Top > Entertainment > 2006 > August > 2006-08-23

No More Smoking for Tom and Jerry

An entertainment media regulator Ofcom had received a viewer`s complaint about the Tom and Jerry cartoons. The complaint was about the characters` smoking in the animated entertainment series, which is not appropriate for young viewers. Due to this complaint, children`s TV channel Boomerang will edit scenes from Tom and Jerry cartoons where the characters are shown smoking. The watchdog recognized the "historic" cartoons were made at a time "when smoking was more generally accepted".

However, the entertainment channel Boomerang will only edit those cartoons where smoking appears to be "condoned, acceptable or glamorized". Two such cartoons include Texas Tom from 1950 and Tennis Chumps from 1949. In the former Tom is shown trying to impress a female cat by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the latter, Tom`s tennis opponent is seen smoking a large cigar. The regulator said that sometimes smoking is an inherent part of the situation described in the cartoons. "Depictions of smoking may not be problematic given the context," it said. "But broadcasters need to make a judgment about the extent to which a particular scene may or may not genuinely influence children."

Entertainment Channel 4 has avoided censure after Sir Elton John swore on a live edition of Paul O`Grady`s teatime show. On the program broadcast 9 May this year, the British singer and songwriter said he had changed his name from Reginald Dwight because it had made him sound "like a banker, or a w****r". Ten of the audience contacted Ofcom complaining that the language was inappropriate for the time of broadcast. The entertainment media watchdog said the use of the word was "unfortunate" but that it accepted Channel 4 had taken steps to avoid similar occurrences in future.