In praise of cartoon violence

In praise of cartoon violence

The other day, channel-surfing out of sheer boredom, and came across a particularly violent Tom and Jerry short on cartoon channel Boomerang. Now, as a bit of a connoisseur of all things Tom and Jerry, I thought I'd seen everything that Fred Quimby had ever done in the battle twixt cat and mouse (and sometimes rubber-jowled dog), but this was one which I swear I have never seen before in all my 41 years:

Safety Second, in which Tom, Jerry and Jerry's little cousin Nibbles (or Tuffy, or George. Whatever) do their level best to blow each other up with vast quantities of fireworks by way of a 4th July celebration.

There is red-hot up-the-bott firework action, and Tom gets rather harshly - and with clear malice aforethought - killed to death in a firey explosion as Jerry and Nibbles chuck the firework code out of the window and do for their feline nemesis in no uncertain manner.

It made me do several LOLs, and at least one ROFFLE, and may even have turned the boy Scaryduck Junior away from endless re-runs of Spongebob for at least thirty minutes.

By the miracles of YouTube and the modern intertubes: It is here.

Having never seen this one before - almost certainly to do with a reluctance by broadcasters in this country to show kids arsing about with fireworks and stuffing them inside their nappies - it makes me wonder: are there any other cartoons out there that we've never seen on our screens?

Did Popeye and Bluto ever get it together?

Does the one with Mickey Mouse, in his house, pulling down his trousers actually exist in some vault somewhere with the words NOT FOR BROADCAST plastered all over it?

What about a thirty minute episode of The Flintstones which comprises nothing but Fred having a prolonged hand shandy over Betty Rubble?

It's filth like this that we demand is shown on our screens right now. Did Mary Whitehouse die in vain?

And we all know about the Betty Boop snuff flick. Tragic.

I am not mad.