Tom and Jerry has been around for 50 years. It’s created by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera. Original series is notable for having won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film 7 times. For the newer age group that has missed this cartoon. It’s about a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) who literally are on each others throat 24/7.
Maybe before reading the post, you should watch this first episode of Tom and Jerry – notice how the owner calls him Jasper instead.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jvaSkK8pl4]
I bet for the familiar ones, that MGM Lion roar definitely brought back nostalgic moments for you. I laughed as much as I did when I was little.
If you remembered, Tom and Jerry are always trying to eliminate each other in every episode. They will find whatever weapon or tool and swing at each other without holding back one bit. Miraculously, it misses each other by that inch every time. They would rinse and repeat throughout every episode and here’s what I noticed. Kids eventually picked up the violence portrait in the cartoon. Kids think that it’s fun to be violent and abusive towards one another. After all, nobody ever gets hurt or die. Here are some statements to back up.
“While the relation between television violence viewing and aggression in childhood has been clearly demonstrated, only a few studies have examined this relation from childhood to adulthood, and these studies of children growing up in the 60s reported significant relations only for males.” – L. Rowell Huesmann [source]
“Since the 1960s, a body of research literature has been accumulating on the effects of TV violence. Taken together, the studies conclude that TV violence is one of many factors that contribute to aggressive behavior.” – The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
I blame Tom and Jerry for the violent generation. Watch this episode and see for yourself.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLjKmcUQvs]