The time when I drink my morning coffee is a time when my mind wanders all over the place. Usually NPR news is on the radio, but that doesn't mean I'm paying any attention. Normally, I don't remember anything that I was thinking about during that meditative state, but this morning was different.
Somehow or other, this morning, the animated dog Scooby-Doo popped into my mind. I used to watch the show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? when I was a kid, waaaayy back when it first started in 1969 (I was 10), but I haven't seen an episode for at least three decades. Since then, unlike many of the Saturday morning cartoons that began around that time, Scooby-Doo has attained the status of cultural icon. If you understood the title of this diary, you have to admit this. (I have to admit I was a little surprised and more than a little amused when I heard my nephews use "Ruh-roh.") Who would have thought when it started that Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? has become something of an institution of American culture.
But what I realized during my ratiocinations this morning was that Scooby-Doo is also subversive! Follow me over the orange ghost to see why...
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For the two or three people out there who might be unfamiliar with the show, it's characters solved a mystery every episode, one that often involved apparent ghosts or other supernatural dangers. There were five regular characters: the handsome and dashing Fred, the beautiful redhead Daphne, the smart girl Velma (you could tell she was smart because she wore glasses and had no fashion sense), the hippie-guy Shaggy, and the Great Dane Scooby-Doo, who could talk, though with a dog-accent. (According to Wikipedia, the characters were based on those from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. I didn't know that, though it's perfectly obvious to me now: Shaggy = Maynard G. Krebs.)
The comedy on the show always involved the fright response of Scooby (and Shaggy too). They were scared of everything. And then when the ghosts show up, their fright response kicks into high gear. However, the characters would pick up on clues, and together they would solve the mystery, along the way discovering that the "ghosts" or whatever else weird that was happening had a reality-based explanation, and that the supernatural deception was perpetrated by someone with nefarious motives.
And that's where the subversion comes in: Despite the fear that some of the characters might feel toward the "ghosts" at the onset, there was always a logical (though sometimes somewhat outlandish) explanation. This is a lesson in critical thinking! If you are given an explanation of a phenomenon that requires you to believe in some kind of mystical powers or other means that can't be tested by experiment, then somebody's lying to you! The show challenges one to find explanations for phenomena based on what has been proven to be true, that is, based on reality. So children watching the show might get the idea that they shouldn't always believe what everyone tells them, and that they shouldn't accept what others tell them without doing some checking on their own. While I suspect "educational television" was very far from the minds of the creators of this series, it may well have helped some children to follow a path toward independent thinking.
I had always credited Star Trek for inspiring me to become a scientist, but maybe Scooby-Doo had something to do with it too!
Now, on to the comments!
TOP COMMENTS
June 2, 2013
For those not in on this particular American cultural touchstone,
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From leu2500:
ericlewis0 provides the image , and The Marti and Tara the Antisocial Social Worker provide the post mortem findings. Also nominated from the same diary is this thread between ericlewis0, commonmass, and Rogneid.
From Another Grizzle:
This comment was by RJDixon74135 in SanteFeMarie's diary Look at the Oklahoma Flooding-this is not a great place to build a pipeline for toxic corrosive gunk.
I'm recommending it because it's about something I'd never heard about before, a successful challenge to a nuclear power plant even though construction already started. It was in Oklahoma in the70's-early 80's. (It's also really good to be hearing about environmental protest in Oklahoma 30 years ago.)
From your humble diarist:
I should have nominated this comment by Inventor yesterday, from Jeremimi's diary RIP Jean Stapleton January 19, 1923 – May 31, 2013. That comment ought to have aquired more recs, in my opinion. For context, go here.
azureblue starts an interesting thread in Christian Dem in NC's recommended diary A personal experience with how the religious right has poisoned our discourse. I also liked this response by monkeybrainpolitics.
Following BeninSC's example, here's a top comment flagged by BusyinCA, authored by greywolf1948, from DarkSyde's front page post Being poor in America.
Flagged by David Gee is atana's excellent comment in David Gee's own diary Who Elected The U.S. As The World's Policeman?.
Flagged by serendipityisabitch is an excellent idea from nominalize, from David Waldman's front page post GunFAIL XX.
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TOP PHOTOS
January 1, 2013
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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