Gore Tolerance Dropping...

Something weird just happened to me.

Excessive gore on TV has disturbed me. I mean, I saw Dawn of the Dead at 16 and it bugged me for two days afterwards. Not for the gore and the flesh-eating zombie scenes (which did go on a little too long, but whaddaya expect) but for, ahem, it's social commentary. Spoiler (highlight to read): The zombies triumph, but only because one group of humans fuck over another group of humans to get at resources. I found that quite disturbing

I've seen a lot of gory movies in my time, with no lasting ill effects. Usually the gore is way over the top like Evil Dead or was way oversold and wasn't nearly as bad as was made out to be. Either way I wasn't disturbed.

Until today that is.

And what the hell did it you ask?

A MadTV skit.

Lemme say that again.

A MadTV skit.

It was a parody of those Snuggle laundry commercials, you know where the little teddy bear named Snuggle starts whoring fabric softener to the smiling mom-type so that her family will love her...

Only in the parody the mom was a rabid, foaming at the mouth, demon-fearing shrew who obviously never watched television. She proceeded to beat the hell out of the bear.

First with a tennis racket she brained him while he pleaded that he was only there to help. Then she spray bleached him and finally stabbed him through the heart and electrocuted him when the clothes hanger wire contacted and electrical outlet.

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In my 20's I'd have found this sort of wanton violence hilarious. I still did, but it was tinged with unmistakeable dread that I couldn't explain.

"Why is this disturbing me?" I asked my lovely wife.

"I don't know, but I'm sure glad BooBoo is asleep and didn't see this." BooBoo is our two year old daughter, who has never seemed to be scared of anything on TV. And she's seen a lot of Buffy and Angel. And then it hit me.

It's the daddy thing. It's changed me. I'm always looking over my shoulder to see how what we're watching is effecting her (and her 7-month old sister, who stands in her playpen to get a better look at Elmo on Sesame Street) and that's making me uncomfortable about what I'm seeing.

Good Lord. Next thing you know I'll start using that channel lockup thing-a-ma-doodle to lock out The Movie Networks selection of really bad and tacky late night hard-core porn (not that I've ever watched it, except as a concerned parent making a careful evaluation of...of...of whatever the hell it is I'm evaluating)

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Oh and how does the skit end?

Well Snuggle demonically recovers from the electrocution and is about to get vengeance when the Sheila Copps-like housewife dismembers his left arm with the dryer door. Snuggle disappears, presumably to lie in wait until her clothes are again hard and uncomfortable enough to warrant more fabric softening...

It is an end, but for how long?

Is this what happens to ALL parents?