Recently, on one of my
favorite podcasts, a documentary was reviewed titled
Finding North. The point of this particular documentary was to highlight the rather massive (pun intended) issue of childhood obesity in America. In the end, the documentary was reviewed poorly because it left the viewer with the impression that what they saw was a bunch of fat, American kids complaining that they were hungry. When I heard that my mind immediately cut to the scene where Eric Cartman explains to Starvin’ Marvin about
appetizers. The comparison disturbed me on a couple of levels: For starters, it bothers me that the film’s producers took such a vital and pressing issue of American Society and made it sound like the mewling of a fat, spoiled rotten cat. Second, why is my mind so easily able to remember an episode of a cartoon with vivid detail after nearly 15 years of seeing it (once), yet can’t remember to take the trash to the curb on Monday mornings? Anyhow, I asked
Charlie if she’d mind if I responded to her review (not to rebut, I haven’t actually seen the film, but simply to give my take on the cause of this issue).
The biggest problem, of course, is that the issue of childhood obesity in America is probably the largest problem impacting this country and it certainly doesn’t help us when a group of well intentioned people lose the thread of their point and make us look like fat idiots to the whole planet (and if you’ve paid attention at all to our political climate recently, you’ll know that we don’t need any help with that).
So. How can the point be illustrated without sounding pandering or pedantic? I have no idea, because I’m rather dim. BUT! The best part of being dim is not knowing when to shut up!
