10 ms·

What surprised me the most was 26,000 people watched Tom and Jerry between 7:30pm and 6:30am on some website. That’s a lot more than I would have expected.

albert_e 3y ago
I am guessing there must be some multiplier .. like hits to a CDN in parallel / pre-fetch a few seconds of video for each of the 10-20 videos on a search page.
- caslon 3y ago
  India has a billion and a half people in it. In proportional American numbers, less than five thousand people watching the cartoon.
dharmab 3y ago
It's been a couple of decades but when I spent time in India as a kid, Tom and Jerry was a popular cartoon on TV.
profsummergig 3y ago
Tom and Jerry is very popular in India. Parents like it because there's no (less) subversive NSFW content (e.g. Bikini Bottom in Spongebob). Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.
- decremental 3y ago
  It's sad that you feel like you have to preemptively defend yourself against criticism for implying children shouldn't be exposed to subversive or NSFW content.
  - rokkitmensch 3y ago
    I support a healthy dose of subversion for my young 'uns. Animaniacs and Invader Zim at the top of the list. Suggestions? SpongeBob is surprisingly subversive and anticapitalist to boot...
  - fnordpiglet 3y ago
    I would assume the apology was for classifying SpongeBob as subversive or NSFW, which they likely don’t agree with (and it seems like you probably should have to defend your view if you do as it’s a pretty fringe PoV)
- darkflame91 3y ago
  Oh that's not the reason. Animation in general is seen as childish by the vast majority here in India, and a lot of people wouldn't even imagine that animation could be NSFW. Most folks wouldn't care less if the child was watching, say, Bojack Horseman (except any blatantly explicit scenes/words of course). Tom and Jerry is an easy reach, since the humor is more slapstick than verbal, and it's been around long enough that parents today have grown up watching it on TV. Most of the NSFW stuff in Spongebob is too subtle for the average uninterested Indian adult. Basically, children's entertainment = animation = Tom and Jerry, more often than not. Urban 1%er parents tend to default to Peppa Pig.
kumarvvr 3y ago
Youtube cartoons are the staple video content to slap onto a mobile or a tv to get toddlers to eat. Here in India, its scary how much parent neglect to engage with children and just put a cartoon and stuff foid into their mouth, while they themselves are busy on a call or fiddling with their phones. Almost every toddler I have seen has an old broken phone as their own video player.
- Sai_ 3y ago
  You got to do what you got to do otherwise you risk the kid going hungry or having a meltdown or both. Being so black and white about sticking a video in front of a kid to make sure it sits in one place and eats is dismissive of parents who have to make these decisions in real time. Do we know those kids don’t get play time with friends? Or down time to get bored and hence be forced to invent games in their own heads? We only see and opine on “bad” behaviour, not the what happens behind closed doors the remaining 23 hrs of the day when the kid is out of our line of sight.
  - squokko 3y ago
    Kids ate food before smartphones existed. They miss one meal, throw one meltdown, and quickly learn that it's better to eat than go hungry.
    - Sai_ 3y ago
      Not sure if one meltdown is the mean or even the median for how much time a kid takes to learn how to sit in one place without being distracted. In any case, it doesn’t matter a whit if the average is one meltdown if your kid has gone without two consecutive meals. All this theorising goes out the window when the third meal is coming up and you’re struggling to get a morsel inside your kid. How many consecutive meals are you willing to let your kid skip on principle? Comparing what we did in the past, how we lived in the past, what worked two decades ago is basically useless. Phones exist. On demand entertainment exists. Kids know it. You know it. You aren’t putting any genie back in the bottle by trying to explain to your kid that since you grew up without being amused into eating, they need to do that too.
lordwiz 3y ago
Tom and jerry is popular as it kept the kids engaged and since there's only action involved, anyone could watch it regardless of age, i remember seeing old people watching tom and jerry with joy, that's why the numbers are high.

albert_e 3y ago

I am guessing there must be some multiplier .. like hits to a CDN in parallel / pre-fetch a few seconds of video for each of the 10-20 videos on a search page.

caslon 3y ago
India has a billion and a half people in it. In proportional American numbers, less than five thousand people watching the cartoon.

dharmab 3y ago

It's been a couple of decades but when I spent time in India as a kid, Tom and Jerry was a popular cartoon on TV.

profsummergig 3y ago

Tom and Jerry is very popular in India. Parents like it because there's no (less) subversive NSFW content (e.g. Bikini Bottom in Spongebob). Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.

decremental 3y ago
It's sad that you feel like you have to preemptively defend yourself against criticism for implying children shouldn't be exposed to subversive or NSFW content.
- rokkitmensch 3y ago
  I support a healthy dose of subversion for my young 'uns. Animaniacs and Invader Zim at the top of the list. Suggestions? SpongeBob is surprisingly subversive and anticapitalist to boot...
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  I would assume the apology was for classifying SpongeBob as subversive or NSFW, which they likely don’t agree with (and it seems like you probably should have to defend your view if you do as it’s a pretty fringe PoV)
darkflame91 3y ago
Oh that's not the reason. Animation in general is seen as childish by the vast majority here in India, and a lot of people wouldn't even imagine that animation could be NSFW. Most folks wouldn't care less if the child was watching, say, Bojack Horseman (except any blatantly explicit scenes/words of course). Tom and Jerry is an easy reach, since the humor is more slapstick than verbal, and it's been around long enough that parents today have grown up watching it on TV. Most of the NSFW stuff in Spongebob is too subtle for the average uninterested Indian adult. Basically, children's entertainment = animation = Tom and Jerry, more often than not. Urban 1%er parents tend to default to Peppa Pig.

kumarvvr 3y ago

Youtube cartoons are the staple video content to slap onto a mobile or a tv to get toddlers to eat. Here in India, its scary how much parent neglect to engage with children and just put a cartoon and stuff foid into their mouth, while they themselves are busy on a call or fiddling with their phones. Almost every toddler I have seen has an old broken phone as their own video player.

Sai_ 3y ago
You got to do what you got to do otherwise you risk the kid going hungry or having a meltdown or both. Being so black and white about sticking a video in front of a kid to make sure it sits in one place and eats is dismissive of parents who have to make these decisions in real time. Do we know those kids don’t get play time with friends? Or down time to get bored and hence be forced to invent games in their own heads? We only see and opine on “bad” behaviour, not the what happens behind closed doors the remaining 23 hrs of the day when the kid is out of our line of sight.
- squokko 3y ago
  Kids ate food before smartphones existed. They miss one meal, throw one meltdown, and quickly learn that it's better to eat than go hungry.
  - Sai_ 3y ago
    Not sure if one meltdown is the mean or even the median for how much time a kid takes to learn how to sit in one place without being distracted. In any case, it doesn’t matter a whit if the average is one meltdown if your kid has gone without two consecutive meals. All this theorising goes out the window when the third meal is coming up and you’re struggling to get a morsel inside your kid. How many consecutive meals are you willing to let your kid skip on principle? Comparing what we did in the past, how we lived in the past, what worked two decades ago is basically useless. Phones exist. On demand entertainment exists. Kids know it. You know it. You aren’t putting any genie back in the bottle by trying to explain to your kid that since you grew up without being amused into eating, they need to do that too.

lordwiz 3y ago

Tom and jerry is popular as it kept the kids engaged and since there's only action involved, anyone could watch it regardless of age, i remember seeing old people watching tom and jerry with joy, that's why the numbers are high.