Tue, May 16, 2006
The Damnedest Things—10:56 PM
The other day, I was hanging speakers in the new condo, so I was watching TV with my back to the screen and I wasn't bothering to fast-forward through the commercials. An ad started up with a child's voice singing:
There ain't no bugs on me
There ain't no bugs on me
There may be bugs
On some of you mugs
But there ain't no bugs on me
And I immediately thought, "Oh, that's a shame. TV kids shouldn't be perpetuating that sort of terrible grammar." I mean, today's kids face enough educational challenges – they shouldn't be sounding like morons because of TV kids slinging "ain't" around.
Then the announcer came on, and it became clear that it was an ad for flea collars. It wasn't a kid singing; it was a puppy. And I actually breathed a sigh of relief. Before I could even stop myself, I thought, "Well, that's better then. It's just a dog."
I still laugh when I think about that sequence of reactions.
But now I'm het up because of how stupid it is that we're still airing TV commercials with talking animals. For Christ's sake!
Joe Mulder — Wed, 5/17/06 2:57pm
See, and I would be thinking, "man, if you're going to bother to teach a puppy to talk, why would you teach it to talk wrong?"