Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: UPRC on November 22, 2007, 04:38:46 pm
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Yes. It's true (somehow)..
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/19/sesame-street-adults
Sesame Street DVD is for adults only
The Powers that be have decided that the early versions of the kids' show Sesame Street are too racy for kids of today.
The earliest episodes, bought you by the number 2 and the letter E, were installed onto DVD last week. But horror of horrors Mr Cooper, it is rated adults only.
According to the publisher, early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”
Having grown up on never-ending episodes of Sesame Street, one has to wonder what it was that was so terrible that we saw, that kids of today can't cope with.
In those days it was ok to for Cookie monster's eating disorder to go untreated, for Sally to take a stranger's hand and go to his home, for Oscar the Grouch to be denied prozac, and for blokes living together, Ernie and Bert, to engage in domestic violence.
But Executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente told the New York Times that the main reason for the censorship was nothing to do with anything we could come up with.
It was to do with a famous scene, often repeated, called Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, had a pipe which he later ate.
Modern producers felt that modelled the wrong behaviour. It encouraged smoking and eating pipes. Initially they re-shot the scenes and later it was dropped.
Another reason was that when Snuffleupagus first appeared, he was invisble to all but Big Bird. But later producers decided it was a little creepy to have the giant canary wandering around claiming he was not hallucinating all the time.
I can't.. believe this at all. It's just so ridiculous that it is almost unbelievable. I don't recall the content in Sesame Street ever being BAD FOR KIDS, and certainly not ADULT ONLY.
I honestly don't know what to say.. all that is going through my head is just... "WHAT???" :fogetlaugh:
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This is a good thing because those shows like sesame street or barney the dinosore are scary. If I ever have a child I'll never let him/her watch them.
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Modern producers felt that modelled the wrong behaviour. It encouraged smoking and eating pipes. Initially they re-shot the scenes and later it was dropped.
Hey, I ate pipes as a kid and I turned out fine.
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Yeah I saw this on CNN the other day.
People are so fucking ridiculous.
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My kids can eat pipes whenever they want!
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Sure maybe it isn't as appropriate for children as they thought they used to be, but to make it adults only is really stupid in my opinion.
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Wow.
just wow.
I cannot actually believe this.
This is even stupider than santa saying ho.
EDIT:
Seasame Sreet was brought to you today by the letter R and the number 18+
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now I wonder how many adults are actually going to see it.
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Yeah I saw this on CNN the other day.
I was thinking "man no way thats real" until I read this.
Edit: I still have my doubts about it.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin
verification enough?
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Holy shit, I remember that scene where Cookie Monster eats the pipe.
Also, is pipe-smoking really that big a deal? I don't sitting around with your friends smoking pipes made of plastic with metal bowls, I mean REAL MEN'S PIPES with ceramic bowls and wooden piping, smoking tobacco while reading War and Peace. Like, how many kids smoke old school pipes to appear "cool"?
This brings us to "eating pipes". Is that some sort of sexual metaphor? If so, then the censorship board is obviously smoking a pipe. If not, they are obviously retarded, because what else could it possibly mean? "Hey kids don't EAT THINGS MADE OF WOOD AND CERAMIC AND SOMETIMES METAL OK?" "But dad I saw the blue monster on Sesame Street doing it..." "Well if Cookie Monster did it I guess my wishes as your parent is invalid!"
Seriously, those ratings are useless bullshit anyways. I think it is the parent's job to watch something in its entirely before letting their young kids watch it (movies and DVDs and stuff, obviously that is not always possible for TV shows!), because only they know what they would want their kid knowing. This has the added bonus of your kids similarly not caring about the rating system and thus having no over eagerness to watch some gory movie just because it has a high rating.
Of course, that being said, fuck anyone who says Sesame Street isn't for kids.
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That pipe-eating scene is actually the best thing I remember about Sesame Street.
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Now that it's 18+ a bunch of furries are gonna buy it and go: Ho yeah Big Bird. Show me those feathers.
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But i like liquorish pipes (the kind that come with sherbet). I swear, kids today are way too coddled, if adults are fearing there childs exposure to real life things like drugs, alcohol and sex, When will the kids grow up if they don't know whats its like to be an adult? No wonder a ton of 18 year olds have the maturity of a 10 year old.
EDIT: lol shadow kirby :fogetlaugh:
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Isn't there a lot of old cartoons that show older characters smoking pipes that are still run regularly on TV channels?
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What about those over sexualized advertisements that show in between kids programmes?
Like in the break for dora the explorer you can see a herbal essences advertisement where a woman pretends to orgasm and yet many advertisements such as this still play.
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this is disgusting. i thought the whole pipe-eating thing was hilarious when i was a kid
people wonder why children are becoming more and more shallow and detached from reality as the years pass. shit like this is really the reason why. people are so hopelessly afraid to speak to kids honestly and so many people really go far out of their way to protect children from anything that's even vaguely controversial. at some point you have to acknowledge that, yeah, the world isn't fucking perfect. better to begin showing children this in genuinely harmless television programming, than to keep it some enormous secret until the BIG BIG SURPRISE when it hits them all at once and they're left to deal with it completely on their own, totally unprepared.
This is a good thing because those shows like sesame street or barney the dinosore are scary. If I ever have a child I'll never let him/her watch them.
if you honestly think sesame street is too scary for children, i really think you should read into this super-useful technique called Vasectomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy). it's the sure-fire way to prevent all your future children from having to endure the horrors of sesame street
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this is disgusting. i thought the whole pipe-eating thing was hilarious when i was a kid
people wonder why children are becoming more and more shallow and detached from reality as the years pass. shit like this is really the reason why. people are so hopelessly afraid to speak to kids honestly and so many people really go far out of their way to protect children from anything that's even vaguely controversial. at some point you have to acknowledge that, yeah, the world isn't fucking perfect. better to begin showing children this in genuinely harmless television programming, than to keep it some enormous secret until the BIG BIG SURPRISE when it hits them all at once and they're left to deal with it completely on their own, totally unprepared.
if you honestly think sesame street is too scary for children, i really think you should read into this super-useful technique called Vasectomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy). it's the sure-fire way to prevent all your future children from having to endure the horrors of sesame street
Hahahh vasectomy, very funny but no thanks I don't want any stupid TV show indoctrinating my children
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haha, i felt for SURE some well respected member was gonna come in here and say they kinda agree cookie monster is a bit too hyped up on cookies for todays kids
its nice to see everyone agree for once!
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It's because of the Count, he is too dark and gritty for children.
(#1 Sesame Street character for sure)
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Wow.
just wow.
I cannot actually believe this.
This is even stupider than santa saying ho.
Took the words out of my mouth--before I had time to think them.
That does it-- I've now got solid grounds to make fun of Murder on Sesame Street, or maybe I'll call it Sesame Hood, in my next game. I was already thinking about it--but now... well, I just HAVE to don't I?
Idiot Muppet bastards. They were good--and now twits in control are destroying it. Kind of like the Simpsons!
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Wait, GTA gets high ratings and kids want to play it...
Manhunt 2 got banned here, but kids still import it (you can as long as youre the only one playing it, meaning the ban is useless)...
Horror movies are frequently viewed by minors...
£10 says giving it an adults only rating will make kids want to watch it more :D
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this is nuts because i find some values in modern childrens shows really frightening. has anyone seen mulan 2?
sesame street was awesome. i think they need a new rating system for shows based on how smart the child is.
like "DON'T BUY THIS DVD IF YOUR CHILD IS GOOFY/IS LIKELY TO MIMIC A BLUE MONSTER MORON"
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this is nuts because i find some values in modern childrens shows really frightening. has anyone seen mulan 2?
sesame street was awesome. i think they need a new rating system for shows based on how smart the child is.
like "DON'T BUY THIS DVD IF YOUR CHILD IS GOOFY/IS LIKELY TO MIMIC A BLUE MONSTER MORON"
:rite:
And yeah, banning it will make kids look at it more :)
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They totally ignored that every kids show ever is pretty much an endorsement for LSD
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If these people saw Avenue Q they'd throw a fucking fit.
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that tv shows are insane
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The things people think their kids need to hide from these days. I accidentally encountered a lot of stuff that was allegedly inappropriate in my youth and I didn't turn into a heroin junkie or anything. Today's kids have shit like Lemonparty to look forward to, and no amount of sticking ratings on things will prevent that.
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If these people saw Avenue Q they'd throw a fucking fit.
lol, Avenue Q wasn't made for children though.
(also, you are awesome for knowing what Avenue Q is)
EDIT: Also, this is retarded. Why'd they have to make it 18+, couldn't they have just made it like 10+ or something.
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Hahahh vasectomy, very funny but no thanks I don't want any stupid TV show indoctrinating my children
What do you mean Inri Cheetos?
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you know, the taking the hands of strangers thing is really the only questionable event on that entire list. the rest, even if when you state it in such a skewed way, is presented in such a benign manner that it's really not nearly as huge an issue as it seems like they want it to be. it's like they went looking for anything that could be considered even remotely close to controversial, BY ANYONE, and blew it out of proportion. even if kids were smart enough at their age to know that what big bird is doing is hallucinating, and that in actuality it's a symptom commonly associated with drug use, the context and tone of the skit really makes it clear, even to the kid, that it's not due to anything so negative. if you just want to take it out of context, then sure, cookie monster smoking and then eating a pipe can seem kind of odd. but if you watch it in its entirety, it's pretty obviously a harmless parody that's topped off by an action more typical of cookie monster (the eating) than it would be of the character he's mimicking. a kid would just think this is cookie monster being silly and up to his same old tricks as he as he eats more and more junk; he'd think it was funny. he wouldn't think it was cookie monster actively condoning the act of smoking. no kid would ever think this. even from an adult perspective, one could argue that the eating of the pipe at the end of the scene sends the opposite message. this is what i thought when i was watching it as a four year old (not the part about eating the pipe being symbolic of anything). being a stupid four year old, i didn't associate the act of cookie monster smoking a pipe with ANY sort of message, positive or negative. it was just him pretending to be an old guy with a funny accent smoking a pipe (as i had noticed, by then, many old guys with funny accents did). it was funny!
this entire thing is really mostly absurd. it's like they're making an assumption that children who know absolutely nothing about clinical depression and eating disorders and nicotine addictions will see this in anything resembling the same way an adult who was actively looking for controversy would.
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I'm pretty sure the "eating pipes" thing was a nudge from the writer, poking fun at any perception of inappropriateness by anyone at Sesame Street.
But man, cookie monster would eat anything. I think I even remember that once he ate a door.
My question is, who is putting these PC, overly sensitized cowards in charge of censorship? They should be shot with arrows by some Indians, imo. When did people become so afraid of the obviouisly minute chances of pissing off some tightly wound soccer mom?
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People are a bit too concerned with what they don't know about children and how they think. Although I believe children are the brightest people on earth, I do not think they would make the same connections nor try any of this stuff in real life *unless they are complete dumbasses. I watched Seasame Street when I was a child, and I don't remember getting diabetes, smoking, or being gay in a shitty basement apartmnent. Seasame street was funny.
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Man, this is pretty ridiculous. It makes me think just what is wrong with people when the standards at the upper end (adult television programming, especially cartoons) are becoming looser, while the standards at the lower end (children's television programming) are becoming tighter. There's no longer that ambiguity between what you could get away with in a children's television program and what you couldn't, because when they pitch a children's television program, it's absolutely for children this time, because "if I wanted to pitch and write for an adult program, I'd pitch it to Spike TV/Adult Swim/G4", etc, and unfortunately, when some people get into the mindset that something is "for children," it's dumbed down and sanitized, and I think that's the wrong way to go about it.
There's an actual market for adult cartoon television programming, and I think that hurts the entire gamut of children's programming in the long run. My friends and I were talking about how it's pretty weird nowadays that shows like SpongeBob Squarepants and The Fairly Oddparents are pretty deceptively complex when it comes to script and how clever they are when they work the jokes in, and how they're just like the old favorites in that regard, like Rocko's Modern Life, Darkwing Duck, and Aaaah! Real Monsters.
Remember, trust the fungus. (http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?action=post;topic=66596)
(this post has been redeemed, see this (http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=66596) topic for more info!)
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Wait how is Snuffleufagus (sp?) a hallucination and not just IMAGINARY FRIEND
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(http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/37054/sesgang.jpg)
Unless it has Big Bird teaching kids about porn or Oscar discovering the "F" word, I don't see what would justify an adult rating. :blarg:
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Wait how is Snuffleufagus (sp?) a hallucination and not just IMAGINARY FRIEND
i think the difference lies in whether or not the person who sees him truly believes he's real.
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the person is an eight foot tall talking bird.
I wonder if the Flintstones should be Adult Only since only Fred and Barney can see the Great Gazoo?
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That, and they don't wear underwear.
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This has been coming up a lot with dvd releases of old cartoons like how Loony Toons and Tom and Jerry have fucking "intended for adult collectors only lulz" written on them. One of the BIGGEST disappointments this year came when Little, Brown witheld the publication of The Adventures of Tintin gift set (which contained, for the first time in America, EVERY published tintin adventure in one hardbound package) because a few of the earlier books contained racial stereotypes like squinty eyed, buck toothed chinese guys and big lipped black people.
Why is it that society (and not just American society because the UK was a major factor in the publication delay) must DENY its history? It's like we want to teach our kids that NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS? Why is it that publishers must treat us like fucking idiots and FUCKING IDIOTS get clear cut advantages in civil law suits!? The problem with society is the lack of parenting. If I was a parent of a five year old child, I would view everything they would unless I was 100% certain it contained material they wouldn't understand. Even if I was sure, I'd ask them what they learned or how they felt about it. Fucking parents these days pretty much sit their kids in front of the TV and leave. In all honesty, my follks did the same but they pretty much drilled me at the end of the day to make sure I didn't turn into a nutjob with no sense of reality and fantasy.
But I digress, I think this is retarded. I'm pretty sure any sane parent would laugh at the warning when they pick up box.
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Sane parents?
No, they will see this and say" Ho it's 18+ so I won't buy it for little Timmy. He may turn into a pipe smoking addict" but will then promptly buy GTA to their kids because little Timmy said he wanted it.
Or worse. They will buy it and then sue because "HO my little Timmy started smoking and I blame Sesame street. It wasn't written on it that there was smoking. It was only written 18+"
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I hope Sherlock Holmes is banned in schools. Pipe-smoking is the bane of humanity and all evidence of it must be wiped from popular media!
Only then will the children be safe.
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Next thing you know, stupid people will be banned from T.V. (politics)
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Man, I read about this on SG a few days ago. It's so ridiculous. We all watched this stuff growing up (or, at least, old fuckers like me did), and I think most of us turned out pretty normally. Of course, we didn't have insanely overprotective societies.
I almost feel like going and buying these old Sesame Street DVDs to show to my future children. Compared to a lot of today's kid's shows, Sesame Street was brilliant! The stuff kids watch today seems mindless and fairly fucked up. I mean, Lazy Town? What the fuck is that shit, man?
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I almost feel like going and buying these old Sesame Street DVDs to show to my future children. Compared to a lot of today's kid's shows, Sesame Street was brilliant! The stuff kids watch today seems mindless and fairly fucked up. I mean, Lazy Town? What the fuck is that shit, man?
Okay I am not going to make a big point of this but Lazy Town is probably the LEAST terrible of childrens shows. Have you seen Yo Gabba Gabba? It's the worst, worst fucking show on the planet. It doesn't even TRY to achieve anything, unless telling kids their food likes to be eaten is something.
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This has been coming up a lot with dvd releases of old cartoons like how Loony Toons and Tom and Jerry have fucking "intended for adult collectors only lulz" written on them. One of the BIGGEST disappointments this year came when Little, Brown witheld the publication of The Adventures of Tintin gift set (which contained, for the first time in America, EVERY published tintin adventure in one hardbound package) because a few of the earlier books contained racial stereotypes like squinty eyed, buck toothed chinese guys and big lipped black people.
Why is it that society (and not just American society because the UK was a major factor in the publication delay) must DENY its history? It's like we want to teach our kids that NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS? Why is it that publishers must treat us like fucking idiots and FUCKING IDIOTS get clear cut advantages in civil law suits!? The problem with society is the lack of parenting. If I was a parent of a five year old child, I would view everything they would unless I was 100% certain it contained material they wouldn't understand. Even if I was sure, I'd ask them what they learned or how they felt about it. Fucking parents these days pretty much sit their kids in front of the TV and leave. In all honesty, my follks did the same but they pretty much drilled me at the end of the day to make sure I didn't turn into a nutjob with no sense of reality and fantasy.
But I digress, I think this is retarded. I'm pretty sure any sane parent would laugh at the warning when they pick up box.
Tintin DID have a lot of racial stereotypes, but so did like nearly everything else around that time. It's like people forgot that when they were growing up watching Sesame Street, Looney Tunes, Nickelodeon, and reading Tintin that they were reading and watching the same shit that now they're claiming that children couldn't handle nowadays. I mean, seriousy, it's fucking stupid. Racism and sex are realities, children tend to be more and more aware of them at younger and younger ages, and restricting what they watch on TV and read in books isn't going to change that.
I mean, if you're gonna go after something, go after these fucking commercials that come through during children and family programming where women are over sexualized (yeah, "organic experience," real clever, like EVERYONE in elementary school doesn't know what that really means) and alcohol is shown to be accompanied by a grand ole time with no repercussions. I'm more worried about commercials than I am about the shows themselves. Sesame Street and Tintin are pretty damn harmless! I grew up watching and reading that shit and I turned out fine.
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Yeah, but see, when you are a kid and you see some black guy with huge lips you don't think "Hahaha look at that nig-nogs huge lips" you think "Hey there is a character with big lips to distinguish himself from the character is a drunk and the other one who might be gay, maybe" (I'm not railing on Tin Tin as it is awesome, I am just saying he comes off as a bit of a fruit). According to Tin Tin, every white person is either a roaring alcoholic or an over-ambitious detective (also dogs are smarter than people, especially Italians like Miss Castafiore).
Racism is a learned behaviour, but it isn't taught by children's shows. It is taught by parents who make racist comments and by Spike Lee films where everyone is INCREDIBLY racist all the time to each other because that is what real life is like.
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Princeton:
You see?!
You're a little bit racist.
Kate Monster:
Well, you're a little bit too.
Princeton:
I guess we're both a little bit racist.
Kate Monster:
Admitting it is not an easy thing to do...
Princeton:
But I guess it's true.
Kate Monster:
Between me and you,
I think
Both:
Everyone's a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one's really color blind.
Maybe it's a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race.
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Okay I am not going to make a big point of this but Lazy Town is probably the LEAST terrible of childrens shows. Have you seen Yo Gabba Gabba? It's the worst, worst fucking show on the planet. It doesn't even TRY to achieve anything, unless telling kids their food likes to be eaten is something.
I picked Lazy Town because it's creepy as hell. But, I'm sure there are worse. I haven't seen Yo Gabba Gabba, but the name alone makes it sounds pretty stupid.
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Human kind -1
Seriously, 18 +. How stupid is this. Sounds more like a failing publicity stunt to me :s.
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Why is it that society (and not just American society because the UK was a major factor in the publication delay) must DENY its history?
This makes me proud that here in the Netherlands, we celebrate Sinterklaas.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/28695/sinterklaas01.jpg)
He comes from Spain and he has a league of black guys like the ones behind him that bring gifts to all the children in the country!
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I picked Lazy Town because it's creepy as hell. But, I'm sure there are worse. I haven't seen Yo Gabba Gabba, but the name alone makes it sounds pretty stupid.
Seriously, this is what children are being raised on right now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSQiq5OJHuk&feature=related) No wonder our kids are so fucked up.
I know this is an edited video, but the real episodes are pretty much just as bad.
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Seriously, this is what children are being raised on right now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSQiq5OJHuk&feature=related) No wonder our kids are so fucked up.
I know this is an edited video, but the real episodes are pretty much just as bad.
Aww I was hoping that was the real theme music - that would've blown my mind
Also that black dude looks like he must have the word "Tron" in his name somewhere
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Yeah I've got an uncontrollable addiction to eating pipes because of this fucking show. Thanks a lot PBS.
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Yo Gabba gabba looks awesome. Life lessons with a beat.
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Dada, so your Santa is a Spanish priest with his bunch of black slave?
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Yo Gabba gabba looks awesome. Life lessons with a beat.
yeah
except where are the life lessons (besides YOUR FOOD LIKES TO BE EATEN?)
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Dada, so your Santa is a Spanish priest with his bunch of black slave?
He actually was a turkish bishop who freed a black slave (according to one story. To another, he was a priest who resurrected three children from being cut up and cooked). And no, he's not our santa. Your santa is our Sint Nick.
Only yours is an obese pedophile.
And yeah, Sesame Street was awesome and the people who did this should undergo horrible punishments.
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I don't agree with the way that children now a days are being desensitized(sp?) to the real world, it's one of the biggest reasons that crime has been booming in the last 10 years. I don't know the exact statistics but here in calgary the amount of murders that occured 10 years ago was less that 10% of what is occurring now. Only the big bad ones you hear about every other day but back then murders in calgary were big news since it never really happened that often.
Today's programming is cut down to ONLY the words that are ok'd for babies to hear, and visually appealing to a two year old... I loved watching sharks from space, the first power rangers, RUGRATS even and now that show is considered for teens I don't understand why but on a local station when showing the movie stated it had mature content?!?! wtf is so mature about babies in paris?
Sesame Street was something I watched everyday and I was utterly furious when I found out they changed it to sesame park because the street gave the idea it was okay to play in the streets... when did they ever say "chase me in front of this car, you won't feel a thing!"?
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Sesame Park????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
There are not enough question marks to express how I feel at this moment
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i didn't read this entire thread, but seeing as how no ACTUAL CHILDREN are going to be purchasing sesame street dvds, all this is is a warning to the parents that there is something in the content that may be thought of as objectionable now, 40 years later. like, yeah it is retarded but it's not like any child is going to be prohibited from buying them (number one reason no children are going to be buying them anyway).
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Okay I am not going to make a big point of this but Lazy Town is probably the LEAST terrible of childrens shows.
With the exception of the two guys with jock straps five sizes too big dancing around a girl who gets dressed to look like she's jailbait and not having the naughty mind to put two and two together...I guess it's pretty good.
We got the "You are a Pirate" song out of it.
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People are so overprotective these days. Putting an "18+ Only" label on Sesame Street (of all shows) will not accomplish anything.
Slightly OT, but I'd totally watch Yo Gabba Gabba. Perhaps I'm just way out there as it is, but I love that beat. Now, the video itself was freaky as shit.
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People are so overprotective these days. Putting an "18+ Only" label on Sesame Street (of all shows) will not accomplish anything.
Slightly OT, but I'd totally watch Yo Gabba Gabba. Perhaps I'm just way out there as it is, but I love that beat. Now, the video itself was freaky as shit.
If anything, it devalues Parental Warnings and guides further - "What?!" a parent would say, "Sesame Street is 18+? I know that's bullshit. Maybe that game Jimmy wanted, Manhunt 2 which was also 18+, isn't so bad afterall...."
This example is a little extreme, but it illustrates my point - the validity of these warning advisories has come into question (or come further into question, depending on your point of view).