In the UK, smoking is a no-no for cartoon cats

When Tom & Jerry was in its 1940s and 1950s heyday, everyone smoked. Your parents smoked. Pregnant women smoked. TV stars smoked on the air. Heck, I even think I saw a picutre of a dog smoking. So it wasn't that unusual to depict Tom the Cat smoking, especially if he was attempting to be suave with the opposite sex.

But Ofcom, the British version of the FCC, doesn't care about that bit of cultural history. They've asked the Boomerang channel to delete scenes that depict characters smoking from two T&J cartoons. The cartoons in question are "Texas Tom," where Tom rolls a cig to impress a girl, and "Tennis Chumps," where Tom's tennis opponent smokes a cigar. Ofcom felt that, despite the knowledge that people smoked a lot more back then, it might give kids watching it the wrong idea. Boomerang complied with the order.

Here's the kicker: Ofcom made the request after receiving one complaint. One. Out of 60 million people. Makes the FCC look sensible in comparison, doesn't it?