Topic: Racist Comments taken out of TV airings?

[kfdodgerfan]

Hi,

My first topic since getting on this board yesterday.

Big fan of the Stooges and am now bringing my 6 and 8 year old niece and nephew into the comedy of the Stooges via DVD.

First things first, I noticed a lot of racist comments were made in episodes, especially during the WWII era.

In "Spook Louder":

Man: Are you a Jap?
Curly: Nyaaah! I'm no Jap.

I am Japanese American and I don't have any specific issue with this since it really reflected how Hollywood and the rest of the world felt about the Japanese at the time. But I remember seeing "Spook Louder" as a kid and don't remember that part or any episodes "Gents without Cents" etc, on TV.

Do you know if they just cut those out for the general viewing public?

[xraffle]

Yeah, on TV, they cut out that Jap part in "Spook Louder."

[kinderscenen]

I noticed that the "redone" shorts had no mention of "Japs" (which cut out a decent chunk of WWII era shorts). Of course, "The Yoke's On Me" will probably never see the light of day with the redone versions, and I'm not sure, but has this been released on DVD? As far as I can recall, it hasn't.

Also, (ironically) one of the very few shorts that weren't closed captioned was "Pop Goes the Easel" in which Curly "uses" sign language (which it obviously isn't) and the detective comments that Curly's "deaf and dumb," and of course, Curly answers!

[Sr. Peedro Alvarez]

I forget offhand which episode it was but the Stooges are stranded on a rowboat and Moe waves a white flag that has a 'spot' on it. "The better to see us, my dear." It lookes like a Japanese flag and planes are flying overhead. What's edited out is a pilot saying,"They're Japs alright. Let'em have it."

[Pilsner Panther]

I forget offhand which episode it was but the Stooges are stranded on a rowboat and Moe waves a white flag that has a 'spot' on it. "The better to see us, my dear." It lookes like a Japanese flag and planes are flying overhead. What's edited out is a pilot saying,"They're Japs alright. Let'em have it."

That's in "Booby Dupes" (1945). The Stooges wave a flag (actually a paint-stained rag) that has a spot on it that looks like the WWII-era Japanese "rising sun" flag. Actually, the word "Jap" appears twice: once when the pilot says it, and again when Moe says, "They think we're Japs!" I didn't remember these lines being cut; once again, as with some other "inappropriate" scenes, this scene appears uncut on the Columbia VHS tape.

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[Dog Hambone]

When TBS was showing stooge shorts, they consistently tried to bring the Stooges into the politically correct fold. The example that I recall the best was the scene in Three Pests in a Mess where Moe just got hit in the face with a bottle of black ink, blackening most of his face. He then bumps into Larry in the hallway & Larry says, "What's the idea, Porter?". Larry then realizes it's Moe, laughs, drops to one knee & says something about "Mammy". TBS didn't delete the scene, but they blanked out the objectionable words.   

[JazzBill]

I can understand why some of the racist scenes and comments were deleted out of some of the shorts , not that I agree with it , but I do understand. But I really don't understand why AMC deleted the kissing scenes out of "Movie Maniacs".