This can be said with a certain amount of accuracy as Human beings do stupid things all the time.
Usually nobody knows about it, or it is a small things of stupidity and is quickly erased or counteracted by another act of stupidity of equal value that cancels out the original act of dumbness.
This week, however, somebody did a very stupid thing and it has caused a small amount of questionable pondering.
There was the sacking of massive tool, Dick (I beg your pardon NICK) Griffin from the idiotic morons self help group known as the BNP.
This is not a stupid act in itself, but how racist/dumb must you be for other racists to say "WHOA, sorry dick (I beg your pardon - Nick), you've gone too far and made us all look stupid. It's time for you to go."
The slow realisation of idiots destroying themselves is not a bad thing.... in fact I for one welcome it. But something else happened this week that is almost along the same lines.
The act itself was reported on the BBC news website HERE.
It now appears that the beloved children cartoon Tom and Jerry is now racist.
Let that sink in a second.
A cartoon about a mouse outwitting a household cat is racist.
it is a little bit more complicated than that. It appears that because the cartoon sometimes featured the cats owner, who happened to be depicted as a large African/American woman, then it was racist.
It is said that the woman in question (who, to my knowledge was never named or shown above the petticoat) is seen a derogitory version of American culture.
it is quoted on the BBC site that she is a "black maid" but I don't think that is true.
As a child (and even as an adult) it never entered my head that the lady in question was a maid.
It appeared, and still appears to me, that she is a housewife, trying to get on with the jobs of the day. One of these jobs involves getting the lazy cat (Tom) to catch the one and only mouse (Jerry) that torments her.
There is nothing to suggest that this lady is in the employ of anybody but herself.
I am now forced to think about this issue in more detail and have very quickly summarised the following:
- The lady in question is called Bertha. This is because Bertha is a ladies name.
- Her husband is at work during the time of the cartoons and earns enough to both of them in a comfortable lifestyle so that she has no need to find work of her own.
- The couple have a cat in the house, not as a pet, but as a working member of the family. It's sole purpose is to catch and kill mice.
- The cat is not very good at it's job.
- In the evenings Bertha enjoys hosting bridge nights with some of the other folks on her street. Together with her husband, they put out buffet style foods for everyone to enjoy and some music is played.
- Every enjoys Bertha and her (nameless) husbands evenings. They are very well liked in their neighbourhood.
Go ahead.
Go and watch any episode of the Tom and Jerry cartoons and point out to me where it shows Bertha to be a maid, or under the employ of anybody but herself.
Granted there is no direct indication of there being a Mr Bertha (or that her name is Bertha) but there is also nothing at all to suggest that she is a maid or anything less.
I thought we had grown up past this silly view of "looking" for racism where it isn't.
There are enough morons and idiots out there who need to be educated on the wrongs of racism, without making it up for the sake of it.
Tom and Jerry cartoons are full of COMEDIC and CARTOON violence. There are many scenes with smoking which have been banned by some and concussions and dogs and cats and mice smacking twelve shades of shit out of each other within a cloud of felt tip smoke.
What there is not, is racism.
The BNP, KKK, UKIP, anybody over a certain age, idiots, the ill informed and under educated, the ignorant and stupid are all racist....
... Tom and Jerry are not.
But that didn't stop somebody, somewhere insisting that a warning message appears on the TV when a cartoon is put on for the kids.
It's bad enough that nearly everybody who was on TV in my childhood is now locked up in prison for being a nonce without some busy body ripping apart my favourite cartoons.
What's next, I wonder?
Postman Pat stealing mail?
Button Moon was all faked?
Sooty never spoke because he was in the witness protection program after selling out Bill and Ben the Flower "POT"men?
Eh?
When will this madness end....
This is just further proof that human race does not deserve the air it breathes.
I dont want to worry you Mr H but that bloke BATMAN had a butler and a young friend and they both ran about in brightly coloured tights. And to make things worse he had this secret cave under his house where he kept all sorts of equipment and gadgets. As our old mate Mr Griffin, who used to live fairly close just over the border in Wales, (Ironically some of the locals from time to time would point out he was not Welsh and should go back home) used to say there is no smoke without fire. Even young ROBIN himself was one for saying Holy Smoke BATMAN nice Bum. . . . I think.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should say that about Batman, There's a couple of interesting takes on the Batman/Robin relationship in other comics. Most thought provoking are THE BOYS (where the "batman character has a... umm.. desire for other people ears) and SIDEKICK (where the Batman character gets fed up, fakes his own death and leaves the "boy wonder" to pick up the pieces).
DeleteThese are not comics for children as I'm sure you can imagine but both are well worth the read IMO.
I hate Tom and Jerry. That sodding mouse starts all kinds of shit and the poor cat in retaliating, is seen as the bad guy. I wanted him to catch that mouse, the same way I wanted Dastardly and Muttley to catch that bloody pigeon with it's smug beak-nosed face. I think that we can safely conclude from all this, is that I was pretty warped as a child.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I always saw 'Bertha' as a maid as a kid. Namely because of all those black and white films that I watched and because it was set in an era where being a maid was viable employment for some Afo-American women at the time. If so, that still doesn't make it racist. In fact, it could be argued that it portrayed middle/upper class reality. There's a whole debate about racism in cartoons, but these include the ones that go WAY back and Tom and Jerry isn't one of them.
I will admit that at times Tom was put upon like nothing else. He was not very good at his job, but that mouse was a bit of a prick.
DeleteWhen it comes to "Bertha" I guess I'm just slow on the uptake and lived a very sheltered life.
Either way, T&J is not racist. I think people are just looking for trouble... and if they carry on pushing my buttons they're going to get it! grr....