News from the Popular Culture Front

I bought The Princess Bride at the beginning of June, read a bit of it, then stashed it on top of a cabinet until the middle of July.  The kids saw me reading it and, because of the title and the cover, demanded to hear the story.  I started reading, figuring that they would lose interest pretty quickly.

Two days and about six hours of reading later [does that sound about right? I know there were four hours of reading on a Thursday], we had reached the moment when Fezzik finds Inigo in the Thieves Quarter, and my patience was at an end.  Elba had screamed in my ear (not an exaggeration) when Buttercup returned to Humperdinck.  Every time I paused -- for breath, to use the bathroom, to cook a meal -- there was pandemonium.

We watched the movie last Sunday afternoon.  Made it through the upsetting parts much more quickly, and I didn't have to read the Zoo of Death bits to my nightmare-prone seven-year olds.  I highly recommend that option.

I was confirmed in my belief, meanwhile, that the children are not ready to hear The Deathly Hallows read out loud.  Elba's scream arose from her uncontainable fear at Westley's fate after Buttercup walks away from him.  I can just imagine how she would handle "The Forest Again."

{Shudder}

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Last Monday, Wilder's best friend's mother casually mentioned that she had missed [some pop-culture moment so completely off my radar, I have already forgotten it] but at least she'd been there for every act of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

I had no idea what she was talking about.  I changed the subject, and the moment passed.  Not until I wandered past Entertainment Weekly at the end of the week did I learn what the heck she was talking about.

I was there for Buffy by the third episode of the series, and have therefore spent the better part of the weekend feeling old.  Very, Very Old.

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This morning, I bravely opened iTunes (the library is working ... today) and downloaded Dr. Horrible.  I thought the children were busy elsewhere, but within five minutes, they were perched haphazardly all around my computer.  I was too distracted by the singing! and the dancing! and the brilliance! to stop the show.

Then all hell breaks loose...

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I question my child-exposing obsession, as the children ask questions over the characters' songs, and demand their own chairs, and generally divert my attention from the dense dialog of the show.

I begin to worry when Captain Hammer declares his ungentlemanly intentions for his next date with Penny, closing with "...and these are not the hammer" while brandishing his fists.

Wilder quickly explains to his sisters, "His whole body's the hammer!"

Whew.  The crude innuendo has escaped the children.

Less than five seconds later, Captain Hammer returns to clarify his point: "The Hammer is my penis."

The children laugh and laugh. He said penis!  I pray that they still don't understand the crude innuendo.

On to Act 3.

Captain Hammer helpfully tells the crowd that he and Penny "totally had sex."

Please let the children forget about the crude innuendo soon.

Gemma -- convinced that Penny should be with Dr. Horrible, not this creep -- cries out in alarm, "but how will she stop the babies!"

Now Captain Hammer is crazy-funny-icky with the chorus of homeless-people insults but we're having a conversation about how people don't get pregnant every time they have sex.

I silently accept the inevitable -- this is all going up on the blog.

Dr. Horrible appears.  The children cheer his antics.

Tragedy strikes.  Elba cries out, "but [that's] a main character! [It] won't die!"

[It] dies.  The children stare at the computer in shock.  Why is [other character] singing "Arise and sing"?  Why is [it] saying [it] is fine?

I try to explain why someone would say the opposite of what she means, and mostly fail to make my point.  I change tactics, and start explaining that this is just a story, with actors who are not dead, and that the writer Joss Whedon has a different way of telling stories.

Elba says, with a half-giggle of horror in her voice, "Josh Whedon is weird."

Half an hour later, Wilder has pulled on his swim goggles and his Darth Vader gloves "because Dr. Horrible has black gloves at the end!"

Calder mutters something under his breath and tells the kids he's taking them to see Wall-E.  Now.

I head off to watch The Guild.

Comments

[Lisa V]

I thought Wall-E was the most depressing, and sometimes scary kid's movie I had seen in a long time.

I was going to write a post about it, but then I felt like a crank.

My kids love Princess Bride. The older two have read the book. This reminds me I should give it to Lin. She's about the right age (10) for loving it.

[Lisa V]

Oh, and I have no clue about Dr. Horrible. We don't any kind of gaming system either. And the kids are rarely allowed to watch the cartoon networks aimed at them. However, they can tell you that Angelina and Brad just had twins, because they watch E.T. over my shoulder when we do dishes. My kids know the wrong kind of pop culture, it shows they are being raised by wolves.

[Madeleine]

Oh! oh! oh! That is exciting! How's your blood pressure doing?

I hadn't heard of Dr. Horrible, either, but now I know to watch it when there are no kids around. Thanks for the PSA.

And I use that same "Main character won't die" line with Snuggly Girl, though she's gotten past it now, I think. Nowadays I mainly have to keep reminding her not to give me Harry Potter spoilers because I am only through #4 and she's read them all.

[Phantom Scribbler]

Ahem. If you had not resisted my arm-twisting re: Facebook, you would have known about Dr. Horrible early and often. I'm just saying.

(Tip: NEVER watch ANYTHING on your computer unless you are using earphones. Nothing makes my kids run to my screen faster than the sound of song...)

[Sara]

Knowing Joss, I watched all of Dr. Horrible with DH after the kids were abed. No main character is safe from that man. Loved it, glad I didn't wind up answering the questions you dealt with ;)

My last, best, tie to hipness is my slightly-younger brother in law, who showed me the first episode while we were on vacation. Since we were travelling home on the last day of its availability, I also had to get it via iTunes. Otherwise, I, too, rely on Entertainment Weekly, which was so behind the ball that I had never heard of this project. They redeemed themselves with a huge online article (exended version of the one in this weeks magazine) with interviews with everyone (affirming my burgeoning old-lady crush on Neil Patrick Harris, and yes I know I'm not his type). But yeah. Old.

Our big media exposure adventure of the past week was Grandpa telling the 8yo, "I have Raiders of the Lost Ark on DVD, and we can watch it on the big TV [ed note: projection screen] downstairs!" Which we'd been discussing but weren't sure he was ready for... and then, while Grandpa babysat while we went to a grownup event, Grandpa showed him Temple of Doom... It doesn't appear to have been too traumatizing - and this is the kid who burst into tears at the end of "Ratatouille" from all the emotion...

[Jennifer]

I screamed when Buttercup left Westley, too, the first time I read it!

[Jennifer]

I screamed when Buttercup left Westley, too, the first time I read it!

[Emma B]

I can't wait to read _The Princess Bride_ to my kids -- I have such fond memories of reading that book. That's one aspect of having older children to which I very much look forward.

[K]

We had the same exact problem with the 2nd episode of Dr. Horrible! I heard about it on NPR - shows how cool I am...

So, I decided to watch it. And the kids ran in. I figured, "It's a musical - what could go wrong?"

And then we got to the hammer-penis part and I turned it off. I'm just now realizing that I never got around to watching the rest of it. Must do that. I'm secretly hoping that Doogie is not the one who dies.

[Andrea]

I never did read the book. I'll have to fix that one of these days.

I loved Dr. Horrible. WAtched it while Frances was with her Dad, so no embarassing penis questions, thank goodness.

[Hilary]

That is too too funny. I watched Dr. Horrible without the kids, but my 9-year-old is fond of singing along to the Buffy musical soundtrack. Luckily he was so delighted by "I"m not wearing underwear!" that he never picked up the "penis got diseases ..." part.

Hope you've all recovered!

We'd been putting off showing them "The Princess Bride" (my younger one is six) but maybe it's time.

-Hilary

p.s. I enjoy your blog very much!

[merseydotes]

I'll have to watch Dr. Horrible on my own. I loved Once More with Feeling soooo much.

When did you start reading Harry Potter to your kids? Petunia will be five in two months, and we are slowly making our way through book one. (We watched movie one as a family a month or two ago.) I think some of our friends are appalled, but I think it's okay. Might be awhile before we get through the other books, but I think the books grow up with the kid.

And I loved WALL-E. I thought it was like a Chaplin movie, sweet and sad and beautiful. Petunia liked it but not nearly as much as The Incredibles.

[Shannon]

THAT cracks ME up. Don't have any idea what you're talking about but will find out as soon as we return to the land of broadband.