Tuesday, December 29, 2009

You know that Sid the Science Kid is jacked up






My kid loves Sid the Science Kid. We watch it almost every morning. Pretty funny show. Well done for the most part........


We were watching this morning and my other older kid says, "Hey, check it out. Sid's family has a Menorah!"



First, a classic Jocoeveryman digression. When I was my kid's age growing up in SOJOCO I thought there were only 3 kinds of people: White, Black and Indian (like Native American). There were several variations of white people like Chinese people (which included all Asian people so Koreans, Japanese, Thai, etc all were Chinese) Mexicans (which included all types of Hispanics regardless if they were from the southern tip of South America or or Tijuana) and something I'd heard of called Jewish people but that I didn't think I'd ever seen except that people like Jesse Jackson and Adolf Hitler didn't really like them. All these were basically some variation of me and of course they were the best kind of people. There were black people who I knew were from Africa and from the show Roots I knew they came here as slaves. I only had like 2 or 3 at my school. You were suppose to feel sorry for them because of that slavery thing, because they lived in those shitty apartments literally on the other side of the tracks and you weren't ever, never, ever allowed to say that horrible "n" word. My grandma called them darkies even to my grandpa's best friend's face who was black. Of course there were Indians because we learned about them in school (you know how they robbed and killed nice white people traveling across the country in wagons) but mostly because Tonto was the Lone Ranger's best friend and I watched that everyday when I got home from school. Tonto was a bad ass and loyal as a good dog. One kid at my school swore he was good at sports 'cause he had a little Indian blood in him. I remember that making good sense and asking my parents if I might be so lucky to have a little Sangre del Indian running through my veins. Pretty jacked up, right?


Anyway, so I look up and not only does Sid's family have a Menorah but they also have a Christmas tree AND some Kwanzaa thing going on. I'm sure if I would have looked closer I might have seen some Mother Earth or maybe a Wicca reference there too. It was moving pretty fast. So, I'm thinking to myself.......what is Jim Henson trying to get across here? Usually the PBS, horseshoe balding, turtle neck wearing, pipe smoking, sporting the Elvis lamb chops regardless of era with patches on the elbows of the sport coat liberal type avoids any and all reference to religion. They believe that by the government not establishing a state religion it means that religion must not be mentioned at all. This was a different angle all together. What family celebrates every and all traditions? This Sid is gonna be seriously messed up when he gets older.


And really? Doesn't that just freaking sum it all up anyway? To them it isn't your faith. It is your cultural tradition. Judaism, Christianity, Santa Claus, made up African holiday, Winter Solstice Celebrations for the Earth, Druidism, Wicca..........to them all just merely traditions, myths, stories all in the same category so why not just throw them all in together? Not science. Not to be taken seriously. I guess Sid is all about science so it makes sense that throwing them all up there together to minimize them is perfect like an inside joke that they thought we wouldn't get.




It was bad enough that my generation practiced tornado, fire and bomb drills with the same frequency and because my church, my school, nor my parents thought it was important it wasn't until college that I learned what makes a Jewish person the same and different from me. Of course this was a little embarrassing because I learned this from a roommate who was......Jewish. I'll tell you another time how I learned what intercourse is and the definition of being a homosexual.........two different stories......I promise. Okay, so my generation from Midwestern Lilly white America started out pretty jacked up but most of us have figured it out eventually. What about Sid?










It won't be long before I have to listen to this song performed repeatedly by my kids via Wii Rock Band but think some kid on American Idol sang it first.

13 comments:

Kansas Sity Sinic said...

This song has been stuck in my head allllll day.

I'm looking for my friends...I'm looking for you..there's Gabriella..

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

My niece loves Sid the Science Kid and we also watched it this morning....I didn't think it warranted a diatribe equipped with bomb shelters and remnants of decades past.

She has a Sid the Science Kid talking doll that she LOVES compliments of Aunt Sinic.

PS: Gerald seems a bit goofy for my liking.

kcmeesha said...

I grew never knowing what homosexual is and not knowing much about religion, except that it was the opium for the people (I still think so).I had the Jewish thing down pretty good since it was written in every document I had.

JOCOeveryman said...

Oh Sinic you know me......I can write a thousand words on anything.....pretty poor actually. We love the show.

Gerald rocks!

Did you catch the Menorah, Xmas tree, Kwanzaa deal in the background? Stuff like that just gets me thinking and that is dangerous.

JOCOeveryman said...

M.V....Opium for the masses, eh? Straight from the Manifesto, right? Anyway.....always like your perspective. Thanks for commenting.

kcmeesha said...

well, I don't mean it to be offensive.If you want to look at things from my perspective,walk into any religious establishment and pretend you don't know what's going on. I am not sure if it's possible since you probably have one background or another,but I certainly can do it. It looks crazy. Actual religion doesn't matter here. It's the reason I don't ever go to the synagogue, I don't get the point of praying and everything else looks grotesque.

Anonymous said...

Ah shucks. we missed that particular episode of Sid. Did you happen to see a Perfect brownie pan in the back drop somewhere? On a personal note, I prefer the Fresh Beats Band program on Nick-Nick Jr. in the AM. For some reason Sid never stays on for too long before we switch channels. Perhaps the reason my kids won't stay tuned is because they see through PBS' pandering. NAH, we are too damn dumb for that kind of deep insight. We just love Marina & Kiki and Twist & Shout. They used to be known as the "Jump Arounds"...Geez, talk about confusing.
JY in WI

Kansas Sity Sinic said...

BTW, I'm scared of Wiccan peeps.

Yes, I saw the multi-ethnic props--what did you expect from a guy with purple dreds?

JOCOeveryman said...

M.V. It isn't offensive and you make great points always from a fresh perspective....I always appreciate it. Religiousity is weird but I try to let church get in the way of my faith :-) They can be real bastards....I hate to be so jaded but even the church is a business of sorts with bills and people to pay.

JOCOeveryman said...

Jayne....I'll have to check that out....but my kid loves Sid so I don't think we could change if we wanted to. "I love my mom, my mom is cool..." how can you beat that kind of brainwashing! Good to hear from you.

JOCOeveryman said...

Sinic......I knew it wouldn't get past you......funny you saw it though cuz I wouldn't have guessed a single girl like you for much PBS in the mornings.

Yes, the Wiccans are a little freaky....I agree.

Winston said...

I'm actually picturing Sid singing "Imagine" and it is making me laugh.

I Travel for JOOLS said...

When I was a kid we had "Mr. Wizard" and he taught us simple scientific experiments that we could do at home and they were really fun. You can get his old shows on DVD.

Anonymous said...

Have never seen Sid as have no children and never plan to. But your commentary was cracking me up as even though probably several years different in ages I was raised exactly the same way. I had one black person in school and he was "shady" - my little brother always wanted to touch an Indian when we went on vacation near the reservations. Classic and glad kids now are raised to be much more diverse.