A real lack Ofcom-mon sense
I like double takes – you know the ones. The best are in cartoons. Tom is running purposefully on some mission when he spots Jerry (doing something cheeky) out of the corner of his eye. His head whips back and forth twice and he screeches to a stop mid stride, as his legs go furiously into reverse. It gets a laugh every time.
Well I did a Tom and Jerry ‘double take’ recently. I was sitting on a plane going on holiday. With the restrictions you can’t take too much, so for light reading I tucked the Aug 21 edition of the Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin (67) into my regulation no liquids, no guns, no nail clippers, travel bag.
The report which caught my eye was about Boomerang TV broadcasting Tom and Jerry cartoons with scenes involving smoking. A viewer had complained. Yes just one – but listen to this.
“Following the recent complaint, Turner Broadcasting (owner of the kids channel Boomerang) conducted an extensive review to assess the volume and context of smoking and proposed editing any scenes where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamourised or encourage imitation.”
Can this be serious? They propose reworking –what are indisputably works of art, often nearly half a century old, made for all age-groups, shown in every cinema, to satisfy a complaint from just one viewer. Quite apart from the cost and expertise required in defacing 25 frames per second. It is wrong.
Think about it for a moment. Where does it stop? We have already had a movement (successful I believe) to extinguish Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s cigar. What about Popeye’s pipe – come to think of it, I think Popeye is a pretty disagreeable name – maybe the poor chap had some iodine deficiency which caused his eyes to bulge and hence the epithet.
Rule 1.10 of the Broadcasting Code says smoking (and other drugs including Alcohol) must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children or broadcast before the watershed.
Fair enough, sounds like good common sense – but how about a bit of Ofcommon sense over this. Their response to Turner’s vandalism – a fusion of PC and PR - is to say, get your sticky hands off those cartoons. Either don’t broadcast them or if you have to, then put a health warning at the start. How about ‘This Cartoon Classic contains scenes of smoking.’ That’s All Folks!