Cartoons can't smoke no more

[salemfan]

Modern kids shows do not portray smoking

Has anybody noticed that in the Dr. Seuss TV special, "The Lorax" the Once-Ler smokes a cigar?

By the way, I notice that in modern PBS shows, nobody smokes. Theo in Between the Lions does not smoke a pipe.

 

[Convincing John]

Cultoons

Hey,

My brother gave me a DVD called Cultoons!, which (for fans of old animation) has many rare cartoon shorts on it.

A couple of the cartoons on it reminded me of this thread...especially the penguin one. Back then, cartoons not only smoked cigarettes, but they made cigarettes as well! The Youtube clip doesn't include the beginning of the cartoon, which shows the penguins fleeing Antarctica from hunters.

It's the ending of the cartoon that really surprised me...even more than the old Flintstones Winston one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8jAxo2YOVY

The DVD also has this surprising short. "P.M. Picnic tonight! For that cleeeear, cleeeeean taaaaaste." What are these guys advertising? Just watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgq0PkWtjNY

Amazing what animation used to get away with, isn't it?

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

Those are just.... painful! They seem like company loyalty ads or something that the general public shouldn;t see. At least I hope they are. They could be ads.

You see...this is why I like 40's animation much more than 30's animation.

 

[Convincing John]

Yeah, they were ads just for the companies. The P.M. one was supposed to be a motivational film for their sales reps.

Of course, there have been much more offensive things shown in animation, but I don't want to get into that.

Getting back to smoking, remember Pee-Wee's Playhouse? The smoke alarm went off, and it was coming from Randy's cigarette! The others coughed and waved the smoke away as Pee-Wee asked why Randy was smoking.

Randy: "It makes me look cool."

Pee-Wee: "No, Randy, it makes you look stupid! Smoking's bad for you!"

After some convincing, Randy ground out the cigarette and decided to quit as everyone cheered.

Despite what happened with Pee-Wee later, this was still a good show for kids. The message of "smoking is unhealthy" got through to me when I saw it as a kid.

However...that Christmas special they did had some (ahem) other messages, ones (I hope) went over the kids' heads.

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

Of course, there have been much more offensive things shown in animation, but I don't want to get into that.

Yeah... like Filmation animating Tom and Jerry or Droopy. Now that is offensive on so many levels...

 

[CBPuppets]

As Kermit said once "Think about this, friends"

He also said that in the Juliet Prowse episode.

 

[Drtooth]

You know... do these things really have a negative effect on kids? I mean, an entire generation grew up on cowboy films with enough fantasy gunplay to "warp" an entire family.

I think that garbage like Dora the Explorer and (especially) Save the Wonderpets have a worse effect on children.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

It's the ending of the cartoon that really surprised me...even more than the old Flintstones Winston one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8jAxo2YOVY

Yeah, you don't see honer doing that, LOL!