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Tuesday, March 07, 2006
More on kids TV
I've read the full report (PDF), and, predictably, the Parents Television Council has done everything possible to calamatize the situation.
In its ten year history, the Parents Television Council has published a number of studies examining the content of prime time network programming and topics of special interest, like Spanish-Language television, original cable, and reality TV; but to date, the PTC has yet to examine programming geared specifically to young children. With this study, the PTC seeks to fill that information gap.
That's fine, but the report focuses on kids from 5-10. There's a huge developmental difference between a 10 year old a 5 year old. More importantly, I don't think it's appropriate to term a 10 year old a "young child". It would be more accurate to describe this group as "school age children". Instead, the PTC gives the impression that we're talking about television for toddlers. (Of course, they hate that, too -- too gay-friendly.)
The study addresses a couple dozen shows. Of the shows, I am familiar with 5 of them. Lilo and Stitch, The Proud Family, Jimmy Neutron, Fairly Odd Parents, and Sponge Bob Squarepants. I've watched all these shows with my young children -- ages 6 & 3.
Cartoon characters weren’t pulling their brains out through their noses four decades ago. Bugs Bunny didn’t call Elmer Fudd an idiot. Satanic demons didn’t populate the world of bad guys.
Hmm. Brains out through their noses? Nope, I don't recall ever seeing that. Did Bugs ever call Elmer an "idiot"? The claim might be technically correct. I think what Bugs said was "What a maroon". Is "idiot" worse that "maroon"? How about "nin-cow-poop"? Foghorn Leghorn used to say that the baby chicken wasn't very bright.
You know who else isn't very bright? Know who else is a gulli-bull? People who believe the PTC.
What is different about the violence in today’s cartoons? First, the animation techniques employed today are far superior and more realistic than those used in the heyday of Tom and Jerry. Secondly, the violence and the themes presented are much more intense and graphic. Third, cartoons, and the accompanying violence, are ever-present because the cartoons are always available.
Jimmy Neutron is more realistic than Bugs Bunny. It's 3 dimensional, for one thing. But none of the other cartoons are more realistic than a good Warner Bros. production. In fact, the hand-drawn images of Bugs Bunny -- or even Disney's Little Mermaid -- are far more realistic than the Fairly Odd Parents. Don't believe me? Here's the hyper-realistic Timmy Turner from the Fairly Odd Parents:
During the study period Nickelodeon aired an episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants entitled "Sailor Mouth," the subject of which is foul language.
Innocent Sponge Bob doesn’t understand the dirty word graffiti he sees on a dumpster but Patrick tells him it’s a "sentence enhancer" for when you want to talk fancy. The rest of the episode features Sponge Bob and Patrick using bleeped foul language ["fuck", "asshole", etc]. The bleeps are made to sound like a dolphin which makes the whole thing seem humorous. At the end Sponge Bob and Patrick realize the words are bad and promise to never use them again but the episode ends with them telling Momma Krabs the 13 bad words Mr. Krabs has just said. All are punished by Momma Krabs for "talking like sailors." [August 1, 2005]
I've seen that episode. It's pretty good. The description is accurate, except for the fact that's there's no way to tell which foul language Sponge Bob is using. The bigger point is this: Sponge Bob and Patrick break a rule and learn a lesson. Isn't that way kids TV is supposed to be about
Wanda: "Jorgen said he had the perfect job for those pointy-head freaks." [August 9, 2005]
I haven't seen that episode of the Fairly Odd Parents. Since much of the show occurs in fairy land, it's entirely possible that Wanda is talking about some very pointy-head creatures. Whether they are "freaks" or not is a different matter.
Francis: "Hey Turner, some kids I was whaling on told me about your ‘F’. So I’m here to add injury to insult."
Timmy: "Don’t you mean insult to injury?"
Francis: "Not the way I do it! Guess what I have behind my back? Come now, don’t be shy, there are no wrong answers."
Timmy: "A puppy."
Francis: "So close, but alas, wrong. It’s a fist!"Francis punches Jimmy into the locker. [July 23, 2005]
Yes, on Fairly Odd Parents, Francis bullies Timmy. So what? The show doesn't encourage kids to bully. Francis isn't glorified. The show encourages kids to understand how Timmy feels when he is bullied. What's wrong with that?
Timmy wants to use his magic copier to make the things in his "dad’s magazines" real. When he pulls out the magazines they are titled "Under the Bed Monthly." [August 1, 2005]
Again, an episode I haven't seen. Whatever it was that Timmy wanted to make real, it wasn't naked chicks. Shame on PTC for suggesting that. Oh, and "Under the Bed Monthly"? That's pretty funny.
In order to entertain children, Sponge Bob does a series of things to cause himself physical pain. He rips his face off with toilet paper and runs over his tongue with a truck. He hires a man in, what looks like leather bondage gear, to hit him on the head with a big hammer and drop a wrecking ball on him. The man in leather ties Sponge Bob up and forces him to eat lima beans. The man then rips Sponge Bob in half.
Seen it. The man is dressed as an executioner. It looks like leather bondage gear only if you want it to. There's no sexual suggestion at all.
To sum up: there are more shows on television now for kids. Some are good. Some are bad. Know what your kids watch. Decide for yourself whether it's appropriate.
What you ought not do is gin up fake studies to make it seem like every second of every Sponge Bob episode is full of hot sponge-on-sponge sex to extract dollars to further your efforts to shut down PBS.
Post script:
Twenty years ago there were in fact seven words you couldn’t say on television, which comedian George Carlin turned into a popular stand-up routine. Most of those words now sprinkle the scripts of prime time television.
Sigh. The 7 words were: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits. Piss shows up on prime time television. Maybe a shit. You can say "tits", but who wants to? Four (or most) of the words, would never be heard on broadcast television. But why let reality intrude in a "scientific" study?
3 Comments:
Oh, I've seen that episode of Fairly Oddparents (natch). The pointy-headed freaks in question are some sort of corporate-minded magical creatures who take over Fairyworld and remove all the joy from the land. And they all wear pointy hats.
By 
, at
1:27 PM
So definitely pointy-headed. They also sound markedly unusual. Not so much an insult as an observation.
Man I wish I had the time to weigh in on this one. I have in fact seen Sponge Bob in a store down here tho it was Bob de Poriferia or some such thing.
By , at
4:07 PM
