Which role model? Tom or Jerry?

I didn't think I had any more to say on this subject, but I do.

I was browsing the Yahoo message boards (the UK ones) and found they were just as silly as when I last looked, some years ago.

There are a few on there with no brain at all. Correction: there are many, but there are a few who are in the negative-count for brain cells. The sort of people who think deleting an Email involves printing it out and shredding it.

These few maintain that it is right to stop Tom smoking the occasional cigar because 'children see these characters as role models'.

Really?

Tom and Jerry routinely beat each other senseless with frying pans, throw knives at each other, blow each other up, set fire to one another, and Tom actually dies in more than one episode. Guns and dynamite are staples of these cartoons.

That's okay though. Children can copy all that. As long as they don't smoke while they're doing it.

For the hard of thinking out there: THESE ARE CARTOONS!

Children are not as stupid as you think. They are certainly not as stupid as you. They know that Wile E. Coyote is a drawing, and that's why he can step off a cliff and not fall. They don't need to be little Isaac Newtons to realise that's not going to happen in real life. You want proof?

Try feeding them spinach. They've seen what it does to Popeye, after all. You'll soon find out they know the difference between cartoons and real life, when they refuse your canned green mush.

There was mention of banning Cruella deVille's long cigarette holder. I wouldn't be surprised. Children might, after all, become 101-a-day chainsmokers after seeing that.

Nobody will consider banning the storyline, where she plans to skin a batch of puppies to make a coat.

So when your child next asks for a puppy for Christmas, remember to hide all the knives.