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Should Speedy Gonzales Cartoons Be Banned from TV?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Manny Ramirez, Aug 19, 2003.

  1. Manny Ramirez

    Manny Ramirez The Music Man

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    Okay, it is another day at work and another boring one. Been reading about WB cartoons and I found this article:

    Speedy Gonzales Caged by Cartoon Network

    Wednesday, March 27, 2002
    By Michael Y. Park

    NEW YORK — Speedy Gonzales easily bested Sylvester the Cat, Daffy Duck and other assorted banditos in his nearly 50-year career. But the Fastest Mouse in Mexico can't seem to escape the clutches of the Cartoon Network.

    The rapid rodent has been deemed an offensive ethnic stereotype of Mexicans, and has been off the air since the cable network became the sole U.S. broadcaster of old Warner Brothers cartoons in late 1999.

    But that has animated fans of the spunky character who want Speedy cartoon shorts — and the famous "Arriba! Arriba! Arriba!" cry — back on the airwaves.

    Hundreds of fans have engaged in an e-mail campaign to resurrect Speedy, gathering on animation-fan Web sites to debate and organize, according to Virginia Cueto, an associate editor at HispanicOnline who wrote an article about the cartoon controversy.

    "Speedy Gonzales has always been a very popular cartoon character, and cartoon fans are among the most diehard loyal fans around. They just want him back," she said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "And these aren't just non-Mexicans; a lot of these are Mexicans themselves."

    In his adventures, the sombrero-wearing mouse sports an over-the-top Mexican accent and uses his super speed to foil foes like the "Greengo Pussygato" Sylvester. Speedy is sometimes aided by a coterie of drunken Mexican mice who lounge around the village, or by his lazy cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez, who seems as slow-witted as he is slow-footed.

    "Speedy Gonzales was a great character and I understand how he portrayed Mexicans in a bad light. However, the cartoons are still funny and it's a disservice and disgrace to the original animators to never show them again," said Geoff Mukhtar, an Indianapolis publicist and Speedy fan. "These cartoons reflect the time they were created and we're trying to impose modern standards on them."

    There evidently wasn't a problem with the Mexican caricatures at the beginning of Speedy's career. The 1955 animated short "Speedy Gonzales" won an Academy Award, and two other cartoons, "Tabasco Road" and "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe," were nominated for Oscars in 1957 and 1961.

    But the outdated messages in cartoons like Speedy aren't appropriate in the 21st century, Cartoon Network spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said.

    "It hasn't been on the air for years because of its ethnic stereotypes," she said in a telephone interview from Atlanta. "We have such a huge library, I think we intend to go with popular shows that aren't going to upset people. We're not about pushing the boundary. We're not HBO. We have a diverse audience and we have an impressionable audience."

    Networks like the Cartoon Network have edited out scenes from or simply refused to show animated movies with now-questionable gags or behavior like smoking or drinking since the 1980s. Among the most taboo of Warner Brothers cartoons are the "Censored 11," which depict blacks as fat-lipped minstrels or cannibalistic savages.

    And though adult fans may bemoan the fact their favorite rodent has been sent to broadcast limbo, they ought to consider most of the viewers are children, Los Angeles psychologist Robert Butterworth said.

    "These stereotypes are ingrained when we're young. And what do kids watch? Cartoons," he said. "I know the adults are saying, 'Oh God, it's just Speedy Gonzales,' but these are impressions that are put in very early and very hard to pull out. I'm the last person to hold a sign for political correctness, but kids absorb this thing on a preconscious level."

    Fans aren't buying that argument.

    "It seems to be yet another attempt to be PC," New York account supervisor and cartoon enthusiast Kathleen McCullough said. "Sure, adults understand and dislike the bigger ethnic issues related to such a character, but to little kids, Speedy is just a cartoon!"

    And where do you draw the line with a medium that, by its nature, relies on caricature for humor, Mukhtar asked.

    "What about Pepe LePew? His chasing of unwilling females surely sends the message to children that's it's OK to stalk and attack them if they resist," he wrote in an e-mail. "Plus, because he's French, does this mean that all Frenchmen are sexual predators?"

    Speedy boosters shouldn't expect to see their furry hero anytime soon, at least in the United States, Goldberg said. But there is a place where Speedy can still be found zipping across TV screens — and, presumably, where the crude stereotypes he embodies don't touch a cultural nerve.

    That place: The Cartoon Network Latin America, where, ironically enough, Speedy Gonzales is "hugely popular," Goldberg said.



    That article was buried in a thread at this url:



    I have always wondered why if Mexicans enjoy Speedy cartoons (as the article claims), then why are they being banned by the Cartoon Network? Are they offensive to white people? To black people? To people who have cats?

    Is Pepe LePew next? Because he is offensive to French people or because he can be considered a chauvinistic pig?

    Yes, there are some WB cartoons that are plain outright offensive and I understand why they are not shown like the infamous "Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarves" (typing that title made me cringe), but I have to wonder about Speedy Gonzales.

    At any rate, I found that interesting and it also reminded me of the controversy with "Song of the South". One of my all-time favorite Disney movies but one that doesn't look like it is ever going to be released on video.
     
  2. Timing

    Timing Member

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    "Speedy Gonzales was a great character and I understand how he portrayed Mexicans in a bad light. However, the cartoons are still funny and it's a disservice and disgrace to the original animators to never show them again," said Geoff Mukhtar, an Indianapolis publicist and Speedy fan. "These cartoons reflect the time they were created and we're trying to impose modern standards on them."


    I actually don't care, there are more important things to be concerned with but this quote is the stupidest thing I've read this week. We understand how Speedy stereotypes Mexicans as lazy beer swillers but taking it off the air is a disservice to the writers and the bigotted times in which the cartoon was created. Give me a freakin break.
     
  3. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    Timing,

    that quote bothered me also, but unfortunately you often hear that kind of logic to maintain such offensive characters, particularly the Cleveland Indians mascot, Chief Wahoo.
     
  4. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    I don't know where I come down on this...I guess, ultimately...if people are legitimately offended...then how can you argue with that? I can certainly see how Chief Wahoo would be offensive...or the name, "Redskins." I mean, that's a derogatory term.

    But ultimately...if people are offended, I can't argue with that.

    I will say, I'm ultimately not offended by the Fighting Irish! We Irishmen are just flat out bastards! :)
     
  5. Manny Ramirez

    Manny Ramirez The Music Man

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    Here is another post in that link I posted in the first post:



    LULAC, the "League of United Latin American Citizens," the oldest and most respected Hispanic voters' organization, has already made its views known that it does *NOT* consider the cartoon character Speedy offensive, their spokesman remarking, "I don't know a single Mexican that doesn't like Speedy." Cartoon Network Latin America, an affiliate of Cartoon Network south of the border, regularly airs Speedy and he's one of their most popular characters. Yet Cartoon Network has made it clear that the character, banned from the air since 1999 in the US, will stay off the air in the US.

    Now lemme get a little preachy here. This shows what I've always maintained: "political correctness" and "sensitivity" etc. aren't about being "sensitive" to minorities or people of color. It's a crutch for guilty liberal white people to feel good about themselves. It doesn't mean a damn thing that Mexicans themselves do like Speedy Gonzalez---some white folks at Cartoon Network have decided they shouldn't oughta like Speedy, and that's that. The important thing, you see, is for those nice white liberals at Cartoon Network to feel good about themselves, with a nice big pat on the back for themselves for being so "enlightened" and "sensitive."



    I mean it is nothing new to me to hear and read things about questionable characters getting banned like this, but what made me post it was the fact that I kept reading about how Mexicans and Latin American citizens all love Speedy. If that is really true (I know that it could be a spin job), then why are they banned?
     
  6. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    I don't know why hispanics don't find Speedy Gonzales offensive, I guess maybe its not, but I would say the second part of the quote is bull****. I believe you could find just as many examples of groups who find something offensive, i.e. Chief Wahoo, that can't get the offensive character, content, etc. changed, just as you can find examples such as this one where the subject is banned and the people who supposedly find it offensive, seem to care the less.
     
  7. Timing

    Timing Member

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    I know what you mean. I'm latino and that caricature bothers the hell out of me but it probably doesn't bother me as much as Johnny Mata and that LULAC bunch of bums saying it's not offensive.

    I want to know where the Whitey the Cracker cartoon characters are, then white people can talk about how not offensive and PC it is to remove cartoons with racial caricatures. Ya know how it is though, latinos get lazy beer swilling mice and whitey gets Superman and Batman. ;)
     
  8. Preston27

    Preston27 Member

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    Maybe they should take Elmer Fudd off the air as well. What the hell is Cartoon Network thinking? Speedy was one of my favorite cartoons in my youth.

    I guess I don't have much of a political stance on this, but why hasn't cartoon network come up with a cartoon that shows hispanics in a good light?

    Freaking political correctness in our society.
     
  9. Timing

    Timing Member

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    You know it's weird but when I was a kid I was a big Redskins fan and I always associated that name/logo with strength, pride, power, bravery, and such. Of course you grow up a little and you realize the implications of that name and what it represents historically. So I can see how some people wouldn't find especially the Redskins not offensive even though I really disagree with them.
     
  10. serious black

    serious black Member

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    I could go either way on this one. Personally, I don't find Speedy offensive at all.
    I have seen some warner brothers cartoons made during WWII that are offensive as hell. Portraying Japanese people as buck toothed morons or savage gorillas. And don't get me started on how Warner Brothers portrayed Native Americans...
    That said, if the Cartoon network can show Adult Swim with the disclaimer that they contain adult themes, I don't see why they couldn't show the more offensive WB cartoons with a disclaimer saying that these are a piece of our pop culture history. Our nation's history is not allways pretty and I don't like things like that being swept under the rug. When the sole distributer of a piece of popular art bans its distribution, it's sort of like pretending it never existed.
    Anybody ever seen the cartoons Dr. Seuss drew during World War 2?
     
  11. Friendly Fan

    Friendly Fan PinetreeFM60 Exposed

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    there was nothing wrong with Speedy Gonzales. he was cool, a good guy

    now his cousin Slow Poke was the guy you don't want on screen
     
  12. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Is Speedy as Bad as the Frito Bandito ?

    [​IMG]

    He is "No Mas!"

    video
     
  13. TraJ

    TraJ Member

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    Wouldn't you have to pull King of the Hill by the same standards?

    If it's really that offensive to you, don't watch it.

    I'm Cajun. We're easy targets. But I've got a sense of humor.
     
  14. mrpaige

    mrpaige Member

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    Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't think white people, in general, would find a character called Whitey the Cracker cartoon all that offensive. The thing is, white people are less likely to have so much of their identity tied up in the fact that they are white because race has not been as large a part of our experiences in life.

    It's just a completely different dynamic that comes from having been in the majority for so long that it's not possible to make a direct analogy.

    White people are more likely to take offense when a particular subgroup they are a part of is ridiculed or stereotyped.

    I never cared for the Speedy cartoons anyway. I'm a Daffy Duck man. So thank goodness for Duck Dodgers!
     
  15. Achebe

    Achebe Member

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    Well, I'm somewhat confused. Refresh my memory...

    Isn't Speedy portrayed in a positive light?
    Isn't alcohol a prop in many WB cartoons?
     
  16. Mr. Mooch

    Mr. Mooch Contributing Member

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    Fat Albert???
     
  17. Friendly Fan

    Friendly Fan PinetreeFM60 Exposed

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    Whitey the Cracker can't hold a candle to Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo






    WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
     
  18. Manny Ramirez

    Manny Ramirez The Music Man

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    Exactly. Speedy is like Bugs Bunny in that he wins all the time.

    I remember as a kid watching WB cartoons without any censored scenes at all in them but that was, of course, over 20 years ago. That has always made me wonder...why has censorship of cartoons whether it is for violence, racism (perceived or intentional), smoking and drinking scenes, has happened in the last 20 years instead of back in the '70s or even earlier?
     
  19. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

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    I can attest that the mexican part of my family likes Speedy alot! the reason why is because he is smarter than his enemies and always wins. They just laugh at the other mice that are portrayed in the cartoons.

    and btw...why would Fat Albert be considered racist? That was totally Cosby's brainchild and AFAIK he controlled every aspect of that show. Is Bill Cosby racist?
     
  20. Timing

    Timing Member

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    You might be right about white people not being offended by that character as things are now, however if there was only one prominent white cartoon character and it was racially caricatured then that'd be something more similar to what Speedy Gonzalez represents for latinos. I think many would take offense to that.
     

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