If I'm home (and not busy) on Saturday mornings, I usually watch VeggieTales and 3-2-1 Penguins (which are run on NBC now). I know some people roll their eyes at the moralizing, but I like the programs.
And they're frequently quite funny. VeggieTales does some hilarious song-parodies (there was one episode that was a mash-up of Rocky, the Mikado, and sumo wrestling).
3-2-1 Penguins seems aimed at a younger audience, and the Judeo-Christian teachings are less disguised (not that there's anything wrong with that, at least as far as I'm concerned - and I figure people who don't like it can do what I do when I find a show on that offends my sensibilities - in other words, change the channel or turn off the tv).
But they do get off funny lines sometimes.
In today's episode (which was about not pulling mean practical jokes, and as someone who's been the butt of such jokes, I heartily agree), the Penguins were substitute teaching at the Galactic Academy (which is apparently an engineering school for space-ship pilots, navigators, and inventors) and at the same time trying to figure out a mystery - what happened to a hamster who had attended the academy in the past.
Well, while going through the files, the little-girl character (Michelle) and the scientist penguin (Ummm....Fidgel? The names are all a little close for me) found out that the hamster "went bad."
Michelle: "And it looks like he tried to have himself instated as Dean of Evil"
Fidgel: "Hmmmmm....sounds more like a Liberal Arts position to me."
HAHAHAHAhahahahaha. Maybe I find that funnier than it was intended to be, but as someone who works at a university that is very top-heavy in terms of Administrators With Too Much Time on Their Hands, and that has a tendency to create new deanships at will (usually when there's someone they want out of the classroom but can't fire), I found the concept of the Dean of Evil being a Liberal Arts position extremely funny.
(Even though, technically, Biology falls under Liberal Arts in a lot of schools. And it would in mine, though the college I'm in is called Arts and Sciences rather than Liberal Arts.)
(Or maybe it's more funny than it might otherwise be because the Penguins are apparently Australian, and speak in various accents. Except that Fidgel sounds more British Don to me, and the self-centered "captain" (Umm...Zidgel?) sounds American.)
I love cartoons. And fie on anyone who says I'm too old to watch 'em, even the cartoons aimed specifically at kids.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Saturday morning laughs
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Okay, three things, in reverse order:
1) technically, Biology falls under Liberal Arts in a lot of schools - Okay, I know physicists would agree with this, as would (sadly) some chemists, but WTF? Biology is a hard science. I don't give a rat's patoot what Ernest Rutherford thinks.
2) Dean of Evil - HAHAHAHA! But I repeat myself...
c) Practical jokes - heh. Long setup, but I have a cousin who is a law professor at an Ivy League university. I've never actually met him, but I've known his mother (another Sainted Auntie) since I was tiny. I never met his little brother, a retired surgeon and currently a cattleman in his "retirement", until my trip to the land of my birth several years ago. During that trip, I learned a little about why said law professor moved from teaching law at an Oregon school to the Ivy League.
A while after that, I happened to make a comment at a website (Michael Totten's, IIRC but may be misremembering) and then received an email asking if I was this particular law professor's relative. I replied that I was, and received another email. Seems this fellow was a student of said law professor and was involved in the "incident" that induced said law professor to leave his then job and head for the Ivy League.
I will say no more about it. Shh! Mum's the word!
Yup, my undergrad was done at the College of Arts & Sciences, although I'm pretty sure I took English courses in one building and Science in another. And the Science building was way nicer.
I remember hearing about some controversy over the toning down of the overtly Christian teachings/terms when VeggieTales started airing on NBC. I've never heard of the penguins one but that line about the Dean of Evil is *hilarious*. The first joke I think of when it comes to Liberal Arts is, "Why, yes, my degree *is* in Liberal Arts. Do you want fries with that?"
Post a Comment