Thursday, July 14, 2011

All Kids Shows are written by People on Drugs

Since it is summer and I have three boys, I have endured a lot of kids TV at night.  I try not to notice it because all the shows sound terrible but every now and then I will sit down with them to see what is eating away at their little brains. 
My smallest kid is obsessed with a show called "Ben 10".  The main character is "cleverly" named Ben Tennason.  He finds a magical watch that will turn him into any one of (big suprise coming) 10 aliens by hitting a button on his watch.  He is joined by his grandpa, who oddly enough sees nothing really odd about all of this, and some girl whom I assume is his sister (I assume his parents are either dead or they don't care that their kids are always on the road with good ol Gramps, the show never tells)  They travel around in their Grandpa's Winnebago getting into all sorts of alien mischeif because Ben wears this Alien Changing Watch and every other alien wants it.  They all almost die in every episode but it never seems to occur to ol' Gramps to tell his grandson to take the stupid watch off so they can quit getting attacked by aliens every other day.

Since Asher has gotten a little older he has abandoned some of his other LSD cartoons and shows.  He used to watch "Yo Gabba Gabba" which was the ultimate "You know the creators are all high" shows of all time.  Its right up there with "HR PuffinStuff".  Yo Gabba Gabba is about a DJ who wears an orange leotard and has five toys in his little "briefcase" kind of thing that he allows to come to life each day.  These toys are a green hairy midget with abnormally long arms, a robot who has all the answers in his belly, a dog/wolf thing (I'm not sure) who just kind of hangs out, a pink flower pot who loves flowers, and a giant red studded vibrator who seems to be the dumb one of the bunch.  They teach each other lessons about health and manners.  But two of the worst/best/trippy things about the show are the songs that they sing to promote whatever message it is they are trying to convey that day and their horrible dance lessons which incorporate little kids stuck in a psychedlic world of crayon drawings.  One of the "best" songs is about eating, its called "There's a Party in my Tummy" and it is basically the Green Midget thing eating different vegetables and telling them that there is a party in there that they should all join.  Its horrible but hilarious if you think about it in a different context.
Of course Diego and Dora are the products of bad parenting and stoned writers.  They are both roughly 8 maybe 9 years old, they get to run around with their exotic talking pets (a monkey wearing boots and a baby jaguar), they have zero parental supervision, and everything in their world talks (rocks, doors, trees, etc.)  But the reason I know it is written and concieved by people that are stoned out of their minds is because they are both so condescending.  They are always asking you to count really obvious things like how many rocks are there and you can clearly see that there are three but just to make you feel stupid they count it out loud to you.  They also ask other really obvious things like "Where is Big Blue Mountain?  Do you see Big Blue Mountain?" and the whole background behind them is nothing but a giant Big Blue Mountain.  Asher even says, "Duhh, right there!!"
My favorite has to be Spongebob Squarepants.  I don't think they even try to disguise it anymore how high they are.  Its kind of like "Ren and Stimpy" from back in the day, it started out disguised as a harmless kids cartoon but then we all figured it out and it was hilarious.  Spongebob is like that now, but it was that way at the creation of it.  Two buddies were sitting around, one knew how to draw and the other did funny voices, and they just smoked a joint or dropped some acid (I'm not sure which yet).  Next thing you know they are just making stuff up for a cartoon that would seem really funny if you were high.  The exchange probably went something like this:
Guy 1:  Ok, so what animal has there never been a talking version of on TV?
Guy 2:  I dunno, a sea sponge? (takes a toke and laughs)
Guy 1:  Yeah, a talking sponge.  Where does he live?
Guy 2:  (stoned and looking at a can of pineapples in the cupboard)  A pineapple?
Guy 1:  Yeah, a pineapple under the sea, that'd be awesome. (takes a huge hit off the bong)
Guy 2:  What if he worked in a restaraunt? (he really had the munchies)
Guy 1:  Yeah, they wouldn't have hamburgers though because they are in the ocean though.  What about crab cakes or something?
Guy 2:  Mmmmm, crab cakes.  We could call them crabby-patties because that sort of rhymes, hahaha.  God I'm stoned.
Guy 1:  Wouldn't it be funny if his boss WAS a crab?  Haha. (another big bong hit)  He would be like a mass murdering cannibal.
Guy 2:  Awesome (passes out)

All these years later those guys are millionaires.  That is how a lot of these production meetings probably go.  Two guys get really high and just come up with the dumbest concepts they can think of.  Its so easy, I come up with cartoon ideas all the time and pitch them to my kids to prove to them how easy/stupid it is.  And everytime they love my idea, they think it would be great (they miss my point, I think) 

So what I propose now is this to get rich:  I have a head full of horrible kids show ideas, now who can draw, and who's bringing the drugs?

1 comment:

  1. I have said the same thing many times. Although your rendition of the "Guy 1 and Guy 2" make it hilarious! I was just talking about that this past weekend. I was talking about how I have turned into one of "those parents" that are getting ready to ban many shows. Either there are no parents. Or they are dead. But the biggest thing is that I believe alot of these shows...especially Spongebob...are in some ways "glorifying" bad behavior. In a subliminal way. If you listen, and God knows you can hear it all throughout the house here, you hear nothing but screaming, yelling, and obnoxious noises most of the time. I never really thought of this until it was brought to my attention by my brother. Funny part is he LOVES Squidbillies and as a kid loved Beavis and Butthead. So you get the point. HE even realized that alot of these shows are doing NOTHING but teaching our kids to be OBNOXIOUS! :) Great article Dusty!

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