Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Has anyone ever seen the move Supersize Me?

If you haven't, I would like to point out the part where they show pictures of famous people, and see if the children know them. The first picture was of George Washington, the first president of the USA. The children were slightly off, guessing the fourth. Which I might understand. The next was a picture of Jesus Christ, who the kids were even worse on guessing who he was. The children were confused and dumbfounded, and only one answered "George Bush".
Finally they show a picture of Ronald McDonald, which, depressingly, all the children knew.

The children knew who Ronald McDonald was over Jesus Christ.

What do you think about "bad influences" in the media?

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Well, SuperSize Me is an argumentative documentary, so like Michael Moore (though not NEARLY as much as Michael Moore has done), Morgan Spurlock was obviously crafting the film to support his own claims, which includes taking any sort of "data" and tweaking it until it can give the impression he desires while still being truthful.

My take is that many other kids were interviewed and answered correctly on the pictures of Jesus and George Washington. Or maybe it was at a school in a highly non-Christian area of the country. Or maybe the kids were simply raised under a more geographically accurate portrayal of a Jesus with darker skin, and hence didn't recognize White Jesus...though I think that last one's a bit of a stretch.

EDIT: Forgot to touch on general stereotyping in the media, and how it pertains to children. Yes, the media stereotypes a lot. Why? Because it's entertaining in a way...especially when a stand-up comic or some similar figure makes jokes formulated around stereotypes. And because people are just plain stupid in general. (As a matter of fact, I think that looking over all the recorded history of human civilization, you could sum it all up with the three-word phrase "People are stupid.")

I think the stereotypes apply to children, too. I basically see two types of children in the media (both fictional entertainment and "realistic" stuff such as the news): Innocent little kids who show the obvious need for and dependence upon responsible, intelligent adult parents and community; and the bullies (usually slightly older) that understand the system and are calculating little snots that will maliciously attack anyone, including adults (such as the kid threatening to accuse David Spade of child molestation in the movie Lost and Found).

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The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

But still, if you showed a child a picture of that Burger King guy and John F Kennedy, any child, who do you think they would know?

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I don't really think that stereotyped is the right word.

Even though, scary.

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No, I lied. I'm never going to have a good sig. So just forget about it.

How old were the children they asked? That could change it a lot.

I deleted this, but you'll probably see it in quotes >.<

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Unless you grow up in a nation where Christianity isn't the dominant religion.

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The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

True, but I'm focusing on the US, a place where there is, I think 36 McDonalds in Manhattan (sp).

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this was bound to happen, our generation is the laziest generation, were not gonna really ammount to much any more... i mean, what about our children? theyre gonna be the fattest slobs ever, and whos to blame? noone but us. i mean, if parents wont teach their kids the main figure in their religion, what are we gonna ammount to?? a world of slobs and laziness, we gota get off our computer chairs and exercise, work a little, get jobs, do something to keep our generation from being the last.

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I think Christianity is the dominant religion, but too much of the country dosen't have one.

I don't think I agree with that. It was only a small amount of children, the group needs to bigger to get better results.

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No, I lied. I'm never going to have a good sig. So just forget about it.

What? As much as I respect people who arereligious, I Hate it when they say things like "too much of the country doesn't have [a religion]"

Seriously, I think the opposite. Jesus Christ was an epileptic jew & prophet who saves many lives and is a prominent historical figure, but this doesn't mean kids are backwards because they don't know about religion, it should mean they're ignorant because of their lack of knowledge about history!

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Speaking of history, upon what historical evidence are you making this diagnosis?

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Aside from the Roffle-factor attached to this statement, it doesn't actually surprise me that some children mightn't recoignise Jesus from a picture. I mean, does anyone know what Jesus actually looked like?

Plus, there are hundreds of artists' renderings of Christ across the centuries and across different cultures. And some religious art is very stylised, and tends to make Him and other Biblical figures look exactly alike, so..... there's leeway for confusion, imo.

Well, I am pretty much in front of my Lappy all day, but I excersize every day, running a mile, pushups, blah blah blah, and I keep thin. But I agree. We should get off our buts and get some exercize before the world is an overwieght one.

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If they're 5 or 6, then I'm not concerned at all. Me, being raised with no religion, would have no idea who Jesus was if i saw him. And at that age, they're in kindergarten, or maybe 1st grade, and I wouldn't excpect a first grader to identify a picture of George Washington.

So what if they know about Ronald McDonald? That's advertising. They watch tv, their parents watch tv, what's wrong with that?

(By the way, the quotes in the above posts are emssed up. I never said that)

I find that a little offensive. At 5 or 6, there's no way I would have recognized Jesus. Especially since I don't live in a big religious family.

Does that mean I'm not normal?

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No you're normal, yeah, sorry, I guess I should change that

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I do think, however, that today's children and adolescents are perfectly happy and willing to make themselves into carbon copies of the pre-existing stereotypes.

I'm not criticizing you, but that's part of human nature. We are genetically wired to survive, and if you didn't fit in when you were living in caves and eating raw mammoth, the rest of the group wouldn't like you, and you would get killed. It is the same in all forms of life.

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No, I lied. I'm never going to have a good sig. So just forget about it.

That is just because no one really knows what Jesus looks like.

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Well, I put an "other" because there is a group of 11 year olds (I am 11) that is not affected by the media which basically consists of...... Let's see here......me.

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There's a girl at my school who didn't know what turnips or steel were.

She's 12 or 13. My age.

Unfortunately, it seems like this generation consists of a lot of really stupid people (at least, that seems to be the case for us in our late tweens, early teens). I never heard about that Jesus thing, though. My guess is that it would be the stereotypical picture of Jesus--long, flowing brown hair, caucasian, etc. (If not, why would one expect kids to recognize him as Jesus? When I think of Jesus, that's the image I think of, even though I know it's probably very inaccurate.) Therefore, I'm guessing that the survey was taken in a class with a lot of non-Christian children.

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It was the stereotupical picture, and maybe you're right, they may have shown the picture to children who weren't Christian.

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first an off topic point: please never use the term "tweens". Soccer moms need it.

okay. this is primarily a result of advertisin, because, hey, ronnie Mac is seen many, many more times a day than any of those others are. With that said, i think it still kind of sucks that they didn't knw who GW and the Jeez were for historical reasons, but maybe the kids were super smart and they didn't recognize the picture of jesus because he was..umm..what's the word i'm looking for....WHITE. he was born in the middle east. okay all joking aside, i think that some children probably do learn too much about products and cartoons as opposed to history.

I had tv growing up too so i;m not going to say ban tv, im just going to say that if they don't get some type of conception of who those people are in a few more years, they might be giants. i mean in trouble, they might be in trouble.

To tell you the truth, I think that kids really do stereotypisize (sp?) too much. They can recognize people on TV, but not people in a history book? That's crazy. But let me put it this way: If they can learn about a few famous people who aren't alive right now from the many areas of human life, and remember them and what they did for the rest of their lives, then they will be spared of stupidity.

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To comment on the comment that we're the laziest generation: we are the generation that would walk into a mushroom cloud in the desert, come back out, and say "Let's do that again!"

Anyways, I didn't know who Jesus was when I was five(I think). That's because I'm not a member of that religon.

I did know who George Washington was, though. Have those kids never seen a one dollar bill?

And everyone knew who Ronald McDonald was. It's just a fact.

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Blegh.... McDonalds.... Greese....

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Children are indeed stereotyped. They are stereotyped as fat slobs who never excersice, never read, and just play video games all day. This is not true. I cannot believe that just because some kids are fat and lazy, that they are trying to ban vending machines, snack bars, and a la carte food bars in schools. Heck in Kansas they passed a law that says that it is illegal to have vending machines durring in schools during school hours. The only food they want us to be able to have is the food provided by the regular school lunch program, and that tastes disgusting. They won't even sell whole milk, ecause it's appaerntly too fatty.

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Wow, It's been like three or 4 years since I've last been here

But you gotta remember how old they are. They haven't seen a history book!

He would have had to interveiw heaps of kids, and sifted through to get the worst results.

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