Tim and I don't watch a lot of TV. We subscribe to the most basic of basic cable and rarely watch anything beyond Friends reruns and the news. However, YouTube, as you may have noticed, is one of Tim's favorite hobbies.
It wasn't always this way. When we were kids, Saturday morning cartoons and after-school Sesame Street episodes were hallowed ground. The corollary to all that wholesome animation was, of course, corporate sponsorship. And I've got to tell you, looking back, it's not the sheer amount of sugar coated corn products or fried fat they tried to sell us that was disturbing--it's the characters they used to do it.
I grew up in a town that had no McDonald's until I was in high school. (I know!) We had two options--Hardee's and Crispy Chick, a chain so obscure that even Wikipedia has no entry for it. (I did, however, find this reference to my very own hometown, now-defunct Crispy Chick in a Sports Illustrated article about Bo Jackson). Back when we had to walk barefoot in the snow uphill both ways to Hardee's, they didn't have toys in their kids' meals. (I know!) Sure, the sugar cookies (with sprinkles!) and peach milkshakes were yummy, but let's face it: dessert lasts for a few minutes, Happy Meal toys last for maybe as much as a week if you don't drop them down the A/C vent.
So trips to McDonald's were special occasions on par with Christmas and visits to Grandma's house (the one with the pool). At McDonald's you could see all your good buddies: Ronald, Grimace, Birdie, Hamburglar, the Fry Kids...
Wait. What?
Does anyone else find it odd that a fast-food chain has an entire imaginary and, might I add, demented world that includes an effeminate clown, an airheaded canary that can't fly, a kleptomaniac looking for an obesity problem and a dumb-as-bricks purple blob that found one? This is someone's Freudian nightmare come to life--with costumes! And for some reason this stuff made sense to me as a child. I never once questioned the idea that it was okay to pluck talking hamburgers off a vine and eat them. Creepy.
But no where near as creepy as this. Hands-down the scariest five minutes of television ever recorded. No wonder my husband used to have nightmares as a kid.
