MeTV Censorship

MeTV and most of its sister channels, such as MeTV+ and Movies! have aired some of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. However, unlike previous channels, airs the shorts uncut for slapstick violence, gun violence, dark humor, dangerous behavior, scenes of characters attempting or committing suicide or homicide, and scenes featuring mild bad language or references to rude gestures. However, the channels still edits and bans the shorts for outdated racial content, including use of racist language, caricatures, and imagery. However, there have been a few cases where cuts were made to cartoons due to time constraints, which are often only featured in a single airing rarely to be used again.
Some cuts made to the shorts are inconsistent, and may not be present in all airings. Occasionally, the shorts will air uncut and be prefaced with a disclaimer that tells viewers that some of the content featured is a product of its time and may be considered offensive to modern audiences, but will be shown anyway because editing these problematic scenes is similar to denying their existence in the first place.
== Censorship ==
=== Ain't That Ducky (1945) ===
* The scene where the Victor Moore hunter shoots his gun at Daffy's head, causing him to have the hairstyle of a stereotypical black girl, was deleted in all airings except the 10 June 2023 airing. This airing included a content disclaimer.
=== A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948) ===
* Bugs' opening rendition of "In the Cold, Cold Ground" was cut for time reasons in its initial airing. The cartoon would start at Bugs hitting the magic lamp and complaining about people burying old junk. It aired without edits on the second airing, and has not aired on the channel since.
=== The Astroduck (1965) ===
* Part of the beginning and end were cut for time constraints in the initial airing, having a shorter pause after the Looney Tunes title card, immediately starting with Daffy asking for a "nice restful spot to spend the summer" instead of freezing briefly, and having another shorter pause between the ending of the cartoon and the "A Warner Bros. Cartoon" ending titles. It has since aired uncut in subsequent airings.
=== Aviation Vacation (1941) ===
Two scenes in the "Darkest Africa" scene were deleted:
* The scene where the natives pound their drums, to which one native asks another, "Uh, what do he say?" The other native says (imitating drum sound), "Uh, he say, uh, 'Boom-ditty-boom-ditty-boom-boom-boom-boom, ditty-boom-ditty-boom-ditty-boom-boom-boom-boom'.
* The scene where a native uses a blowgun on a practice target, with a second commenting "Terrible shot, Joe."
=== Beep, Beep (1952) ===
* Part of the scene where Wile E. Coyote reads a blueprint of his latest plan to catch the Road Runner cut for time reasons in its initial airing. It has since aired without any edits.
=== Believe It or Else (1939) ===
* The "berth of a baby" sight gag was cut because it featured two black on-board train employees.
=== Book Revue (1946) ===
* The scene of Daffy and the wolf running into the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (with Daffy as the black slave woman running through the frozen river to get away from the wolf) is cut, although the short originally aired uncut.
=== Bugs' Bonnets (1956) ===
* The scene of Bugs Bunny impersonating a Native American and shooting Elmer Fudd with his own rifle was edited. In contrast to the ABC, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang versions, which cut the entire sequence, MeTV's version created a strange, yet obvious edit. The scene of Bugs as the game warden about to punish Elmer for shooting out of season before a Pilgrim hat falls on Elmer's head and Elmer tells Bugs the game warden that he's shooting turkey for the first Thanksgiving was left in. The MeTV-edited version then zooms in on Elmer's reaction and mutes the audio track briefly before resuming back to normal in the next scene, completely removing the Native American braided wig falling on Bugs' head, the stereotypical Native American music by Milt Franklyn, and Bugs saying "Ugh!" just as he takes Elmer's gun and shoots him.https://youtu.be/H4K1YM6JhwA This scene was also left unaltered when the short previously aired back in May 2021 and later aired uncut again on 24 March 2022.
=== Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944) ===
* The scene where Bugs finds Mama Bear dressed in a see-through nightgown was cut in its initial airing. The short has since aired uncensored, likely presuming this is a time cut.
=== Cross Country Detours (1940) ===
* The frog sight gag where one of them literally croaks by shooting himself in the head was partially edited to remove the gunshot, cutting to the frog jumping into the pond. Unlike most edits, this appears to be most inconsistent, and the channel interchangeably airs the uncensored and edited version.
=== Curtain Razor (1949) ===
* The scene of the Al Jolson duck begging for his "mammy", was cut on the 8 February 2023 airing, going from the Al Jolson duck introducing himself to the Bing Crosby parrot hitting him over the head with his pipe inexplicably.
=== The Daffy Doc (1938) ===
* On 12 January 2023, the channel cut the "Hush Yo' Mouf!" sign, along with the Hebrew writing sign, presumably for time reasons.
=== Doggone Cats (1947) ===
* The part where a trash can lid falls on Wellington's head, causing him to impersonate a Chinaman, was partially cut in its initial airing, leaving a small section where the trash can lid hits Wellington in the head before cutting to him coming to his master. The cartoon has since aired uncensored, presuming that this is a time cut.
=== Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (1964) ===
* In at least one airing, the exploding cigar scene was removed, presumably for time constraints.
=== Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century (1980) ===
The cuts here were made when the short went from being part of the Daffy Duck Thanks-for-Giving TV special to being reformatted as its own short:
* Dodgers telling Marvin he's under arrest was cut.
* Dodgers referring to several locations in New York City that he’ll miss after Marvin tells him of his plan to blow up the Earth was deleted.
* Porky using a straitjacket gun to capture Marvin the Martian was cut.
* The real ending where Marvin (still wrapped in the straitjacket) aims his missile at Earth and fires it, then tells the viewers that the missile will take three days to reach Earth, giving everyone time to get their affairs in order before everyone gets annihilated was removed.
=== Fast Buck Duck (1963) ===
* Part of the beginning was cut for time constraints in its initial airing, and immediately starts zooming in at Daffy's junkyard house instead of briefly freezing to show the house. It has since aired uncut in subsequent airings.
=== Feather Dusted (1955) ===
* The "Fort Pale-Face" sequence was partially edited, by removing the establishing shot with the banner that reads "Fort Paleface" at the beginning of the sequence.
=== From Hand to Mouse (1944) ===
* The scene where the mouse disguises himself as a Zulu native was cut, although the part where the mouse disguises himself as an Indian chief was not cut.
=== Hop and Go (1943) ===
* The short is still edited to remove the reveal that Claude Hopper's long-distance jump destroyed the city of Tokyo. MeTV's version cropped and zoomed in on Claude to get rid of the visual punchline to that joke, leading to a misplaced iris-out. Recent airings on the MeTV+ exclusive "Sunday Night Cartoons" block keeps the ending gag of Claude's jump destroying Tokyo.
=== Horton Hatches the Egg (1942) ===
* The scene of the Peter Lorre fish saying, "Well, now I've seen everything" after seeing Horton on the boat cut off after "Well, now I've seen everything" to remove the fish taking a gun out and blowing his brains out. This edit is usually done for time constraints, and in some cases, the short has aired without edits.
=== Hurdy-Gurdy Hare (1950) ===
* The smaller "Help Wanted" ads when Bugs reads the newspaper are blurred out because two of the ads shown stated that they were looking for white employees only. This was an edit that was never done when "Hurdy-Gurdy Hare" aired on free-to-air TV or cable, most likely because the versions shown were unrestored copies that made the wanted ads difficult to read. However, some frames in the newspaper were left unedited, the blurring effect covered a larger amount of the classified ads, despite only two being considered problematic by MeTV's censors, and the cartoon itself was previously shown uncut and uncensored back in May 2021, and would later air uncut again on 4 March 2022.
=== I Taw a Putty Tat (1948) ===
* The scene of Sylvester posing as a Swedish maid so he can get Tweety, only to grab a stick of dynamite and end up in blackface and sounding like Rochester from The Jack Benny Show ("Uh-oh. Back to the kitchen. I smell something burning") is usually cut. However, it was initially shown uncensored when it premiered on the network's Saturday Morning Cartoons block.https://youtu.be/lTepzMQml1g
=== An Itch in Time (1943) ===
* The end where the cat says, "Well, now I've seen everything" and shoots himself after seeing A. Flea carry Elmer and the dog off on a blue plate special was cut to remove the cat shooting himself in some airings. Most of the time, the short is aired uncensored.
=== Milk and Money (1936) ===
* A small scene of black stable hands leading the horses to the start of the race was removed.
=== Mouse Menace (1946) ===
* The entire sequence where the mouse plays around with a golliwog doll, the robot cat crying over not getting his turn with it, the mouse giving the doll to the robot cat, and the mouse burning the robot cat with a welding torch was cut.
=== Mouse-Taken Identity (1957) ===
* The scene with Sylvester chasing Hippety Hopper around an American Indian display was censored, and cuts to Sylvester showing his son that Hippety Hopper scalped him, though the scene of the American Indian statue is left intact, leaving in for a very obvious plot hole.https://youtu.be/DF2xEf7CQwk
=== Patient Porky (1940) ===
* All scenes featuring Rochester, the black elevator operator, dropping patients off on different floors of the hospital and naming off all the diseases and conditions that each floor treats, was removed.
=== Porky's Baseball Broadcast (1940) ===
* The scene where Porky mentions "the scalpers" having a big day, followed by a scene featuring American Indians chasing after baseball patrons with tomahawks was cut. The MeTV Toons airing kept the scene intact.
=== Porky's Hero Agency (1937) ===
* The scene of the Gorgan's guard telling Porky that he's next to be turned to stone followed by Porky picturing himself as a piggy bank as the guard advances on him threateningly, is cut.
=== Porky's Prize Pony (1941) ===
* A very brief shot of the black stablehands leading horses out before the start of the races (a recycled scene from "Milk and Money") was cut.
=== Porky's Railroad (1937) ===
* The scene where the Sliverfish engineer speeds by a woodpile with his Silver Fish train, only to reveal a black man hiding underneath said woodpile (referring to a racially offensive saying), was omitted. Despite this, this cartoon previously had aired uncut on 22 June 2021.
=== Swooner Crooner (1944) ===
* The Al Jolson rooster auditioning with "September in the Rain" was cut. However recent showings of the cartoon are uncut.
=== Toy Trouble (1941) ===
* All scenes featuring the black toy music band are cut.
=== Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943) ===
* While the scene of the gangster rabbits pouncing on Bugs before he reaches the finish line (which was edited on TBS) and the oft-censored suicide ending (which was also edited on TBS, as well as TNT and Cartoon Network and Boomerang, barring The Bob Clampett Show) are uncut on MeTV, the earlier scene of Bugs' race against Cecil Turtle showing their pictures in the newspaper edited the word "Jap" from an article about a cruiser being blown up in the Pacific Ocean. Initially, the word "Jap" was blurred out, which also covered the "R" in "Challenger" and the "C" in "cruiser", making the edit obvious. Later airings still edited the word, but changed the blur to a cleaner and slightly less obvious digital erasing. Strangely, on 15 January 2022, "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" aired uncut, with no digital alterations done to the newspaper to cover up the word "Jap".
** However, at least two airings have censored the ending gag by jump cutting to the gangster rabbits jumping backwards, hiding the gunshot.
=== Yankee Doodle Bugs (1954) ===
At least two censored versions of this cartoon has aired, alongside the uncensored version:
* When the short first aired on MeTV in 2021, the scene of the Dutchman selling Manhattan back to the Native Americans for a song was censored by cutting of the "Me rich! Me rich superchief!" line.
* On 16 May 2023, a second censored version was aired, cutting not only the Indian scene but also the Statue of Liberty beforehand, presumably for time reasons.
On most other airings, the short is uncensored.
== References ==
Category:Lists