No smoking rule: Tom and Jerry in trouble in UK

In one, 8220;Texas Tom8221;, the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the other, 8220;Tennis Chumps8221;, Tom8217;s opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.

In a bulletin posted online, Ofcom noted 8220;concerns that smoking on television may normalise smoking8221;, and said that the Turner company, licensee for Boomerang which aired the cartoons, had agreed to edit some smoking scenes out of Tom and Jerry.

8220;The licensee has 8230; proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorised or where it might encourage imitation,8221; Ofcom said, adding that 8220;Texas Tom8221; was one such example.

But it would not cut all smoking scenes, it added.

Ofcom said it recognised smoking was more generally accepted when cartoons were produced in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, but noted that the threshhold for including such scenes when the audience is predominately young should be high.