madmonq’s joint

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

This is what happened from exposure to Cookie Monster’s bad habits and Oscar the Grouch’s bad attitude.

Ernie and Bert rapping in the gay pride parade. Is this what we want for our kids???

I’m all for trying to respect one another. Against discrimination because of race, gender, sexual orientation, physical limitations, bad breath etc. That’s what political correct-ness was supposed to address. This is something else.

Humanity will not progress by underestimating kids’ intelligence, revisionist history or humorless TV bureaucrats. Kids will continue to bathe (against their better judgement) despite Oscar’s example. Kids will not develop Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from watching Cookie Monster. When they wail and scream in the airport, someone beside the Muppets are getting the blame.

I really believe we will progress beyond our individual and collective vices and more without having to sensor them. The people who originally witnessed the offensive material probably turned out alright. As opposed to rejecting it it’s probably been treasured by them for all these years. Knuckleheads that sensor what was already harmless may mean well, but may be part of the problem. And yes kids. It’s perfectly reasonable to call people who should know better knuckleheads.

This is how I started smoking.