Speedy Gonzalez - Banned in the USA

Hispanic Online ^ | 3/27/02 | VIRGINIA CUETO

[alloysteel]

This political correctness might just reach critical mass, if this kind of taking fright from shadows continues. It would seem that Speedy Gonzalez is a plucky little hero type that always manages to skip away before certain disaster befalls him, and for some people (quite a few, judging from the response to this latest exercise in controlling Groupthink), this is a most admirable quality.

Next thing you know, they will be attacking Steven Foster Collins ballads and Samuel Clemens' fictional writings.

[germanicus]

Elmer Fudd is next. You can't have cartoon characters hunting rabbits with a firearm. You can't have them hunting at all. And how about Yosemite Sam as an Arab beating on his camel. He's next. And then there's ...........

[Antoninus II]

I wonder if Frito-Lay will bring back the 'Frito Bandito'? Remember the pencil eracers?

[Antoninus II]

Ooops! Sorry for the typo. Erasers!

[livius]

I think sometimes the censors are afraid of things that aren’t really there.”

Yes indeed! I loved those cartoons! Aside from all that, Americans have gotten so PC that you can't laugh at anything anymore - unless it's so filthy that it's actually ceased to be funny and just gone directly to gross.

Another thing that's rather peculiar about this one is that Spanish culture itself has no reservations about poking fun at people for physical characteristics (although this is changing). People frequently went by nicknames - things such as El Gordo, El Moro, etc. - that would have gotten the PC police on your doorstep in an instant here in the US.

I'm sick of PC. Bring back fun.

[gracie1]

"I think sometimes the censors are afraid of things that aren’t really there.”

That's precisely what the PC crowd are, imaging victums of crimes that don't exist.

Who wants to bet there's some lawyer in the wings, looking to shakedown Warner Bros for the "trauma" inflected by this racial insult.

[oyez]

Its time they outlawed fun. Everytime we have fun it is at someone's expense.

[Ronin]

I used to love the old Frito Bandito commercials. I was so sad when he went away.

[small voice in the wilderness]

Sigh...The only carton we'll be left with is Scooby Doo. Great. What do we have? A white guy in tight pants, scarf tied coyly around his neck. Daphne, the red headed ditz. A seemingly unisex Velma. And Shaggy, brain fried on gawd knows what illegal substance. Stupid white people counting on a dog to solve mysteries. Where's the outrage??? Bring back some Porky, some Speedy, some Foghorn Leghorn, some Widder Hen for gawd sakes.

[gracie1]

I loved those cartoons too! The more absurd and violent, the better! I still enjoy them, after all these years.

Back in the 60's, when people started worrying about cartoon violence, Hanna-Barbera started putting out cartoons that were supposed to teach something (usually with a NWO theme). I HATED those shows! Give me my anvils and wild takes!

My husband and I go round and round, he insists on watching them on the Boom Channel

[Jethro Tull]

DISNEY'S "SONG OF THE SOUTH" BANNED IN AMERICA

[Joe Hadenuf]

And how about Yosemite Sam as an Arab beating on his camel. He's next.

These sawed off PC SOBs will go after Sam next is right.

[luigi]

(By the way, do you know which of our speeding heroes crossed the finish line first?)

I've got to know. Anyone?

[gracie1]

I may catch some flak around here, but here goes.

I didn't like Scooby Doo because I didn't like how the smart girl was a frump and the cute one was a dingbat. Why can't a girl have brains and beauty?

I'll go get the briquets.

[SamAdams76]

Reflecting changing notions of political correctness, many older cartoons rarely, if ever, now get television airplay, including the “censored eleven,” an infamous group of shorts focusing on black stereotypes.

That's a shame, really. I think it is important and instructive to show how blacks (and other ethnic groups) were portrayed earlier in time. Helps show how far we have come. What are they going to do next? Ban Fat Albert?

[RightOnline]

Wanna hear something funny? Speedy is apparently immensely popular on the Spanish-language "Cartoon Network". Go figure.....:)

[MozarkDawg]

Since the late nineties, Speedy has been noticeably absent from the Cartoon Network’s daytime and prime time lineup....

I don't know that this is completely accurate -- while Speedy toons aren't all that frequent, I do see them from time to time. The one guy I am stunned has never been attacked by the PC crowd is my fave, Pepe Le Pew; the way he forces his attentions on Penelope (in such a loveable fashion!). I would have thought the NOW gang surely would have had him removed from Saturday morning cartooning already.

[Huck]

Well, he shouldn't be banned, but I never thought he was funny anyway. About ten years ago I went to a little movie house--I mean tiny--in Seattle to see a show called "Black Listed Bugs", or something like that. It was a bunch of Bugs shorts that had already been purged. A lot of WW2 stuff. A "Murder Inc" van drives by with a neon sign on the side saying "Murders $10, JAPS Free", or something like that.The one I most remember was a real incredible parody of Cab Calloway and his band as a band of heavenly angels. Incredible cartoon. I remember debating the censoring of these 'toons with my young friends at the time, and I was the only one who thought it was wrong. This was approx 1992. I had been listening to Rush about a year at that point, and was fairly well recovered from liberalism.

[gracie1]

And Pepe Lepew is a sexual harrasment suit looking for a place to happen.

Mon cheri! Run with me to the casbah!