Histeria! and the CommuNuts!

Kid Week, Installment #1. HISTERIA!

Oh yes, this is a week to bring out the capitals, the big booming voices, the lack of inhibitions! (How many four year-old's do you know who have already gotten strangled by nit-picky social mores? That's what I thought!) We'll bring along our love of simply running around, screaming inanities at the top of our lungs, giggling, innocently kidding (half-intentional pun) around with our friends, throwing our bodies at the ground, with gigantic smiles crawling across our mouths, apple juice running down our chins!

[Heads up!: The Theme Song of Histeria, below, is flanked by some quick but annoying AOL-produced fluff. I don't know how else to describe it.]



Today, the Histeria! "histerians" tackle Marxist and Stalinist communism both. Now if only my Russian grandparents could understand the beauty of these cartoons! It really is amazing that the WB ever aired this nuanced, almost subversive (as in ridiculously tongue-in-cheek and quite clamorous), kids' show. It seems almost better cut out for an adult audience, but as you may have noted in my profile, I loved this short-lived show as a kid. Of course, I wasn't your typical ten year-old.

...Anyway, they (my grandparents) can no longer distinguish between what's written in The Communist Manifesto and the frightening government bureaucracies they grew up with. And who can really blame them? My Great-Aunt Isa, after all, never left the mental institution after making a feisty remark about Khrushchev in her young adult years. I believe it was Khrushchev. It might've been Bulganin or Breschev, though. Sometime in the 50's probably, when she was probably a twenty-something. (How I adore Wikipedia's interactive political tables!) The brazen-ness of the women in my family could not exactly be considered an asset in Soviet Russia.

If I had grown up in that era, I'd probably have already been flung in a jail cell and shipped off to Siberia by now. Very sobering. Yay freedom! ...!? ...Right? (Side note: Do you realize the vast quantity of things in relation to which we use the verb "to ship" these days, things that have nothing to do with sea-faring vessels? Every form of package transport is considered "shipping." But just imagine the end result if we sent kiwis to the Midwest on ships and steamboats? It's really fascinating to me, as I only recently, as in the last week or so, started paying such close attention to the language behind the now-predominant, fossil-fueled, industry-powered lifestyle.)

Okay, moving on. What I love about these clips/my reasons to watch 'em: Marx, for the menacing look on his face and for the absolutely hysterical finale. Stalin, for the look on Miss Information's (great name, eh?) face when she describes the legacy of torture "Iron Joe" left behind, for the contradictory and anachronistic Fifties Housewife mom (like a deranged Grace Kelly, actually), the handful of gems she spits out (literally, at least one of those times!), the depiction of Joe's rise to power, the WB sit-com, and the little girl who asks why people didn't do anything to stop him.

With no further ado, some "edutainment"--history presented by the unlikely means of comedy.





Hope that put a smile (partly composed of horror, of course) on your face!