They Don’t Change
Many people assume that the current Republican Party is the worst it has ever been, but let me disabuse you of that notion.
On Brian Williams’s show he noted the abuse Newsmax host, Greg Kelly, directed towards the Bidens’ senior dog, Champ. First off, I grew up with German Shepherds and Champ looks like a normal elderly male Shepherd in Winter. In the Spring he will shed his undercoat and become sleek. Like most older Shepherds he has mobility issues. On the show, Williams used a clip of another Democratic President dealing with a slander against his dog. The Campaign dinner address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the Fala speech) in September of 1944 at a labor union event covers not just Fala, but a list of attacks against his administration by the Republican Party. That link goes to the audio and the text. Bipartisanship has never been a big thing with the Republican Party whether the nation was in a World War or a Pandemic.
The other incident that really annoyed me was Sen. Tom Cotton on Fox News calling a content warning on the Muppet Show a Mickey Mouse move. Yo, Cotton, it’s coming to the Disney+ streaming service. The Mouse is very cautious about labeling adult material to protect its brand. Once you leave the Sesame Street muppets, “adult themes” can slip in to Henson’s work.
Some of Henson’s advertising work involves muppet violence, and people who watched the first season of SNL were treated to Henson’s The Land of Gorch. Jim Henson wasn’t shy about double entendres coming from the mouths of muppets.
4 comments
I agree with you on both counts. I’m not sure why newsmax was throwing shade at the dig. All the pictures I’ve seen show a nice looking older dog. I guess they have to find something to disparage to keep their viewers happy. I didn’t realize that about the Muppets. I guess a warning is needed.😄
If they wanted to complain about dogs, how about the abuse of Ted Cruz’s Bichon Frise, Snowflake – leaving the dog in an empty unheated house while the family heads to Cancun. A friend of my brother’s family has a Bichon that she carries everywhere in here purse. It is the easiest breed to travel with, but Snowflake was left behind.
Disney is very sensitive about the separation between child/family entertainment and even PG. The PG stuff goes out via the Buena Vista brand, not Disney. The Land of Gorch was the basis for the later movie, The Dark Crystal.
I’ve seen the adult warning on several Disney+ offerings and have gone “Huh?” But, it’s always been clear to me, from The Muppet Show on, that apart from Sesame Street, most Henson shows were adultish. Face it, puppets behaving badly is amusing to the Over 17 crowd.
It started with Punch and Judy shows a very long time ago. Cartoonist are not much better. A lot of the Loonie Toons cartoons, especially Bugs Bunny, were often on the edge.
OT: Is that a good email? I need to ask you something.