Brainwashed

Since Grant is now an ardent fan of Bob the Builder, I find myself singing things like, "Can you reach it? Yes, you can!" while in the shower each morning. (I have some theories about Bob, Wendy, and their separate trailers. Ask me about them some time.)

I'm glad Grant enjoys programs like Bob and Thomas the Tank Engine, but I've noticed that the values presented in these shows are a far cry from the cartoons Erin and I grew up with.

For example, Bob the Builder visits "the recycling yard" during almost every episode. Plus one of the characters lives in a yurt. What the heck? Is this thing written by Greenpeace? How many tons of coal do you think Sherman and Peabody used to power that time machine? It probably took 50 gallons of gas and a herd of baby seals to even START that thing.

I've also noticed that in Bob the Builder, everyone always makes peace with each other by the end of the episode. At least on Sodor, the trains occasionally bash into each other leaving irreparable wounds that last at least through the next story. Not in Bob the Builder. Everyone returns to their state of blissful, Marxist ignorance by the end of each episode. Did you ever see the Coyote shake hands with the Roadrunner after his Acme Endangered Species Killer blew up in his face? I think not.

And since when was it a requirement that all cartoon characters be bilingual? Grant now runs up to me and says things which make absolutely no sense to me, and it's not because he's a jabbering toddler, it's because it's in Spanish. "Handy Manny said...yo quero...blah blah Cinco de Mayo....blah blah..." My own kid is making me feel like I got dropped off in Juárez without a passport. This isn't the world I grew up in...