Tom and Jerry and the Twentieth Century America

Article Posted in: Research Articles

Paper by Aayushee Garg
Published in Vol. III, Issue. XXXIV, November 2017

 

Abstract:

One of the most watched cartoon series of all time, Tom and Jerry is a great artistic contribution in terms of a musical animated television series introduced in the twentieth century. Unlike most other cartoon series of that time which primarily targeted children as their audience, this theatrical series served to entertain all ages of audiences. The plot revolves around a perennial cat-mouse fight.  The grammar of the slapstick comedy is significantly characterized by sound effects that accentuate the comic element. Positing the show into the socio-cultural context of the period in which it was made, there are quite a few observations to be made. There were various controversies that surrounded several runs of the show. There is implicit racial prejudice portrayed in various scenes. Feminist critics also brought the sexist elements of the show to the forefront. They claim that stereotyping of gender is done in terms of the cast being almost completely male and the females only been represented to turn up the glamour quotient. This article is, therefore, an attempt to critically analyse the socio-cultural aspects of the Tom and Jerry show hence situating it in the time and space of the twentieth century America.

 

 

Created for MGM in 1940, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby, Tom and Jerry is a brilliant American theatrical musical animated series. The first cartoon of the series Puss gets the Boot was released on February 10, 1940, and then the show went on till 164 episodes. The classic won seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film. The animation is impeccable in the original production of the series but seems to have lost its usual lustre in later remakes. The grammar of the slapstick comedy is significantly characterized by sound effects. The target audience was not only children but adults as well, basically anyone with a penchant for having senseless fun.

The plot essentially revolves around a perennial cat-mouse fight. Thomas the cat (Tom) keeps laying traps for the mischievous Jerry mouse to which Jerry keeps retaliating subjecting Tom to even more torment. Tom and Jerry hardly speak throughout the series. He only screams in excruciating pain when Jerry is successful in playing deliberate pranks on him. Typically, Tom loses at the end, but sometimes he is able to outmanoeuvre Jerry when a few of his plans do not get backfired. The destruction that ensues after their mad capers is intensified by the creative music of the show which foregrounds the action and delineates sensitive and emotional scenes. The duo appears to be deriving pleasure out of the camaraderie and there is a love-hate relationship illustrated all the way.

In the 19th century London, Tom and Jerry was a phrase commonly used for youngsters involved in mischievous activities. The term is supposed to have come either from Life in London or Pierce Egan’s Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom. The reasons why Tom incessantly chases Jerry have not been explicitly expressed in the show. It could be either due to his natural feline instinct or due to the duties Tom has towards the owners of the house in which it is domesticated as well as pampered, or worse yet, due to feelings of revenge towards the innocent looking perpetrator. The owners instruct Tom on the herculean task to perform which consists of catching the notorious Jerry who is practically impossible to be caught hold of and shamelessly feasts on their sumptuous meals when they are not around meanwhile also breaking fragile objects in the house and outside it.

This research article is an attempt to critically look into the social as well as cultural aspects of the Tom and Jerry show while situating it in the time and space of the twentieth century America.

Positing the show into the socio-cultural context of the period in which it was made, there are quite a few observations to be made. There were various controversies that surrounded the runs of the show. There is implicit racial prejudice portrayed in various scenes, especially in which the stereotypical apron-clad housemaid Mammy Two Shoes appears who is mostly found rebuking the cat-mouse duo: Tom for not being able to eat up the mouse, and Jerry for running away with food. The face of the black maid is never shown. The black woman serving as a maid is in itself representative of the white supremacy and hegemony. There were troubled race relations at that time and Martin Luther King and Civil Rights movement had not yet come into the picture. The African American race was going through mental turmoil. The racial and ethnic prejudices were acknowledged and the show started to be broadcast later in the twenty-first century carrying a warning mentioning the same in the form of a censorship which was further attacked as being artificial and not very helpful. In the light of this mayhem, some people started to draw binaries between a sense of humour and censorship and considered the censor board to be lacking a sense of humour. Such prejudices if ingrained in the tender minds of children would result in affecting the unconscious inappropriately, thus serving as a loose discourse for them as opposed to a didactic one which is needed in their formative years of development.

Also, there is a ubiquitous representation of violence and so too in plenitude in the show, which several critics consensually deem extremely unsuitable for children which ironically constitute the majority of its audience. BBC calls it the staple of children’s television. There is frequent use of a plethora of arms and ammunition. Some critics blame the show for inciting violence and extremism in the people and some even go on to say that the show promotes cannibalism and terrorism. An instance of this line of thought can be seen portrayed in the 2006 remade Hindi action-thriller film Don –The Chase Begins Again, the anti-hero played by Shahrukh Khan is seen keenly watching episodes of the celebrated animated series in his spare time, metaphorically connoting the pleasure he elicits from the chase.

There were also scenes in Tom and Jerry depicting characters smoking in the show. As per The Guardian, Ofcom, a body regulating broadcasting, bid the makers remove the scenes where smoking is venerated. Tom made attempts to impress a female cat while smoking cigarette and Tom’s opponent also smokes in a Tennis match.

Feminist critics brought the sexist elements of the show to the forefront. They claim that stereotyping of gender is done in terms of the cast being almost completely male and the females only been represented to turn up the glamour quotient. Tom is male. Jerry is male. French existentialist writer Simone de Beauvoir in her book The Second Sex, written in 1949 deals with the same concept of the otherness of women as comes across clearly in this show.

Situating the above-mentioned controversies and arguments in the context of the era in which the show was broadcast that is 1940 to 1958, it was the time when America had just escaped from the mouth of the Great Depression and this fun-filled cartoon series was a much-needed tonic for the Americans. There was technological as well as economic advancement at this time and America was progressing on the financial and industrial fronts, which aided in emerging of such shows. American Dream had become a significant participant in the psyche of the American people. Purr-Chance to Dream was an episode directed by Ben Washam on the same lines in 1967. On the other hand, it is to be noted that America was going through World War II as well at the time the series was launched. So, the physical and emotional condition of the people was sensitive. The series came as a breath of fresh air helping people laugh out their sorrows.

According to Online Etymology Dictionary, the word ‘cartoon’ comes from French ‘carton’ (pasteboard) and Italian ‘cartone’ (pasteboard), and also from Medieval Latin ‘carta’ (paper), which is also from where the word cartography comes. An animation is intrinsically a sequence of images switched rapidly to provide an illusion of moving images. The nature of audio-visual texts is such that the mind processing both audio and visual components suspends critical thinking. Fooling the brain is what animations are better at, as compared to static images, better yet when coupled with audio. Thus, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, the restructuring of thought pattern occurs at various levels as one silently watches a film. However, before dynamic bunches of images existed singular static images, the origin of which can be traced back to as long ago as the time when primordial cave paintings were done in the Paleolithic Age and there were Egyptians scribbling hieroglyphs. William Hogarth’s engravings are said to have introduced the concept of comic strips.

Nevertheless, we have come a long way since those primitive times. Today, newspapers and magazines have editorial cartoons strewn across them expressing satirical humour while frequently taking digs at the political structure present in the country, and the state, thus problematising cultural and political hegemonies at least on paper. Interestingly, with regard to visual art, looking in retrospect, one encounters Surrealism which was a twentieth-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that strove to unleash the creativity of the unconscious mind usually through the juxtaposition of images and led to the creation of compelling works. It emerged in the early 1920s and its impact could be clearly seen in the art of cartoon making as well. Tom and Jerry hence can be called surreal American art as well. It is not only one of the most popular cartoons created in twentieth-century America, but also an original and unique one in concept. Robert Williams in his paper on Cartoon Surrealism explains the beauty of this art-form in subtle yet strong terms, which appears to beautifully correlate with the representation of this show as well:

“The emergence of new visual languages and art forms is not so much about play as it is about how the playful and serious coexist and interact.”

 

Introduction to the Author: 

Aayushee Garg is currently studying MA in English with Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. She has previously worked at Tata Consultancy Services as a Software Engineer. She has also worked as a teacher of Computer Science and Mathematics at a school in Lucknow. Deeply interested in literature and philosophy, she loves reading, singing and photography.

 

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Furedi. Frank. “Tom and Jerry racist? No, the real bigots are those who want to rewrite history.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 3 Oct. 2014, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2780208/Tom-Jerry-racist-No-real-bigots-want-rewrite-history.html.

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Perkins, Anne. “The Tom and Jerry racism warning is a reminder about diversity in modern storytelling | Anne Perkins.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Oct. 2014, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/02/tom-and-jerry-racism-diversity-modern-storytelling

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