The beloved children’s show is darker than you think.
By: GaEun and SiEun, 8.3
Cartoons play a huge part in our childhood years. They make children giggle with hearty waves of laughter with their amusing jokes and their lovable appearances. They’ve been with us since we were toddlers; sometimes like a family, and sometimes like an old friend.
I would assume that all of you have heard of Tom and Jerry before- at least once; as they are one of the most well-known children’s shows in history, continuing to be just as famous to this day. For more than 83 years, the show Tom and Jerry (1940) has managed to entertain millions of children, especially in the age group of 6-10. However, despite the fact that Tom and Jerry is a show for young children, there have been questions about truly how appropriate they are for their audience.
Blue Cat Blues
In the episode, ‘Blue Cat Blues’, Tom (one of the main characters of Tom and Jerry) decides to commit suicide; lethargic and miserable from depression.
Contrasting to the rivalry that Jerry and Tom have been described to have, Jerry in this episode claims that he and Tom are best friends, or at least ‘used to be’... only before Tom fell for Toodles- a gorgeous, white cat.
Toodles manipulates Tom into loving her and pretends to return his feelings. Nonetheless, as soon as Tom runs out of his money (from buying gifts for Toddles), Toodles leaves Tom for a richer cat, Butch; revealing her greed. Tom gives Toodles flowers, perfumes, rings, and cars, using all his savings. He even signs a slavery contract to get Toodles back- without knowing that Toodles had already received the same presents from Butch. Due to the betrayal, Tom starts drinking, and although Jerry tries to stop him, he fails. After a few days, Tom goes to a railroad track to commit suicide.
While this happens, Jerry gets a new girlfriend, but just as Toodles had done, Jerry’s girlfriend also leaves him to date a richer mouse and betrays him. At the end of the episode, Jerry and Tom are both shown sitting on the tracks, waiting for a train to run over them; showing the dark side of betrayal from lovers.
Effects of Inappropriate contents
Though it may not seem that serious, even just the slight exposure to appropriate content may cause a huge effect on children. According to research, it has been said that exposure to inappropriate content could cause a bad influence on children such as trauma, interpersonal development issues, bad behavior, numbness on violence, depression, etc.
L. Rowell Huesmann et al. (1977-1992) conducted an interesting investigation on children who had watched many hours of violent television to find out the impacts of such content on behavior, and the results were astonishing. The psychologists proved that children who watched inappropriate content from a young age tended to show higher levels of aggressive behavior when they grew up and were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.
Although it might not sound like a large issue, exposure to inappropriate content could be a huge problem for young children. As evident by “Tom and Jerry: Blue Cat Blues”, some child shows can grow out of hand, containing inappropriate content that is unpleasant to kids. Therefore, it is most suggested for guardians to be more alert when showing their children television shows to prevent bad influence and protect them.
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