Thursday, May 04, 2006

Rant! Blue's Clues

Way back in the day, it was Steve and Blue living in a little cartoon house with lots of little friends. Take a closer look though.

Steve is clearly either an adult that's a little, uh, slow or he's a "child." Now, since after 7 or 8 seasons he left Blue all alone to "go to college" it's clear that the character isn't intended to be a young child in the shape of an adult. Little ambiguous there. Disturbing no?

Then Joe, Steve's younger brother comes to take care of Blue when Steve left for college. As far as I recall, Steve has not ONCE called to check on his "Friends" or Blue. No quick visits, nothing. Not even a letter. Abandonment? I think so. And leaving his little brother to pick up the pieces and take over his life. Poor Joe, he never complains and he seems to be having fun... but there's got to be some resentment going on here. Disturbing.

Certain animals on Blue's Clues "speak" just like Blue; in yips and roh ohs eerily similar to Scooby Doo. Magenta and Green Puppy for instance. Yet other friends, like Purple Kangaroo can talk. People talk, not Scooby speak. What's up with that? Yet Joe and Miranda don't seem to notice. They're not concerned that their beloved pets have speech impediments? "Blue, look at Purple Kangaroo. She's an animal, but she can speak clearly. What's up with you? Come on, let's go talk to a speech therapist."

Anyone notice that Mother Nature, The Dentist, The Teacher, and other adults shown are merely CARTOONS? The only real people are Joe and Miranda! And they let their pets run their lives! Sigh. I used to hope that Joe and Miranda would hook up, but I'm not sure they could handle it.

I've also noticed that Blue is usually either Amazingly Brilliant, so much so that she outshines Joe (and formerly Steve) in the brains department, yet other times, Blue needs help with the simplest of tasks. Depending on the situation, Joe is either massively stupid, massively not paying attention, or he's right on the ball. Eh, OK yes that makes him a typical man... so maybe not so disturbing.

Does it bother anyone else that the only set of parents in the house are Mr Salt and Mrs Pepper? And they seem to be too busy getting it on to fill the spice rack to be much supervision or parental guidance for Joe. ESPECIALLY when they skiddoo. Come on now, if ever they needed some supervision, or at least some house rules, it would be skiddooing into a strange place they've never seen before. How do they know what's in there?

Mailbox just annoys me. That's kind of creepy how he pops up out of nowhere, no matter where Joe is. Creepy.

The kids don't think it's weird that the characters talk to them and wait for a response. And the kids also don't think it's weird that Joe responds to their responses. Or that he assumes they gave the right answer even when it's clearly the wrong answer. He just doesn't seem to listen. Again, classic male behavior I guess but come on. He doesn't seem to notice the perplexed looks on their faces when they say "It's the PINK ONE!" and his response is "You're right! It's the GREEN ONE! Good job!" Disturbing.

It's also odd that Joe just blindly opens his mail without checking the sender. How does he know that it's not from some evil perp? And how does he know all of those kids that send the mail? He never gets out of the house! Unless he's skiddooing into a grocery store or supplies store or the dentist or Blue's kindergarten. Which is comprised only of other animals.

I HAVE noticed that the characters with the most "power" are all female. Side Table is a female, and so is Tickety Tock. Sdie Table holds the precious Notebook and Crayon, as well as other little goodies as needed, and she controls who opens the drawer. Tickety Tock, well, she's a clock and keeps time. She lets them know when everything is supposed to happen. That's power. We know who wears the pants in the Salt & Pepper family. But most of all, BLUE is the one calling all the shots in this house. Not Joe, but Blue. The dog. Yeah yeah, she's a special dog that came from a magic book or something but she's still a dog. She's a female, and in charge. She knows what she wants and goes after it. She leads the men (Steve and Joe) by the nose and they do EVERYTHING she wants. In some circles, all of that would make her a bitch. Oh wait! She IS a bitch isn't she?

It's a great show, really... my girls have learned their colors and which hand is left or right. They've learned about interpreting people's feelings and being considerate of others. They sing and "play" and have fun. I have decided that my adult brain just analyzes it far too much. Still, ya really gotta wonder...

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