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Republican calls muppets "political animals"
By Ray RahmanFebruary 18th, 2011, 11:30 amComments (9)
You're probably aware by now of the GOP's crusade against public broadcasting, their desire to cut funding for outlets like PBS and NPR. As a result, Elmo — yes, the muppet — showed up on Capitol Hill and testified on "the need for more arts funding." That sounds pretty innocent — unless you're Sen. Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, who wrote an angry blog post outing "public broadcasting's furry friends" as "political animals."
Quoth the Republican,
"Inside the Beltway, Sesame Street turns into K Street and Elmo is a lobbyist. ... Make no mistake, public broadcasting’s furry friends are political animals. At this rate, Americans can expect Big Bird to start filming commercials to hype ObamaCare. ... If the FCC can borrow Elmo from PBS to build support for their plans, what’s to stop the Department of Health and Human Services from feeding Big Bird some lines?"
Sen. DeMint logically thinks that American adults will believe anything if it's said by a man in a bird costume, and that the only way to save this country is to defund muppets. Yes, this is how our elected officials are spending their time. Welcome to your future, Egypt.
Commentarium (9 Comments)
The really sad thing is, there was a comic (in the newspaper! yes, they still exist) just a week or so ago - "Get Fuzzy!", for those that care - where the talking cat (who is a conspiracy theory nut) was going on about how muppets were indoctrinating our kids into socialism.
The comic was supposed to be over-the-top satire. Not prescient.
Here's a link to the most relevant strip in the series (it's actually from December):
http://comics.com/get_fuzzy/2010-12-27/
The Muppets are socialists. But they're so CUTE!
But, cookie monster will never make it past the "death panels" because he is too unhealthy for this communist, socialist dictatorship.
What's stopping Republicans from using media personalities (besides unconsenting talent) to lobby for them?
@julian: Actually, Cookie Monster has been made more politically correct; I think even She of the Frumpy One-Shouldered Dresses would approve.
I am highly amused by the hypocrisy of all the complaints about commercial TV cartoons as "half-hour commercials" when the toy stores are stuffed with Elmo, Big Bird, etc... and are they still doing Sesame Street on Ice?
It's the pot calling the kettle black. Mr DeMint and company are themselves puppets of the right-wing establishment.
Conservative dogma says that private companies do everything better, so why don’t they create their own right-wing educational puppet show? Surely they can outcompete a non-profit and save our childrens’ souls for capitalism.
They could rip off Robot Chicken’s parody of Sesame Street and use Gordon Gecko to host. They could also reuse the bird flu plot to teach kids what a biological terrorist attack would look like and that need increasingly intrusive body searches to prevent them.
I saw a funny vid on youtube about this...
"FIGHT CLUB ELMO"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjVbUW8B5cI
Now you say something