When I was a young lad I enjoyed cartoons just like every regular young boy. Like many others before me Bugs Bunny and his gang was one of my favorites. Apparently it’s not enough that Hollywood is taking all the great stuff from my childhood and turning it into crappy movies. No, in addition to that television has to edit all my favorite classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. There doesn’t seem to be any written set of guidelines for the censoring but based on what I’ve seen here are some things that are no longer allowed.
No Fire
In at least two cartoons, “Ain’t She Tweet” and “All Abir-r-rd”, Sylvester gets set on fire and then runs around looking for a way to extinguish himself. Both of these scenes have been cut out. I don’t understand the reasoning for this because if you think about it the scenes are actually a bit educational. Sylvester isn’t painting fire in a good light. He doesn’t stick his hand in the fire and say “Ooo, that feels good!” Sylvester gets burnt, usually on his bottom, and then jumps around yelping indicating that fire hurts and therefore is a bad thing. What’s so bad about that?
No Poking
The violence rules are so strict on these old cartoons that things as simple as poking have been censored. In one classic Bugs Bunny episode a stork delivers Bugs Bunny to a family of gorillas on accident. Bugs is playing with his new brother and playfully pokes him. That scene is gone. Don’t poke your brothers, children, you might hurt somebody. In another censored scene Bugs pokes Taz in the eye. I can see how that would be perceived as violent but why bother with any comedy at all if you can’t even poke somebody in the eyes anymore. The Three Stooges must be rolling in their graves.
Taz Bombings
The censoring edits made in Taz cartoons are kind of peculiar. Several times Bugs Bunny has tricked Taz by giving him something wrapped in dynamite to eat. In all of those scenes the dynamite has either been removed or replaced with another item. The strange thing is Taz still blows up. In one episode it’s turkey surprise that causes Taz to blow up. I can’t imagine how kids must react to turkey next time their parents serve it. In another episode Taz blows up due to digesting a violin. These edits just don’t make any sense. If you’re going to edit out the bomb why wouldn’t you edit out the explosion?
Wile E. Coyote
They might as well just ban every Wile E. Coyote cartoon because they have to censor so many things I’m not sure how a cartoon would still exist. Of course Wile E. Coyote has had the ever popular falling off a cliff edited before as well as having a giant rock fall on him. They’ve also edited out Wile E. Coyote being hit by a truck, Wile E. Coyote doing hypnotism and even Wile E. Coyote taking aspirin.
Mean Grannies
In the Looney Tunes’ new edited world there is no such thing as a mean granny. Any scene with a granny hitting somebody else with an umbrella or walking cane or whatever else, have been edited out. If they want to portray grannies as nice people that’s fine but in most granny whackings the whackee actually deserves to be whacked. The most common example is in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. Granny only whacks Sylvester with an umbrella because he’s trying to eat Tweety. Again this cartoon actually sends a good message to kids. The message in the cartoon isn’t that granny is mean or that you should whack people with object, it’s don’t steal.
Daffy Duck Blastings
Daffy Duck can no longer be blasted in the face with a gun. This is a shame, the Daffy Duck cartoons where he gets shot in the face are classic, especially the rabbit hunting/duck hunting episodes. But no longer can those scenes be shown making one of the greatest cartoon characters alive pretty much useless.
No Dress Up
Kids should not dress up, it builds too much imagination. Therefore all cartoons with Porky dressed like a Chinaman, Daffy dressed like an Indian or Bugs dressed like a woman have been edited to remove those scenes.
No getting your bottom burnt? No poking your friends? No dressing up? No mean grannies hitting people? No Daffy Duck getting blown up in the face? What is this world coming to? What exactly is a Looney Tunes cartoon without any of those things? The edited versions of these cartoons have been reduced to Foghorn Leghorn talking for thirty minutes. Fortunately for those of you who want to see the unedited version of these cartoons, Looney Tunes is on DVD. I recommend buying them so your children can enjoy them in the future too. You’re child deserves to see Bugs Bunny trick Elmer Fudd into shooting Daffy Duck in the face, it’s every child’s right.
