Jigaboo Time, or Comedy?
When do you let bygones be bygones and
move on in the war of images?
OK. My seven year-old son is
mesmerized by television to the point of addiction. Recognizing this, I cut
cable when he was tow and half, resulting in massive protest and complaints from
my...MOTHER!!
OK. So he
spent a year with the grandparents, who tired of watching kiddie shows at some
point, so they purchased him (though they pretended that this was not the case)
a mini TV/VHS combo for his room. I was beyond annoyed, they swore that he was
just a pain in the ass with his TV
selections.
It turns out,
that they considered ANY animated fair, a kiddie
show.
Now most of you I'm
sure have watched Cartoon Network. How much of that is truly kiddie
fare?
My son is an avid
superhero afficianado and already considers himself a comics collector (thanks
uncle bil). His favorite block of shows on CN?
Toonami.
Now I gett to my
point. A lot of this stuff is drawn in Korea and Japan, with impossibly wide
eyes and strange vocal responses that recall Trixie and Racer
X.
Wide eyes, twisted
mouths, and grunting...Wide eyes, twisted mouths and
grunting
OK. Maybe I am
too sensitive, but my son not 10 minutes ago came up to me and showed me the
classic sambo "o" mouth, laughing about how funny it was when Cyborg did that on
Teen Titans when he accidentally shot a bird. Cyborg is the token brother on
the show.
Is it now funny,
since my son has no referent for coons, bucks, sambos, mammies and pickaninnies?
Of is it my job to tell him what those images are, then show their simulations
and ghosts in practically all the shows that he
watches?
Would this
finally cure him of his TV addiction, or ruin his chances of knowing joy and
wonder?
I gave a very
twisted-nouthed half smirk to his side-splitting gesture, wondering who he
thought he was talking
to.
How could he know
anyway?
Posted: Thu - July 21, 2005 at 08:57 AM