December 29, 2005

That amazingly transgressive American idea: Fun!

Chinese kids get a look at Nickelodeon TV:
There was ... sliming, a highlight of the American version of the show, which involves dumping, squirting and otherwise propelling green gooey stuff at people. And adults repeatedly were whacked by children - with balloon bats, of course - just to give the Chinese a taste of the freedoms afforded to children in the United States.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the show's national television broadcast was that children in China seemed to think that even this much kinder, gentler version of the program was wonderfully, outrageously transgressive.

"This is just so much fun," said Wang Yinong, a shy 12-year-old girl who watched the show at home with her parents in Shanghai. "I'd really like to go there and do the same thing: slime people."
Ah, freedom!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was just thinking that myself. Our TV and advertising sells joy, a kind of existence we take for granted.

I remember reading about participants at a world police conference. Cops from all over reported a universal phenomenon: suspects demanding their Miranda rights and money for a phone call when arrested! The police figured they had all got it from American cop shows. So maybe Dick Wolf and Bush will go down in history as co-great liberators!