Jerome
06-09-2001, 04:54 PM
Has anybody else noticed that despite all of the talk about PC censoring on the Cartoon Network some unedited versions of supposedly "offensive" WB cartoons are showing up?
"The Bob Clampett Show" seems to be particularly good at sneaking these things under radar. A couple of weeks ago I was watching it and was stunned to see "An Itch In Time" shown with the closing suicide gag intact! On last night's show an obscure cartoon called "Goofy Groceries" was shown and at the end a Jack Benny-like rabbit character has a firecracker explode in his face resulting in a closing blackface gag.
Even the June Bugs Marathon got a little daring in the late hours. A black and white version of Clampett's "Patient Porky" turned up there with the black elevator operator bits left in. And the so-called "Censored 11? Make that the "Censored 10". Despite advance word to the contrary "What's Cookin' Doc?" was shown with the Hiawatha footage intact.
I'm really glad someone at CN is doing this because some of the censorship of these cartoons is really overblown. I'm African-American and I grew up watching all the old Warner Brothers stuff including the cartoons that had ethnic sterotypes. It never occured to me then or now that I was supposed to be hurt or offended by a cartoon character talking like Rochester or Stepin Fetchit or traumatized by a cartoon animal blowing its brains out. In more sensible times nobody took this stuff that seriously. We ordinary folks seem to do better than TV executives at telling the difference between a cartoon and real life.
Jerome
"The Bob Clampett Show" seems to be particularly good at sneaking these things under radar. A couple of weeks ago I was watching it and was stunned to see "An Itch In Time" shown with the closing suicide gag intact! On last night's show an obscure cartoon called "Goofy Groceries" was shown and at the end a Jack Benny-like rabbit character has a firecracker explode in his face resulting in a closing blackface gag.
Even the June Bugs Marathon got a little daring in the late hours. A black and white version of Clampett's "Patient Porky" turned up there with the black elevator operator bits left in. And the so-called "Censored 11? Make that the "Censored 10". Despite advance word to the contrary "What's Cookin' Doc?" was shown with the Hiawatha footage intact.
I'm really glad someone at CN is doing this because some of the censorship of these cartoons is really overblown. I'm African-American and I grew up watching all the old Warner Brothers stuff including the cartoons that had ethnic sterotypes. It never occured to me then or now that I was supposed to be hurt or offended by a cartoon character talking like Rochester or Stepin Fetchit or traumatized by a cartoon animal blowing its brains out. In more sensible times nobody took this stuff that seriously. We ordinary folks seem to do better than TV executives at telling the difference between a cartoon and real life.
Jerome