As I've mentioned several times, television or rather satellite service over here isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not horrible. I think we find enough to watch to occupy our tv watching time. Yes, I do believe we could watch less, but we don't have a stimulating social life to attend to so we go with what we have available.
Back to the point, there are about 5 channels available that cater to the kids. There are 3 disney, nick, and a BBC channel that show kid related tv all the time. One of the channels shows old Tom & Jerry, Pink Panther, and Hanna Barbera cartoons. I'm chuffed to say that of all the cartoons on those channels, my kids tend to like these shows and will select them above the more modern cartoons. I think they see what I liked in them, the slapstick. Which brings me to my point in a roundabout way. Do kids today recognize the humor references in those cartoons or are the references of comedians long gone by too archaic?
I was watching an episode of Tom & Jerry the other day with Maddie, yes, I was enjoying it, and I saw a flash of a silhouette of Jimmy Durante in the scene. I thought to myself, "my kids don't know who Jimmy Durante is". What a shame.
Do kids today know who Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, the Little Rascals, or the Three Stooges (the REAL ones, not the movie) were? I'm sure there are parents who indoctrinate their offspring into decent comedy, but overall have we lost comedy history to the generation of Simpsons, South Park and tween crap like Suite Life and Hanna Montana? They give a nod to the oldies, but then they slap you in the face with their agendas.
I think kids need to know where we came from before the horrible dosh they currently pass as comedy. I don't think much of it is funny, truly funny. I've seen many of the tween shows and even with their irritatingly canned laughter they are cheap knock offs of earlier comedy brilliance. Not that the slapstick of the Stooges was intelligent comedy, but they were what they were and they were original.
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