hare" dance scene as a "Comedy Classic" time filler clip during the 1989-90 season :p )

It was Kids' WB that cut the beginning of the short. But they left the other scene alone.

Both networks cut the scene where Shuffle looks into his gun, and shoots himself in the face - after Bugs had warned him "it's full of water!"


-Jon

[J. J. Hunsecker]

I remember seeing Witch is Witch, Bushy Hare and even Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips in syndication on a local UHF station years ago in Boston.

Out of all of them, I don't see why Bushy Hare would cause a problem today. It doesn't have a typical black stereotype for the aborigine native. In fact, he looks rather white to me. (I also recall a tv special where Eddie Murphy listed a scene from this cartoon as his favorite comedy moment.)

I guess it's too late for my generation, as we've been tainted by these cartoons. Thank goodness the young kids of today are being protected from such harmful influences. They'll grow up to be perfect, unlike us. I remember the time I dropped that anvil on my brother's head expecting him to quash like an accordian. If only I hadn't seen such detrimental images as a child!

[Geezil]

Originally posted by J. J. Hunsecker
I guess it's too late for my generation, as we've been tainted by these cartoons. Thank goodness the young kids of today are being protected from such harmful influences. They'll grow up to be perfect, unlike us. I remember the time I dropped that anvil on my brother's head expecting him to quash like an accordian. If only I hadn't seen such detrimental images as a child!

Hey, listen -- my parents and my grade school teachers always said I'd grow up to be a model citizen if I learned all my lessons from The Three Stooges, maybe the finest live-action cartoon series ever made. And it was true! Why, Moe alone taught me the correct way to use pliers, frying pans, trouser presses, and every kind of musical instrument known to man. Valuable life lessons plus loads of laughter -- that's entertainment! ;)

[candy17]

[
Originally posted by dacp3

Mississippi Hare - I don't know what's wrong with this one and I've never seen it

Mississippi Hare is banned from Cartoon Network because Colonel Shuffle is a Southern stereotype, there are two references to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" ("Uncle Tom's Cabinet" and the blackface banjo scene), and the beginning shows black slaves picking cotton.


Which is Witch? - Bugs Bunny says, referring to ladies, "They're all witches inside, aren't they?".

You're confusing that for "Bewitched Bunny" (and that cartoon has been controversial in Canada because of that misogynistic line). "Which is Witch" is about a Zulu witch doctor from Africa who takes Bugs and uses him for a potion. This was cut because of the depiction of Zulus and possibly animal cruelty if you count the scene where the witch doctor locks Bugs in a cauldron (this was cut from CBS a while back)


A Feather In His Hare - I don't know what's wrong with this one and I've never seen it

A Feather in His Hare was pulled because of the Indian (kinda like the one from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, but he had a big nose and glasses) trying to hunt down Bugs. The last time I saw this cartoon was three years ago late at night on Bugs and Daffy.

[candy17]

Originally posted by Jon Cooke
A slight correction: ABC used to leave the opening scene with the blacks picking cotton alone. However, they did remove the soft shoe dance with the Colonel in blackface. (Oddly, ABC aired the exact same "Mississippi Hare" dance scene as a "Comedy Classic" time filler clip during the 1989-90 season :p )

It was Kids' WB that cut the beginning of the short. But they left the other scene alone.

Both networks cut the scene where Shuffle looks into his gun, and shoots himself in the face - after Bugs had warned him "it's full of water!"


-Jon

ABC also shortened the part in "Mississippi Hare" where Bugs (dressed as a Southern belle) repeatedly hits Colonel Shuffle with an umbrella. Kids' WB left that in, but the version on a local station where I lived cut the joke after Bugs beats the Colonel at poker (and muted the song "Dixie" at the beginning of the cartoon, but left in the black men picking cotton). Does anyone know how the joke went?

And speaking of "Mississippi Hare", the last time I saw this cartoon uncut was when Nickelodeon aired it. Despite its penchant for cutting Chinese, black, and Indian stereotypes, along with the scene in "Nutty News" with the jack-in-the-box Hitler that scares little boys while getting their hair cut, they managed to get away with "Mississippi Hare". Where's the logic here, cuz I don't get it.

[candy17]

Originally posted by J Lee
("Rabbit Rampage" and "Baton Bunny" were the other two, and I have no idea why).

I think "Rabbit Rampage" and "Baton Bunny" were cut from WNEW in NY because each of the cartoons had Bugs wearing an Indian headdress of some kind.


The dullard who banned this one (cough, cough Ted Turner cough, cough) couldn't even figure out that Jones, Maltese and Pierce were making fun of Hollywood Indian stereotypes by making theirs a bookish-like nerd who has to go back after talking to Bugs the first time and give the obligatory "ugh" because that's what Indians in Hollywood westerns were supposed to say.

Gee, I never knew that about "A Feather in his Hare"! :)

BTW:

1) The last time I saw "A Feather in his Hare" was on CN two years ago during their late-night "Bugs and Daffy"
2) What was the gay insinuation at the end of "Which is Witch"?
3) The African natives are Zulu, not Ubangi, because there was a gag where Bugs uses plates in his mouth and a spring wrapped around his neck to pose as one of them. This was cut from Nickelodeon, but not CBS when they had it in the 1970's and early 1980's despite that the Bugs-in-the-cauldron scene was spliced out.

[J Lee]

Jones, Maltese and Pierce also played with stereotypes at roughly the same time for the opening of "Inki at the Circus" which begins with a slow pan-in on a cage with a silhouette of a "fearsome African Wild Man" who turns out to be Inki playing with a yo-yo.

The scene got a big "awwww'" from the audience in sympathy with Inki when I saw it in a theater 25 years ago. But Mr. Turner and the rest of the PC crowd wouldn't get what Jones and company were trying to say here, either.

The "gay" insinuation is Bugs' priggish face which is supposed to siginfy disdain for the witch doctor's aligator handbag and shoe combo at the end of the cartoon. Probably would get the same reaction at Fashion Week in New York as well...

[Matthew Hunter]

No more ancient thread revivals! This is the last time I'm gonna ask you!
-Matthew