Published
in Entertainment
Weekly
By: Valerie Monroe
February 16, 1990

A
guy counting money sneers into the camera. "Suckers!"
he says. "If you kids want to waste your good money on
a dumb tape like this, you get what you deserve."
Is
he kidding? Apparently not.
What
follows is a collection of Laugh-In-style
skits, some of which appeared on the Nickelodeon show You
Can't Do That on Television. Most involve some
form of slimy liquid being dumped on a child's head - all
young kids I know find this hilarious. But many of the skits
also contain a disturbing undercurrent of contempt.
An
adult tells a boy, before throwing a bucket of water at him,
"You really are a stupid kid, aren't you?" A teacher
hits a kid so hard upside the head that he falls off his chair.
A Dickensian-looking character, missing most of his teeth
and wearing several days' stubble and a chef's hat, introduces
himself as the Children's Cook. He's proud to have the job,
he says, but he's never cooked any children before. Any volunteers?
he asks his home video audience. My son raises his hand. By
the end of the skit, the "chef" has pulled out a
long, bloody kitchen knife and decided the best way to cook
kids is to "whack 'em on the head and shove 'em in the
meat grinder." In a culture where real brutality is often
inflicted on children, this skit is tasteless.
The
cast of kids plays a strong role in creating the skits, a
Nickelodeon spokesman says. That explains a lot of its slapstick
humor. But what to make of the video's disdain for the child?
Wherever it comes from, best not to spread it around.
Grade:
F