Where there's smoke, there's ire, and both have been coming out of England lately, courtesy of that mischievous cat-and-mouse team Tom and Jerry.  It seems British media regulator Ofcom (which honestly sounds more like the name of some lame Internet start-up) has decided to censor certain episodes of the 1960s cartoon after a viewer complained about smoking in two episodes.

In one episode, titled ''Texas Tom,'' Tom the cat tries to show off to a female feline by rolling, lighting, and smoking a cigarette with one hand, which, truth be told, does sound pretty impressive, especially for a cat.  In the other, ''Tennis Chumps,'' Tom's opponent puffs on an oversize stogie.  As a result of the complaint, Turner Broadcasting (which licenses the show) has — according to Ofcom — ''proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorized, or when it might encourage imitation.''  But it doesn't stop there: Smoking scenes will also be deleted out of shows like The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo.  (No word yet on whether Scooby Snacks will be affected by Weight Watchers censors.)

There are a few issues at play here. The first: If you're gonna be concerned about editing Tom and Jerry cartoons to eliminate any possible bad influences that could possibly be mimicked by young children, shouldn't you...oh, I don't know, start with the all the scenes where the animals bludgeon each other?  I mean, smoking is terrible and all, but I sort of have a feeling I'd rather come home one day from work and catch my son lighting up a cigarette than see him sawing his little sister in half.  Maybe that's just me.

That's not to say I condone smoking. In fact, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more passionate anti-smoking advocate than yours truly.  I basically think the act of selling and smoking cigarettes should be completely illegal, seeing as it, you know, kills people.  And, as a father, I am very sensitive to anything that might promote smoking to young children (especially in light of the whole Joe Camel thing, where a character was basically created to get kids hooked on cancer sticks).  Still, I think you run into problems when you start tinkering with old shows and movies to make them more politically correct.

While I certainly hesitate to define a cartoon about a cat and mouse chasing each other around with waffle irons as ''art,'' the fact remains that it is a product of its time and its environment, and should be protected as such.  Parents who complain about the objectionable content should probably wise up to the fact that their kid shouldn't even be watching it in the first place.  We've evolved, and our standards of conduct have evolved too.  Tom and Jerry is no longer a show for the kindergarten set, and parents who haven't figured that out have nobody to blame but themselves for not paying close enough attention.

This also raises a question: When you start going back and editing past works for content, where do you draw the line? D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is a landmark film in American cinema.  It's also racist as hell.  Do we sweep it under the rug or examine it as a historical document? ... by Dalton Ross / Entertainment Weekly