Handy Manny

Soooo, I took the family to the hospital this morning for a follow up appointment with the new baby. Whilst Deanna was talking to the nurse and such little man and I were relegated to the comfortable but not opulent waiting lounge.

Being the TV addict I am, I was naturally drawn to the 23" LCD TV so tantalizingly hung in the corner of the room. Thusly I was exposed to my first episode of two shows, I found them both to be hilarious, however the reasons were complete polar opposites of one another.

Firstly was Phineas and Ferb. This is a fast, witty, and clever show that is fun for the kids because its a cartoon, however it appeals to older audiences because much of the humor is WAY above the heads of any children. Some of the jokes refer to abstract concepts and much of it is satire mixed with sarcasm. It was a very good show, I intend to watch more.

Secondly was Handy Manny. This show is purely for children, it has absolutely no adult value except to allow you to plop down a child into its captivating aura for thirty minutes. Children find it fascinating due to the fact that it is 1) A cartoon, and 2) The tools are alive and talk, which I find extremely irritating. If my hammer refused to do its job of pounding nails because its feelings were hurt, I would promptly find a way to kill it.

I know, I know "Why so harsh" you ask. Well, for those of you who have NOT seen the 80's hit Maximum Overdrive my reasoning may not be immediately clear. Suffice it to say a hammer with feelings may not always have such a benevolent attitude toward its owner. Combine this with its displayed leaning toward insubordination and you have the motive and ability to wake up to you hammer "mistaking" your head for a nail with which it apparently has some deep and troubling quarrel.

Though the talking tools did provide me with a wistful five minutes of what-if scenarios, detailing exactly what I would do if my tools were as moody and chatty as the ones our friend Manny owns (incidentally very little of which should EVER been seen by children) I was continuously and increasingly distracted from my revelry by something I kept noticing throughout the program.

It is obvious that the goal of this program is two fold, A) teach the viewer Spanish and Spanish culture and B) show how teamwork is beneficial. Now it should be stated that I have absolutely no issues with either of these goals. In my locale we have a large population of Mexican-Americans so I am about as well versed in their culture as any pasty white boy on the outside of their culture can be. Some of the things my neighbors do seem strange to me, like BBQ outside in the freezing rain at 3AM. But, their not hurting anyone so no problems here.

Please remember your history and culture, people who do not are doomed to a future stripped of any since of identity within their cultural group. So by all means keep your history alive, so long as you also remember where you are today and on whose backs and with who's blood the freedoms and opportunities you are now enjoying were made possible. But I digress.

What struck me as funny about Handy Manny was the fact that Manny is a handy man. Yes, hence the name of the show, I know. However this is a common stereo type and it struck me as odd that they would embrace this instead of skirt it. Another aspect is the demographics of Manny's neighborhood. The people in Manny's ...town? ... village? ... (well just go with neighborhood) are predominantly Hispanic, they are not poor nor are they rich. They are portrayed as normal, what one would call middle class people. This is NOT what struck me, what WAS interesting to me was the one white guy in town (that I saw) was portrayed as smug, rich, and inept. I also noticed that there wasn't a single black person either ... where was the ACLU on that one?

Maybe this is all too much to read into a simple child's show. Maybe I noticed something that wasn't there due to my intense dislike of anti-Americanism that so often is thinly veiled as multiculturalism.

It should be noted that this is the only episode of the Handy Manny show I have ever seen, and that I am not passing judgement on this show. I am simply sharing what I found as interesting. I will probably not be watching any more Handy Manny, not due to any racial overtones (because I don't believe there are any) but due to the fact that I hate his neurotic little tools and fear that they will haunt my dreams. No, thank you but I will keep my Phineas and Ferb. They may have a platypus for a pet but at least he doesn't talk ... AND HE IS A SPY! How awesome is THAT!