Nuts and Veggies | Tragic Comedy

If you haven't heard, VeggieTales is coming to NBC. Without reference to God. And the creator feels duped. (link)

On the one hand, he signed the contract and should have read the fine print, in a manner of speaking. He should have asked whether his show would be subject to broadcast standards. On the other hand, I can see why it didn't occur to him: The series is so overtly Christian (and PTC president Bozell is right that it's the key to the series's success) that the man must have assumed NBC wouldn't court him if they didn't want God on the air. That's like a thoroughly obscene rapper being pursued by a record label and then discovering in the studio they want his rhymes rated PG.

Forgive my bemusement at PTC's outrage, since everything seems to cause them instant outrage, but this is bullshit coming from them:

"What struck me and continues to strike me is the inanity of ripping the heart and soul out of a successful product and not thinking that there will be consequences to it," said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council. "The series is successful because of its biblical world view, not in spite of it. That's the signature to `VeggieTales."'

After all of the vitriolic attacks Bozell has made against R-rated programs on television and the adult content they contain that makes them successful – would anybody watch The Sopranos without violence or profanity? – it's hypocrisy for him to decry the removal of VeggieTales's most successful element. If he wants to condemn NBC for taking out God because it's God, then he should do so, not forge an argument that runs countrary to 90% of the arguments he usually makes.

Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

Mystery Gift

Thank you, Johnson, whoever you are. I received what I presume is a birthday gift hand-labeled from someone named "Johnson" in Jacksonville, Alabama, postmarked Anniston, Alabama on May 22nd. This means it's someone who knows me well enough to anticipate my birthday and know my home address. Go »

Scary Mary

New horror film? Thanks, Jon. Go »

Normal Paranormal

This will offend believers in the paranormal, so read at your own peril. Socially, I've tried to keep it a polite secret that I don't believe in any paranormal phenomena, including the everyday sort. Several of my local friends practice feng shui, buy healing magnets, size people up based on their birth signs, and go to dieticians who tell them not to eat foods of certain colors. Go »

Not Exactly Red Hot

Her: "What's that CD you're holding?" Me: "Chili Peppers. I still haven't gotten over their album from last summer." Go »

Great Weekend

Some people love going fishing all weekend; others prefer a romantic getaway. The perfect weekend for me these days means getting enough sleep and writing a FIN post from start to finish, since getting even one of those is a rarity. But this weekend, I put everything else aside and did both. Go »

Eschew Obfuscation

For any FIN players wondering where in the hell the game is: I used my little free time over last weekend writing a mini-post – three whopping paragraphs – and at the end of the weekend I just couldn't bear to publish it so short. (The title of this post was the planned title of that post.) I have now rearranged my social so that weekends are more free, and one thing I plan to do with the time is resume writing FIN, starting this weekend by expanding my three paragraphs into more like three pages. Go »