I had no idea who or what Pikachu was before the shoot. You see, my kids were born back before Pokemon, Tele Tubbies, or even Barney were infesting the minds of our children with passivity messages and “Let’s all get along with everyone” bull shit.
They were raised on a steady, but not overwhelming, diet of Three Stooges, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Road Runner, and other Looney Toons fare. Not that modern Animaniacs crapola either. Vintage 1940s, 50s, or 60s hand drawn, Mel Blanc voiced, classics. And the occasional Tom and Jerry no doubt, but I was never a big fan of that cartoon. No Hanna Barbera cartoons if I could help it, because they used second rate animators in a bid to cut costs. Well, they did watch Sesame Street and the kinda weird-creepy Mr. Rogers, but that was it for “appropriate children’s TV”.
Oh, I also let them watch Mel Brooks movies and Monty Python. My daughter is still a Mel Brooks fanatic to this day. She can quote chapter and verse from Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and even Men In Tights.
Despite all that bad TV, they seem to have turned out OK. They don’t poke each other in the eyes, hit each other with hammers, set each other on fire, or any of the things we are constantly told kids will do if exposed to violent cartoons. Maybe it’s because I used to watch a lot of this stuff with them and remind them frequently that it’s only TV, not reality and that they shouldn’t try any of that. It’s OK to laugh when Moe tries to saw through Curly’s head, but please don’t do that to your brother when he annoys you.
One last amusing, to me and it’s my blog, anecdote. Back when my son was born and mothers weren’t pushed out the door 14 minutes after delivering, I drove to the hospital to pick up Mrs. TOTWTYTR and my new son. It was a Saturday morning and the Three Stooges were on. So, I sat down with my new born son, grabbed a bottle of formula for him to drink, and turned on the TV. After about 20 minutes, the nurse came in to say that we had been discharged and could leave. “Not now, The Stooges are on and it’s Curly. I have to make sure my son starts life off knowing the finer things in life.” I’m still surprised that they didn’t take him away from his obviously insane father.
No awareness of Pikachu? That must have been some serious culture shock.
Everybody who counts knows that Curly was connoisseur of the finer things in life.
"They don't poke each other in the eyes, hit each other with hammers, set each other on fire, or any of the things…"Same here. My son's probably around the same age as your kids, & he (& I) did the Stooge/Wile E./Bugs routine.He doesn't do the aforementioned things either… well, not too often anyway…
I'd NEVER shoot at Looney Tunes. I mean, c'mon.
Okay, I'll bite… WTF is Pikachu???
It's a Pokemon character. Really, some days I wake up and it's like I've been transported to a planet a lot like earth, but just a bit weirder. I forgot to mention in my post that when my son was a baby and it was my turn to get up and feed him at night, that I'd often read to him from a Sears Tool or a Radio Shack catalog. We didn't have cable and there was only one all night TV station. Which is another thing that people take for granted now. Both cable and broadcast TV run shows all day and all night. But I digress.Old NFO, I won't even start on Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train, Sponge Bob Square Pants or any of the rest them. All designed to promote getalongness and passivity. It's a culture shock to a lot of these kids when they get out in the real world and find out that there really are bad people who you can't talk out of hurting you. Speaking of which, I have to get back on track with getting my daughter to shoot. Once she moves to a town where she can get a license to carry, I want her to have a gun and know how to use it.