Wednesday, October 12, 2005

UNICEF bombs Smurfland

If you click on the title of this post, you'll get the scoop on what I'm about to ramble on about.

It's been a long time since I've thought about the Smurfs. I had several of their records as a kid. Did you hear that? A kid. Sure, nasty, awful, terrible, tragic, horrific and indecent things happen everyday. Why don't people get that and do something about it? Maybe because seeing it is so common and so overdone to get ratings. I mean, would I feel shocked to see, oh, I don't know, some group of marauders dragging a dead US soldier through the streets? Probably not, I've seen it before. Many times in fact. I only recall knowing about it happening once, but I've seen that clip several times. It's harder and harder to get in touch with the part of myself that truly feels that sense of shock.

So come on, don't go and co-opt something inherently kiddie and make it scary. I think you might end up defeating your purpose. If the kids start seeing the Smurfs terrorized, maybe when it happens to us it won't seem as much of a human tragedy. Let kids by kids and sing along with Papa Smurf. Preserve the debilitation of their sense of shock until they're, I dunno, twelve maybe. Wait until the baby blues of Anderson Cooper are enough of a trade off for the nasty news of the world to make it seem okay.

You know, I had a button when I was little that said "Equal Rights For Smurfettes"...it was kinda weird that there was only that one girl.

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