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sull In reply to egregious [2005-07-12 14:26:41 +0000 UTC]

Reminds me of The Far Side Gallery comic strip and/or Wallace&Grommit
T_T We have an African version of the Muppet show called Takalani Sesame and its all in urban-Xhosa with messages on how you should still hug people when they have AIDS.

At least, I think thats what it was about... *doesn't speak Xhosa* I take an educated guess based on the dancing condoms and and the repeated use of the word "e-AIDS". (Whenever there isn't a traditional word for something, they basically use the english/Afrikaans word for it and stick on an "e" in front of it.)

Yeah!

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egregious In reply to sull [2005-07-12 18:29:08 +0000 UTC]

I love the 'stick an "e" in front of it' thing! That's just like the internet! And like, every single Apple product that exists, except with an 'i'!
LOL, that is so cool! They actually have dancing condoms on a kids' show?? *dies laughing* Man, the US is way way waaaayyyyy too censored if somebody's got becondomed (as in bedecked) Muppet genitalia dancing on the South African version of Sesame Street. (Yes, Sesame Street, not The Muppet Show. The Muppet Show was an entirely different animal [pun intended] ...) I mean, you could see something like that on VH1 at two o'clock in the morning, but... yeah. Mah country is too protective. Hug people, America, even if they have AIDS! I'm in a good mind to contact my local PBS and see what I can do about this.

But back to the Muppets.
The Muppet Show was originally aimed at adults back in the '70s—you could just tell. They'd do spoofs of Star Trek, Star Wars, buddy-cop films, soap operas, stuff to do with the Vietnam war, other current events, etc., and they'd have guests like John Denver and Mark Hamil come and be in their skits. Half the jokes would go waaaaay over kids' heads. The Muppets sang protest songs, for pete's sake!—I remember one little skit in particular where a bunch of fuzzy (and well-armed) woodland creatures, lead by a possum with a rifle, were singing that song by Buffalo Springfield, 'For What It's Worth'... some sample lyrics in case you've not heard it before:
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
~
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away...
Now imagine a twitchy, paranoid possum Muppet with a rifle singing that. Doesn't that just scream 'children's programming' to you? I think not.

However, it became such after the show ended. For a few of my younger years, it was on Nick Junior (the ickle-ones morning segment of Nickelodeon)... I think it was put on there 'cos it actually entertained the kids and the stay-at-home parents who had to watch them watch it.
For some inexplicable reason, I always got all of the jokes, at like, ages three through five—even the really complex political ones that took most adults a second to find the punchline, and double-entendres that no toddler would have any knowledge of, much less the ability to recognise satire and find it humourous. I guess my parents were right when they told me I was precocious... I guess I'm set for life now. It'll go on my college and job applications. When I'm a rich an famous genius, I'll flaunt the fact at the clubhouse over martinis—'I got the satire on The Muppet Show at age two, what do i>YOU do?'

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sull In reply to WallyWorld [2005-07-04 07:37:18 +0000 UTC]

Yay for new avatars

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WallyWorld In reply to sull [2005-07-05 14:19:18 +0000 UTC]

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