The Lorax

Beavis and Butthead: MTV Super-ego

I'm old enough to remember a time when Beavis and Butt-head was considered the most scandalous thing on air:

In October 1993 a two-year-old Ohio girl was killed in a fire lit by her five-year-old brother. The children's mother said that her son was inspired by the pyromaniac proclivities of Beavis and Butt-head. This real life event sparked the ire of media watchdog groups, who claimed that there was a direct link between the television show and the violent act of this impressionable child. One psychiatrist proclaimed Beavis an Butt-head a "Sesame Street for psychopaths."

Psychopaths! Really! Looking back from 2010 it's hard to imagine how something as tame as Beavis and Butt-head could compete with, say, The Family Guy or even South Park. So it's a little weird that MTV is bringing it back. So I submit to you, what are Beavis and Butt-head going to do? It's not like they can watch music videos. MTV ceased to be a music channel long ago. Would new viewers even know what to make of music video commentary? It could actually be awesome if MTV allowed them to watch other MTV shows; they could be like MTV's superego, blasting the vapidness of shows like The Hills and Jersey Shore. That actually might be worth watching.

Ducky

Be sly: Donald Duck did double-duty as a propagandist during WWII.


From MoJo's collection of VD-related propaganda of WWII, "Enemy in Your Pants."

Toon

In honor of tonight's Oscars, a film that was nominated for best short animation a few years back, "The Myterious Explorations of Jasper Morello."



This, like all good things, comes via Kendra.

In listening to some of the commentary of Rene Clair's film, À Nous La Liberté (1931), I learned that Chaplin once cited the following Disney film as an influence on Modern Times (1935).



It makes me think that the Santa story is itself the product of a modern state-industrial system. Before the modern machine age, Santa must have looked much different--perhaps even a craftsman.

Cartoon break

In the course of looking around the web for information about Nazis and the science of human behavior, I cam across this anti-Nazi Donald Duck cartoon.



I can't get over what an awesome satire of (imagined) Nazi automaticity this is. This cartoon seems to even visually quote Chaplin's Modern Times as it conflates political discipline with industrial discipline. That the bombs Donald makes take over and become the instruments creating him is a very telling image of the imaginary surrounding Nazi discipline.

See also Disney's rendering of Nazi education.

Don't pretend you're too good

My favorite line: "I'm not like other people. I can't stand pain. It hurts me."



Via BoingBoing.