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[3rdman]

I remember several cartoons that would end with a character saying something like "Well, now I've seen everything" and they commit suicide. I wonder what kind of disclaimer they'd put on those...

You are referring to The Tortoise and the Hare...Bugs dons a "streamlined" shell to make him faster but the rabbits betting against the tortoise, beats up Bugs and helps the tortoise wins. Bugs rips off the shell and in unison, the rabbits all proclaim "now he tells us!" and bam, gun to the head and dead.

I thought it was hilarious as a kid.

 

[Ithil]

I always thought that the housekeeper owned the house as a kid. It was only when I re-watched them as an adult that I got what was going on.

Earlier episodes she was certainly the maid, but later episodes seemed to portray her as the owner of the house (like ones showing her sleeping in the master bedroom and not always in work clothes). Given the cartoons are basically all standalone, it's not unreasonable that she is the housekeeper in some episodes and the homeowner in others.

 

[BlackJace]

Wow...that's probably the best possible way to handle that. Nice job, WB.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

If only they could do that for the Tom and Jerry Golden Collection vol. 2 Blu-ray. Still hasn't come out.

This.

Not sure we're getting any more blurays though, even WB made an announcement that Looney Tunes Platinum Collection 3 would be the end of that series, I think streaming has pretty much killed the market.

Which is a big shame as streaming bitrate is absolute garbage, and is going to remain so even when HEVC rolls in.

 

[kiguel182]

Hats off to Warner Bros to do this.

And yeah, those cartoons were racist as hell. It's great that they acknowledge it.

 

[Protein]

Great statement. There's no better way this can be said.

 

[Platy]

I love this image.

 

[Arkos]

Count me as somebody who thought she owned the house, although it wasn't one of my main cartoons.

That is an excellent, if not perfect way to handle it though

 

[Scavenger]

Before you all start praising that message, I just want to remind you all that one of the top executives of the WB legal department is abusing her power to prevent the release of an uncompromised Tom and Jerry Blu-ray set.

 

[jmood88]

I actually saw this on Fox News this morning, except I believe their quote was "The PC police have a new target"

God, I hate Fox.

 

[overcast]

The warning seems proper. I remember thinking the lady was the owner of the house until a few years after I stopped watching. I watched so much Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and cartoons from that time. Thank you Cartoon Network.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

Sensible, honest, reflective and un-censorious. Bravo.

That's the way it should be.

I love Tom & Jerry.

 

[EricTheCleric]

plenty of blackface in those cartoons

 

[spindashing]

I always thought that the housekeeper owned the house as a kid. It was only when I re-watched them as an adult that I got what was going on.

Same here...

plenty of blackface in those cartoons

Yeah, back then whenever something blew up close to the face of a cartoon character, there's a good chance they made a blackface joke. Didn't think anything of it as a child, but damn.

 

[Vilam]

I always thought that the housekeeper owned the house as a kid. It was only when I re-watched them as an adult that I got what was going on.

Oh... Huh. Yeah, that's what I always thought as a kid as well. Never even thought about it or questioned it until now.

 

[mr stroke]

Plenty

Someone enlighten me, this racist because?(she is the maid and not the owner?)

 

[Toa TAK]

I loved it when she beat the shit outta Jerry.

It's funny looking back on Tom & Jerry, because as kids we didn't catch any of this, nor understand.

 

[FreeMufasa]

Good quote but let's be real, it's in its original form because that's how we wanna see it. No one wants an altered one.

 

[.GqueB.]

I hate quoting a thing over and over again but

:')

 

[LQX]

I always thought that the housekeeper owned the house as a kid. It was only when I re-watched them as an adult that I got what was going on.

Yep, same here.

 

[depths20XX]

Isn't there a gif of Jerry raping Tom also? Extreme stuff.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Disney should go with this as well.

Disney does have disclaimers but people skip them or Disney considers them bad enough that they refuse rerelease them. Both them and warner bros have handled it well.

Is this free on prime? Might have to watch some on my lunch.

 

[Mixolydian]

Ehh, yeah. Least they can do. Ever seen the episode of an old bug bunny cartoon where he keeps saying "Jap" and "those japs"?

 

[double jump]

torn on this tbh.

 

[CoolOff]

We've had a similar debate in Sweden recently where Pippi Longstockings father was changed from "nigger king" to "sea captain". The fact that people still get outraged about the changes/disclaimers is really sad.

 

[studyguy]

I want to see the originals. I know Speedy Gonzales and especially his brother are crazy caricatures of Mexican stereotypes but you know, it is what it is. Least they own up to it.

 

[Eighty Deuce]

Bugs bunny would always say " get your Cotten picking hands off me". I never realized what it meant until getting older.

 

[Carl]

I always thought the black woman was just Tom and Jerry's owner.

Now i'm confused.

 

[Toa TAK]

Bugs bunny would always say " get your Cotten picking hands off me". I never realized what it meant until getting older.

Holy shit I didn't get that until now.

I haven't seen bugs since I was kid, though, but still.

 

[UrbanRats]

I always thought that the housekeeper owned the house as a kid. It was only when I re-watched them as an adult that I got what was going on.

Me too.

Anyway this seems a decent way to handle the issue.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Wait, OP seriously doesn't remember anything tom and jerry? It had a lot with blacks and native Americans...

 

[Bgamer90]

Man, that's just... So perfect. Couldn't have thought of a better way to put it.

 

[terrisus]

Good way to communicate it.

 

[Easy_D]

We've had a similar debate in Sweden recently where Pippi Longstockings father was changed from "nigger king" to "sea captain". The fact that people still get outraged about the changes/disclaimers is really sad.

That's different. Astrid Lindgren herself acknowledged how racist it was to call Pippi's father "nigger king". She would be 100% behind the changes had she been alive today.

Edit: Really sorry. Completely misinterpreted your post.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

I actually saw this on Fox News this morning, except I believe their quote was "The PC police have a new target"

Fuuuuuuck them..sooo hard. Come the fuck on.

OT: Good for them.

 

[Bgamer90]

Someone enlighten me, this racist because?(she is the maid and not the owner?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_archetype

 

[StoOgE]

During 'Holiday Inn' (Staring Bing Crosby and Fred Astair with songs by Irving Berlin) there is a musical number called Abraham about Abraham Lincoln that is super duper awful.

The movie gets played a decent amount at old theaters around Christmas because it is where the song 'White Christmas' comes from.

However, 'Abraham' is basically always cut out of the film and I wish they would do something like this instead for the reasons WB mentioned. I think people who want to watch the movie need to be reminded how awful the world was at that point.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

During 'Holiday Inn' (Staring Bing Crosby and Fred Astair with songs by Irving Berlin) there is a musical number called Abraham about Abraham Lincoln that is super duper awful.

The movie gets played a decent amount at old theaters around Christmas because it is where the song 'White Christmas' comes from.

However, 'Abraham' is basically always cut out of the film and I wish they would do something like this instead for the reasons WB mentioned. I think people who want to watch the movie need to be reminded how awful the world was at that point.

Yeah, it's caused a lot of tension too in circles who care about old cartoons because warner and Disney both still won't reproduce some and people are mad since that's still eliminating things that happened but I think they're afraid of the backlash, regardless of how old the cartoons are.

 

[Vermillion]

Good quote but let's be real, it's in its original form because that's how we wanna see it. No one wants an altered one.

All true.

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

Good on Amazon. I knew exactly what this was about when I saw the title.

I specifically remember the stereotypical maid repeatedly yelling "Thomassss, iz you sleepin'!?" in an episode when I was a kid. I didn't really understand the stereotype until I was older. I used to like Tom & Jerry, but it's not the same with the context I have now.

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

Sorry, DP.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

I always thought that the housekeeper owned the house as a kid. It was only when I re-watched them as an adult that I got what was going on.

Lol what. Even as a kid I knew she was just a housekeeper. I think I remember scenes of her talking to the "owner" offscreen, or at least her half of their conversations

 

[Busty]

Boomerang still airs repeats of Pepe Le Pew cartoons in which he chases after reluctant female skunks talking about (and I'm not kidding) "making love" to them.

Maybe it's all about context.

Just sayin'.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Oh... Huh. Yeah, that's what I always thought as a kid as well. Never even thought about it or questioned it until now.

Same, I always thought she owned the house

Lol what. Even as a kid I knew she was just a housekeeper. I think I remember scenes of her talking to the "owner" offscreen, or at least her half of their conversations

Maybe it depends on your age but all I remember is her yelling at tom for breaking shit and that's about it. There could have been conversations but they weren't abundant and usually your focus was on something else like jerry doing something while she talked to someone else. As an elementary school kid she seemed to be the owner and tom was her pet.

 

[Vyrance]

That WB quote, that's exactly how these companies should handle their older content.

 

[ratcliffja]

Boomerang still airs repeats of Pepe Le Pew cartoons in which he chases after reluctant female skunks talking about (and I'm not kidding) "making love" to them.

Maybe it's all about context.

Just sayin'.

Pepe is a symbol for gross creepy guys who don't understand how they come across. He's not really a hero.

 

[mattiewheels]

Boomerang still airs repeats of Pepe Le Pew cartoons in which he chases after reluctant female skunks talking about (and I'm not kidding) "making love" to them.

Maybe it's all about context.

Just sayin'.

I believe the phrase didn't mean what it does today, it meant more like seducing them with a song, or something.

 

[MHWilliams]

I haven't seen Tom and Jerry in years but I don't doubt that it has racial prejudices...

Old cartoons tend to be mad racist at times, because they reflect a different set of values. The warnings aren't wrong and they're just warnings.

 

[Downhome]

I think it says a great deal that for most of us as children, including myself, we never thought a single negative thing about the various racial stereotype jokes back in these shows. Or even the ones about smoking and things like that. We accepted it just as silly 'toons, nothing racial, nothing negative at all. It didn't bother most of us, it didn't bother me, because we didn't have a single racist bone in our childhood minds, never really knew anything about racism in general.

I don't have a problem with the warnings since a lot of the people that are going to watch these old cartoons will be adults revisiting their childhoods. The only aspect of it that I don't like is that it strips away the chance that children of today, watching these things for the first time just as we did years ago, will be able to also view the toons without any hint of anything racist. If they can read they'll see the warning, and make connections that they may never have made in the first place had there not been any warning. It rips the innocence from it that we had when we originally watched them.

I'm not sure if this makes sense to you guys, or if I'm explaining myself the way I intend, but there ya go.

 

[Phoenix]

That is so awesome!