Bad Lessons From Kid's Shows

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Just the other day I watched an "Animation Abomination" review of an episode of "Aurthur's Big Hit". It was just awful and the Aesop of a simple message that hitting other people in anger is wrong was really broken. As usual the little vaguely arrdvark-like demon-child DW is being a complete brat who keeps bothering Arthur while he's working on a model plane. He tells her several times not to touch it but she does anyway and first she messes up the paint and then she throws it out the window to see if it would fly and breaks it. She then goes downstairs to Arthur and instead of telling him what she did and that she's very sorry she tells him his stupid plane doesn't fly or something to that effect. When Arthur goes out and finds the broken plane he gets so angry at DW that he hits her. DW runs back in the house and then she screams more loudly when her dad tries to put ice on her arm than she did when Arthur hit her. His parents then ground Arthur while DW doesn't get any punishment at all even after he tells his side of the story. And then at school Binky, who I guess is kind of the school bully but is really about the only likable character on the show, gets pressured by some other kids to hit Arthur but he doesn't want to and they keep pressuring him every day until finally he does. Arthur's parents bandage up his arm, not showing any concern or sympathy for him getting hit when he didn't even provoke it, and instead say that now he must know what it felt like when he hit DW. Binky later apologizes to Arthur, who then decides to tell DW he's sorry, but it quickly escalates into yet another argument because DW is still a horrible little brat.

Wow. Just wow. When this show came out in the 90's I didn't really understand why it was so popular. Sometimes you just don't like something for no obvious reason and when you try to get interested in it, you just can't. But now I think I have a good reason for hating the show now, not only because DW is a complete Karma Houdini, but the parents are about as clueless as about 90% of real North American parents today.

Just the other day I watched an "Animation Abomination" review of "Aurthur's Big Hit". It was just awful and the Aesop of a simple message that hitting other people in anger is wrong was really broken. As usual the vaguely arrdvark-like demon-child DW is being a complete brat who keeps bothering Arthur while he's working on a model plane. He tells her several times not to touch it but she does anyway and even laughs in his face, and first she messes up the paint and then she throws it out the window to see if it would fly and breaks it. She then goes downstairs to Arthur, and instead of telling him what she did and that she's very sorry she tells him his stupid plane doesn't fly or something to that effect. When Arthur goes out and finds the broken plane he gets so angry at DW that he hits her. DW runs back in the house and then she screams more loudly when her dad tries to put ice on her arm than she did when Arthur hit her. His parents then ground Arthur while DW doesn't get any punishment at all even after he tells his side of the story. And then at school Binky, who I guess is kind of the school bully but is really about the only likable character on the show, gets pressured by some other kids to hit Arthur but he doesn't want to and they keep pressuring him every day until finally he does. Arthur's parents bandage up his arm, not showing any concern or sympathy for him getting hit when he didn't even provoke it, and instead say that now he must know what it felt like when he hit DW. Binky later apologizes to Arthur, who then decides to tell DW he's sorry, but it quickly escalates into yet another argument because DW is still a horrible little brat.

Wow. Just wow. When this show came out in the 90's I didn't really understand why it was so popular. Sometimes you just don't like something for no obvious reason and when you try to get interested in it, you just can't. But now I think I have a good reason for hating the show now, not only because DW is a complete Karma Houdini, but the parents are about as clueless as about 90% of real North American parents today.

I'd say one of the most dangerous lies often placed in kids' TV is the idea of unrestrained equality, a.k.a. "political correctness". Brad Stine does a great riff on it in this short clip...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm2oU735lIw[/youtube]

One of the worst things I've ever seen "taught" is that when the Good Guys™ get shot, they recover - thus showing children that guns are safe and can't be used to kill people.

I have seen seen snippets of that Don't Put Things in Your Mouth PSA on YouTube. Wow, that gives me the creeps. Those furry puppet things look so creepy they probably want to do something bad to you. And a bad concept to boot. "Mom, can I put a cinnamon roll in my mouth?" "Mom, can I put a chicken drumstick in my mouth?"

That cheating on your spouse/girlfriend is a-Ok, and how it gets you to be a double-gold medalist in the "babe olympics."

And how schizophrenics can just get rid of all their problems with just the press of a button.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr9mLP6NwnU[/youtube]

"Stuck in the Wringer"

So Spongebob gets into an accident, Patrick and his "forever glue" makes the damage permanent. Spongebob tries not to let the wringer ruin his life but it does anyway. Rather than go to the hospital, Patrick takes SB to the carnival where SB gets even more hurt and so Patrick is putting his joy before SB's pain and then he scolds Patrick and then the townspeople scold SB for scolding Patrick. Then we get the infamous crying scene that disolves the FOREVER GLUE.
Spongebob: I guess crying does solve all your problems after all *END*

Okay, allow me to address everything wrong with that statement. CRYING DOES NOT SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS!! ! Spongebob cries for 20 minutes every time he stubs his toe. Crying never solves a thing! If you cried every time life got you down, you'd be a weak little wuss who pretty much bends over and takes it. You'd let the whole universe walk all over you like a common doormat. Suck it up, tough it out, and for crying out loud have some testosterone!!

There was an episode of peppa pig banned in Australia because it taught kids that spider are harmless which is a pretty bad message in A country that has a lot of the worlds most deadly spiders in it