{"id":8715,"date":"2016-04-15T02:17:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T02:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/04\/15\/titleknown-jas720-prokopetz\/"},"modified":"2016-04-15T02:17:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T02:17:59","slug":"titleknown-jas720-prokopetz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/04\/15\/titleknown-jas720-prokopetz\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

titleknown<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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jas720<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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prokopetz<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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ramblingferret<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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prokopetz<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Eight essential episodes for any early 90s children\u2019s cartoon:<\/p>\n

1.<\/b> The \u201cSay No To Drugs\u201d episode where the censors wouldn\u2019t let us make any reference to what recreational drugs actually are or what they do, so the plot ends up awkwardly skirting around its own ostensible subject matter. Also, the kid peddling the drugs is the only visibly Latino character in the whole show.
<\/b><\/p>\n

2.<\/b> The \u201cRacism Sucks\u201d episode where the role of black people is played by a vaguely offensive stand-in, like space aliens or sewer mutants or something. The character who ends up being called upon to \u201cbreak the cycle of hatred\u201d is a member of the oppressed minority, because heaven forfend we imply any sort of personal responsibility on the part of our presumptively white viewers.<\/p>\n

3.<\/b> The \u201cKeeping Secrets Is Bad\u201d episode where the protagonist spends the whole time creeping about like he\u2019s desperately trying to hide a situationally inappropriate erection. The episode tries to frame a moral about the value of honest communication, but completely undermines itself by having the secret turn out to be something really trivial.<\/p>\n

4.<\/b> The \u201cYoung Love\u201d episode where we\u2019re not allowed to acknowledge that twelve-year-olds have sex drives, so the male lead\u2019s infatuation plays out as this chaste, courtly thing that our target audience can\u2019t relate to at all. When the object of the protagonist\u2019s affections inevitably proves unreceptive, his decision to respect her refusal is framed as a noble moral sacrifice on his part.
<\/b><\/p>\n

5.<\/b> The \u201cStranger Danger\u201d episode that plays out as a bizarre parable about creepy old men lurking in bushes, because acknowledging the fact that virtually all children who are sexually assaulted are victimised by adults they already know and trust didn\u2019t play well with the focus groups. Also, we\u2019re not allowed to even hint at what the creepy old man wants to do, so there\u2019s never any sense that anyone is actually in danger.<\/p>\n

6.<\/b> The \u201cEverybody Get Along\u201d episode where a secondary character attempts to bow out of a group activity that they find difficult or upsetting, and spends the next 22 minutes being relentlessly badgered and humiliated for having the temerity to prioritise their own emotional well-being over the will of the group.<\/p>\n

7.<\/b> The \u201cDisability Is Inspiring\u201d episode where a character who\u2019s in a wheelchair for some unspecified reason teaches the group an important lesson about perseverance in the face of adversity. Though all of the regular cast treat her like an old friend, this is the only episode in which she appears.<\/p>\n

8.<\/b> The \u201cMulticulturalism Yay\u201d episode where the token African-American character saves the day with the Power of Blackness, by which we mean an awkwardly rhymed hip-hop verse written by a middle-aged white guy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

ANyone got any more? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sure!<\/p>\n

9.<\/b> The \u201cLearning How To Have Fun\u201d episode where being an introvert is treated as a disease to be cured. The affected character\u2019s \u201cfriends\u201d repeatedly force her to engage with busy social settings until she experiences an abrupt personality shift that looks a lot like Stockholm syndrome. Fortunately there\u2019s absolutely no continuity, so she\u2019ll be back to her old self next episode.<\/p>\n

10.<\/b> The \u201cRespecting Others\u2019 Beliefs\u201d episode where the main cast treat a secondary character like garbage for holding some unusual but ultimately harmless personal conviction, even if their doing so is starkly at odds with prior characterisation. The episode completely misses its own point by having objective proof of the oddball belief in question turn up at the end.<\/p>\n

11.<\/b> The \u201cLogic Versus Feelings\u201d episode that frames science and emotions as opposing and mutually exclusive cosmic forces. A female cast member finds happiness by learning to set aside her scientific inclinations and \u201ctrust in her heart\u201d, whatever that means.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

12. The\u00a0\u201cbully episode\u201d where we learn a bully character has a troubled home life, and by troubled I mean poor and\/or possibly abused thus demonizing the poor and abuse victims, and ignores that real world bullies are mostly just jerks who are held unaccountable for their actions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You know, it\u2019s interesting\/distressing how; as far as I can see; the existence shit like this and its mandatory network-enforced nature explains so much <\/i>about the spawning of at least a few of the reactionary ideas in nerd culture as to what social responsibility\/diversity looks like in media\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sadly, all of these tropes are alive and well in today\u2019s media, too. This is a constant battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

titleknown: jas720: prokopetz: ramblingferret: prokopetz: Eight essential episodes for any early 90s children\u2019s cartoon: 1. The \u201cSay No To Drugs\u201d episode where the censors wouldn\u2019t let us make any reference to what recreational drugs actually are or what they do, so the plot ends up awkwardly skirting around its own ostensible subject matter. Also, the … Continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}