Who in the World is Murray?

When my husband found out we were having a boy, the first words out of his mouth were, "He will not be watching that Pokemon Japanese-anime crap."

Yup, that's right. We are TV purists. We don't want our son watching anything we didn't.  Meaning no Bob the Builder, Dora (or Diego, or whatever the hell Dora's little brother is called), Pokemon, Schmokemon, or any of that nonsense.  And I don't care what my lovely sister says about iCarly being one of the greatest role models for little girls, I ain't havin' none of that!

So, we did what any good TV-watching idealists would do.  We bought everything Potato could watch on DVD.  But then, Potato had a consult with an educational therapist and boy did we get our asses chewed out.  Potato needed to be singing more, playing more call and response games.  Basically, the kid needed to be watching more Sesame Street.

Reluctantly, I turned on an epsiode.  How bad could it be, right?

First, there was this red muppet with a seemingly fluffy lower lip (I'm thinking beard?) named Murray.  MURRAY?  Who in the hell is Murray?  The Jewish monster muppet? At first I was offended.  But then I was just ticked off.  There was this whole cast of characters that I didn't know. Abby Caddaby and her flying fairy school?  I mean, really, is this some sort of weird allusion to the fact that homosexuality is ok?

I was super offended (read: laughed out loud, then decided to write a letter of protest) that Murray has his own segment about him and his "little lamb," a Spanish-speaking sheep named Ovejita.  First, it shows great restraint on my part that I didn't punch the TV when the "Murray Has a Little Lamb" theme song, a rap ditty, came on.  It was so tacky.

Then, Ovejita, who sports a ridiculously high-piched voice, a la Karen Walker on Will and Grace, goes to Gardening School, where Ovejita, upon spying a beautiful flower, comments, "Que Bonita," in this whiny, stereotypical way.  After I stopped laughing, I realized that having kids speak a second language these days is all the rage. But the combination of the voice quality and tone of the sheep was so degrading, even to me.  And I'm not Latina!

It got even worse when they did a Bert and Ernie "solve a crime" segment in claymation.  CLAYMATION people!  What happened to actual puppets that taught you how to brush your teeth and count to 3?  These claymation versions of my favorite quasi-gay puppets taught us that a duck is still a duck even if it whistles instead of quacks.  Even I was a bit confused by this lesson.

The problem is, Potato seemed to like it.  So unfortunately, it is here to stay.

But I must say, I am angry at you Sesame Street, for changing.  Cause I don't like what you've become.

This is my entry to MamaKat's Writing Workshop.  Visit her site to read the other great entries!