July 21, 2010
- I noticed an interesting, if pointless, link between the cartoon show The Boondocks and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. In both of these cartoons (or comics, books, whatever) there is a character representing big business, corporate greed, what have you. In The Lorax this character is the Once-ler, and in The Boondocks, well, it’s Mr. Wuncler. Both Once-ler and Wuncler represent the way big business uses the lower class for their own goals and rapes the land of it’s resources at the expense of all those on it. It’s just a nice little parallel, a nod of the head on the part of Aaron McGruder, as both characters’ names are pronounced the same.
-Contributed by SamRay
- We’ve all had our suspicions about Spongebob’s sexual orientation. Oddly, being close with a friend of the same gender points to homosexuality but, this isn’t about a relationship with Patrick. This is about the episode of Spongebob Squarepants in which his B.O. fends off residents of Bikini Bottom.
In the episode, Spongebob confuses his B.O. for “ugly”. Spongebob’s “ugly” is homosexuality. This is backed up by a few events in the episode. Mainly, the scene where he stands on the roof of his pineapple and proclaims his ugly pride. Right after he exclaims his pride, we switch to Squidward alone remarking “Is that what he calls it?” It was right there and then that I knew that this episode was, very subtly, taking on the issue of homosexuality.
-Contributed by Matthew S.
- The toy characters in the Toy Story series are shown to internalize what they are made to represent: Buzz Lightyear initially believes himself to be a space explorer, the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots are extremely combative, and the like. However, they are not always equipped to actually carry out their assumed functions: Buzz’s laser doesn’t work, Rex cannot actually eat smaller animals, etc. One key inability shared by all of the toys is the inability to reproduce. Strangely, though, Woody and Bo Peep carry on a low key relationship. What makes this even stranger is that in Toy Story 2, Woody is prepared to leave for Japan and never come back, but does not even mention his relationship with Bo Peep, even though this would jump immediately into the mind of any normal person. This would suggest, then that their relationship is essentially “going through the motions”: they do it because they are “imprinted” to do so, rather than for any biological reason.
-Contributed by H. Rex
3 Comments | 
homosexuality, knock-offery, Mini-Analyzations, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Boondocks, The Lorax, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, villains | Tagged: Buzz Lightyear, Squidward, Woody | 
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Posted by The Editor
July 2, 2008
The pugilistic Super Punch blog has decided that the underlying message of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax isn’t quite as obvious as it seems…
We were all clearly supposed to come away with the message that protecting nature is good and building factories is bad. According to Wikipedia, the book has even been banned for being too anti-industry. But after reading The Lorax a few dozen times to my son, I’ve realized the story is actually a pretty damning indictment of the Lorax, and the environmentalists he represents.
Super Punch: The Lorax’s Real Message >Catena Ex Situ
1 Comment | Dr. Seuss, The Lorax | Tagged: thneed, unless | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
