Censored Eleven
The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons originally produced and released by Warner Bros. that were withheld from syndication in the United States by United Artists in 1968. UA owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions library at that time and decided to pull these eleven cartoons from broadcast because the use of ethnic stereotypes in the cartoons, specifically African stereotypes, was deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. The ban has been continued by UA and the successive owners of the pre-August 1948 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies. These shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since 1968 and have only been exhibited once theatrically by Warner Bros. in Spring 2010 since their withdrawal. They have turned up, however, on low-cost VHS and DVD collections over the last thirty years.
About the cartoons
Many cartoons from previous decades are routinely edited on international television today. Usually, the only censorship deemed necessary is the cutting of the occasional racist joke, an instance of graphic violence, or scene of a character doing something that parents and watchdog groups fear children will try to imitate, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, or self-harming activities such as depictions of suicide.One classic cartoon gag, most prominent in MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoons, is the transformation of characters into a blackface caricature after an explosion or an automobile backfire. A sequence in the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Cleaning turned Tom into a blackface caricature. Upon questioning by Mammy Two Shoes, Tom answers "No, ma'am. I ain't seen no cat aroun' here... uh unh, ain't no cat, no place, no how-no ma'am," in stereotypical African-American dialect. Such small amounts of material now considered objectionable only require relatively minor cuts in the cartoon to make them acceptable, in spite of dissent from fans.
However, in the case of the Censored Eleven, racial themes are so essential and so completely pervade the cartoons that the copyright holders believe that no amount of selective editing could ever make them acceptable for distribution.
Two of the Censored Eleven directed by Bob Clampett have been defended by some film historians: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and Tin Pan Alley Cats. The former is a jazz-based parody of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while the latter is a hot jazz re-interpretation of Clampett's short Porky in Wackyland. According to the writer, Michelle Klein-Hass:
Bob Clampett himself explained the evolution of "Coal Black" during his public appearances in the 70s and 80s, and during taped interviews:
As veteran African American animator Floyd Norman said in defense of Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs by answering some fans' questions in 2019;
The cartoon output of Warner Bros. during its most active period even sometimes had censorship problems more complex in some respects than those of features. Unlike feature films, which were routinely censored in the script, the animated shorts were passed upon only when completed, which made the producers exceptionally cautious as to restrictions. In 1983, director Chuck Jones commented on the television censorship of the Warner Bros. cartoons: "I don't like to see the films cut at all. They make some cuts that are so arbitrary and stupid, you can't believe it." Independent stations that once ran the syndicated Warner Bros. cartoons never had the same type of censorship as first-run networks such as ABC and CBS did for the cartoons. Some stations even owned syndication rights to "a few they consider racially stereotypical," but never ran them.
When Ted Turner obtained the rights to the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library from MGM/UA in 1986, he vowed that he would not distribute or air any cartoons from the Censored Eleven. They were the only cartoons in this package not to be featured in the laserdisc series The Golden Age of Looney Tunes.
Since Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting System on October 10, 1996, this policy has largely been upheld but has also shown signs of weakening. A total of twelve Bugs Bunny shorts were not aired on Cartoon Network during its "June Bugs" marathon in 2001. However, Warner Bros. began to release DVD collections of classic cartoons in 2003 entitled the Looney Tunes Golden Collection with one of the cartoons featured on the set uncut and uncensored. Also in 2001, Cartoon Network animation documentary show ToonHeads had a one-hour special centered on World War II-era cartoons. The Bugs Bunny short, Herr Meets Hare, was featured in full, while clips from Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips formed a short montage about the depictions of Japanese people at the time they were shown.
While none of the shorts included on the discs is part of the Censored Eleven, many of the cartoons that were included were routinely censored on television but were included uncut on DVD. Furthermore, each DVD from the ' opens with a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg, where she warns the audience about some of these shorts, stating that although the behavior was and is not acceptable, the cartoons depicting this are a vital part of history and should not be forgotten. The ' collection includes a similar disclaimer, written on a gold card and merely summarized the point that while the cartoons are considered offensive today for what they depict, they are not going to be shown censored because editing out the racist depictions—and therefore effectively denying that the racism of the era ever happened—is worse than actually showing them.
Many of the Censored Eleven are available on bootleg video. Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land, Jungle Jitters and All This and Rabbit Stew are now in the public domain and frequently appear on home video releases and internet video searches.
Censored Eleven list
The cartoons in the Censored Eleven are:| # | Title | Year | Director | Production |
| 1. | Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land | 1931 | Rudolf Ising | Merrie Melodies |
| 2. | Sunday Go to Meetin' Time | 1936, 1944 | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
| 3. | Clean Pastures | 1937 | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
| 4. | Uncle Tom's Bungalow | 1937 | Tex Avery | Merrie Melodies |
| 5. | Jungle Jitters | 1938 | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
| 6. | The Isle of Pingo Pongo | 1938, 1944 | Tex Avery | Merrie Melodies |
| 7. | All This and Rabbit Stew | 1941 | Tex Avery | Merrie Melodies |
| 8. | Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs | 1943 | Bob Clampett | Merrie Melodies |
| 9. | Tin Pan Alley Cats | 1943 | Bob Clampett | Merrie Melodies |
| 10. | Angel Puss | 1944 | Chuck Jones | Looney Tunes |
| 11. | Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears | 1944, 1951 | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
Friz Freleng directed the largest number of cartoons on the list with four, followed by Tex Avery with three, and Bob Clampett with only two cartoons to make the list. Rudolf Ising, like Chuck Jones, only has one cartoon on the list. Angel Puss is the only cartoon directed by Chuck Jones on the list as well as the only cartoon in the Looney Tunes series. The rest are Merrie Melodies. Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land is the only black-and-white short on the list while the other 10 are in color, and the only "Piggy" on the list. Also, Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears is the only cartoon on this list not to be produced by Leon Schlesinger. It is also the first to be produced by an uncredited Eddie Selzer. All This and Rabbit Stew is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon on the list.
The Isle of Pingo Pongo is also the only Egghead cartoon on the list. The other 8 are one-shot cartoons.
Several more cartoons have been removed from circulation since this list was created, such as Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's Looney Tunes featuring blackface caricature Bosko, and the Inki series of cartoons by Chuck Jones, as well as numerous World War II-era cartoons concerning the Japanese such as Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and Tokio Jokio. The Tom and Jerry cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse has Tom in blackface.
Some cartoons that remain in the release have been heavily edited to remove stereotypical depictions of blacks. The Gone With the Wind satire, Confederate Honey, is one. Fresh Hare is often shorn of a scene in which a blackface Bugs and Elmer sing Camptown Races. Friz Freleng's cartoon September in the Rain features some black characters but is not entirely focused on them, so has occasionally reappeared without them. An early Porky Pig Cartoon with stereotypical depictions of blacks is Porky's Railroad.
Two cartoons directed by Tex Avery during his period at MGM are often included in cartoon compilations that list the Censored Eleven: Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half-Pint Pygmy. Regularly included as well are the Popeye cartoons Pop-Pie a La Mode, The Island Fling, and Popeye's Pappy and also various WWII-era Popeye cartoons concerning the Japanese Empire such as You're a Sap, Mr. Jap, Scrap The Japs and Seein' Red, White n' Blue even though they are not Warner Bros. cartoons, but were part of the pre-May 1986 MGM and a.a.p. library that wound up under Time Warner control in 1996.
A number of shorts are rarely shown owing to stereotyping and potentially offensive characterizations of Native Americans. They include Slightly Daffy, Big Heel-Watha, A Feather in His Hare, Nothing But the Tooth, Tom Tom Tomcat, Horse Hare, Hocus Pocus Powwow, and Injun Trouble. One Popeye short, Wigwam Whoopee, rarely airs on most US television channels as the short features Olive Oyl is portrayed as a Native American maiden with depicted red skin, yet the short is available on the Boomerang app.
Public awareness in the 21st century
As the 20th century came to a close, the Censored Eleven cartoons became better known as several animation historians drew attention to their existence. The publicity these films received from various animation discussion websites eventually led to an article in The New York Times. This is in part due to the advent of the Internet and the rise of YouTube has brought some of the Censored Eleven to light.In February 2010, as part of a press release for the first annual TCM Classic Film Festival, it was announced that the Censored Eleven were to receive a special screening sourced from restored 35mm film prints. This special presentation was put together by George Feltenstein, vice president of Warner Bros. classic film catalog. Film historian Donald Bogle, who has six books published to his credit on the subject of African American stereotypes in film, agreed to host the event for the festival. On April 24, 2010, a total of eight of the Censored Eleven were screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The three that were not shown at the event were Jungle Jitters, All This and Rabbit Stew and Angel Puss. According to animation historian Jerry Beck, this event was a way for Warner Bros. to test the waters for a possible DVD release of these controversial films possibly through the Warner Archives collection.