Why do we love Tom and Jerry?

Since its creation in the early 1940s, Tom and Jerry has become one of the most popular cartoons, enjoying a wide range of audience all around the world. This American animated series that centers around the simple plot of a never-ending rivalry between the cat Tom and the mouse Jerry contains a pretty typical example of animated American humor. Not only does it include racist stereotypes typical to the American culture like the black maid and characters shown in blackface following explosions, it is also includes a lot of hard core violence.

Take the episode of the golf course for example, as I was watching and laughing at it for the millionth time last night, out of pure interest and randomness, I decide to jot down every violent event that happened during the 8 minute video. Tom was smashed in the eye with a golf ball and the ball got stuck in his eye socket; Tom strangled himself with a golf club; Jerry got crunched by a flying golf ball; Tom’s teeth were completely shattered by a golf ball; Tom’s head was cut off; Tom used Jerry as a golf ball and smacked him with his golf club; Bees swarmed into Tom’s mouth etc. The above are just some of the gruesome events that happened in this short 6 minute clip. And anyone who has watched Tom and Jerry would be aware of the similar violent gags that happen in every episode: Jerry slicing Tom in half, shutting his head in a window or a door, stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron and a mangle, Tom using everything from axes, pistols, explosives, traps and poison to try to murder Jerry, the frequent use of explosives by the both of them and so on.

Let us now consider the following scenario: if we were to take the words “Tom” and “Jerry” away and use the above paragraph as a true and realistic description of a TV series, how many people who enjoy Tom and Jerry would go and watch it? How many parents who have no problem with their children watching Tom and Jerry would allow their kids to be exposed to a TV series with the above descriptions? The answer is probably not hard to guess. Then why is Tom and Jerry so widely renowned and accepted? With any observant viewer, it is not hard to realize that the core of the humor in Tom and Jerry lies in these exact scenes of violence. Yet people who watch it would still burst into hysteric laughter as they see Tom squashed into the shape of a bowling pin, or sliced into pieces. Why is it possible for such a huge population of people laugh at such vicious scenes without any slight uncomfortable feelings or guilt? Why is it that someone like me who can’t even stand the lightest “dead baby joke” would be a big fan of this long running cartoon?

What in Tom and Jerry makes it acceptable to a wide range of audience worldwide? And furthermore, why do people enjoy this kind of violent humor? I will go into a detailed discussion in the next blog post.

How do you make a dead baby float?

How do you make a dead baby float?
Take your foot off its head.

I couldn’t help staring at the web page that I had just opened up with pure regret and disgust. Why would anyone find this sort of joke funny? Yet as I ran through the rest of the Google page, I found it hard to ignore the tiny line of words “About 63,800,000 results (0.17 seconds)” glaring at me directly below the search phrase “dead baby joke”. Ten seconds later, I rapidly typed in the phrase “Chinese humor” and pressed search. Google sent back “About 18,800,000 results (0.36 seconds)”.

While the jokes themselves struck me as bad taste, I found it amusing that these sorts of jokes flourish in such large numbers in the United States. Is it because only Americans are capable of comprehending dark humor? I believe not. Take out the revolting parts, the “joke” in the “dead baby” series isn’t really clever and requires only very basic common sense to understand. It would also be silly to say that it is of cultural or historical significance to Americans like many jokes about the American Dream are. The “dead baby” jokes appeal to only a limited proportion of the population, and it is not hard to find people in America who would dislike it as much as I do. So why is this sort of dark humor that is enjoyed by only a minority can be so well known and widely spread in the United States? As I came to this question, I couldn’t help picturing what the fate of such jokes would be had they originated in China.

Other than in philosophy or biology class where discussion of the topic is obligatory, people in China, especially the elderly, avoid talking about death. When such a topic becomes inevitable, we speak with full respect and politeness, always careful to use the words “deceased” and “passed away” rather than “died.” Under such conditions, you can probably picture the consequences a poor kid who happened to come up with a “dead baby” joke would suffer if the joke ever slips into the ears of his parents, teachers or other elderly. This would be dealt as a serious assault on morality. Even if the kid managed to sneak past the elderly and post the joke onto the web, the “super efficient” Chinese government online security people would probably list the joke into its filter system before it has the chance to spread and affect the morality of other Chinese youngsters.

The emphasis on individualism and freedom that constitutes an important part of American culture has not only produced distinctively American jokes, but has also to a significant degree, tolerated the existence and spread of particular types of humor that may not be accepted by the general public. Thus, the proliferation of “dead baby” jokes in the United States does not necessarily imply that its popularity is due to a lot of Americans who find the jokes funny. Is there a chance that the millions of youngsters in China who have become increasingly open to all sorts of culture and ideas would also enjoy the jokes? Possibly, but we won’t be able to find out, at least not for now.