I’ve been watching a lot of kids’ television shows lately with my niece. Being around kids so much the past couple weeks has really put a lot of things in perspective for me. One show that I’ve found interesting has been LazyTown.
Originating in Iceland and played on the Noggin network, it features a heroic male adult character named Sportacus, who is played by the show’s creator Magnus Scheving. Sportacus is sort of a health fanatic who flies around in an airship promoting healthy activities, eating and lifestyles among the children of LazyTown. The children of LazyTown are a bizarre mix of real kids and semi-realistic puppets.
The yin to Sportacus’ yang is an over-the-top bad guy named Robbie Rotten. Robbie Rotten is always trying to turn the kids of LazyTown away from healthy lifestyles by getting them to eat junk food, and lots of weird schemes and disguises like that. Robbie Rotten is a bizarre looking dude, featuring some prosthetic make-up work that makes him a sort of hybrid between the real kids on the show and the puppets. He is kind of reminiscent of those plasticized-looking people from that Energizer commercial or the Primus music video for Winona’s Big Brown Beaver.
Since this is a kids’ show though, you can rest assured that Robbie Rotten’s evil schemes are always foiled. He doesn’t just fail, but he is typically humiliated in the process. He’s made to look ridiculous, infantile (especially compared to the dashing Sportacus) and the episodes will often end with all the children of LazyTown laughing off the whole thing.
We could also compare this to the recurring “evil” character, Swiper the Fox, in Nickelodeon’s wildly popular children’s television franchise, Dora the Explorer. Swiper runs around with a little bandit mask trying to steal stuff from Dora and her friends. But Swiper’s negative energy is easily dispelled by repeating the mantra, “Swiper, no swiping!” three times in a row. After which, he will slink away, saying, “Awww, man!”
In general, I think this is a positive message for kids - one which even adults could benefit from. As we get older, we tend to think that the power of evil in this world is absolute and unbeatable. The Bible says that the Devil is the “prince” of this world we are stuck in, and we’re often left waiting for an external savior or rescuer to come and release us from our suffering. But what would happen if we were able to retain our ability to laugh away the power of the Devil? What if we could remember that evil is ridiculous and absurd and in the end is really only there to make things interesting for us, and to give us something to struggle against?
Maybe it sounds ridiculous that you can learn how to overcome the forces of darkness by watching children’s television shows. But they offer powerful lessons for those with ears to hear: Laughter breaks tense moments and brings more oxygen into our brain and body, better enabling us to cope with difficult situations. Our bodies loosen up, our posture changes. Telling Swiper that this is a no-swiping zone is a powerful statement of intent and personal values. It gives those who would manipulate us a clear statement about who we are and what’s acceptable to us.
It may be that the power of evil is directly related to how much power we ourselves invest in it. As we grow older, we seem to surrender more and more of our psychic energy to evil. For good reason of course. We can’t just laugh away government atrocities, nor can we yell to a potential mugger or rapist, “Swiper, no swiping!” and expect them to stop. But what we can do is pioneer similar techniques for ourselves by which we can diminish the fear that allows others to take advantage of us - whether they be mischievous fox, cartoonish villains or the very real faces of evil that we struggle against every day.
Comment by Ant — July 14, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
I like having tv on in the background while I’m designing and I like to mix it up. The point is, I caught a few episodes (shh) of LazyTown about a month ago and I was really impressed by their production value and thought about the fact that I definitely would’ve loved the show as a kid. Although Sportacus makes me feel inadequately energetic, fit, and un-mustachioed, I love everything about the show and hope it somehow manages to survive for the next round of babies in my family. And Robbie slightly reminds me of some weird extra from The Mask or Dick Tracy…
—
As for the subject of laughing at evil and not taking it too seriously, I’m torn as to whether “laughter” and “not taking things seriously” are exclusively non-evil properties. Yeah, I’m torn. I want to say though that I feel like taking evil TOO seriously DOES give it a lot of power. `Sounds like something Dumbledore would say though…
*geekiness revealed*
Comment by Lucas — July 15, 2006 @ 2:36 am
Robbie Rotten is my friend. Sportacus is an athlete who let his celebrity go to his head and started a TV show about how cool he is. Robbie Rotten was given an awkward body and face, and he works with it. He knows how to prat fall and move weird and can even manage to speak quite well carrying the weight of that giant chin. Go Robbie Rotten, the real hero of LazyTown.
Comment by Ktulu — July 24, 2006 @ 2:11 am
Evil does not exist, it is merely a projection of our own distates and objections (David Hume was right about “negative morality” or the existence of evil).
Good, however can exist, though it is very hard to find amongst all the ambiguity.
For those who wish to disagree, I offer a numerical example. In number theory, natural numbers are all non-negative integers (zero is still debatable for being a “natural” number). They are called natural numbers because negative numbers do no exist in reality. The negative sign (-) is a projection of the mind or user onto a natural number (1,2,3…).
I bet most people would equate evil to negative forces (or negative numbers), and as such, negative is not natural; it is a projection to explain direction (up, down; right, left/wrong). And like all directions, they are only applicable from certain points of view.
Thus, evil does not exist. Hence why it is laughable when we try to bring it into existence to explain forces we cannot understand. You aren’t really laughing at the evil, but the porous attempt to portray an unnatural (and imagined) concept.
Comment by Pop Occulture — July 24, 2006 @ 1:51 pm
I don’t think it’s really possible to make a logical argument that evil doesn’t exist. You’re using an analogy of numbers, but its an analogy. Evil is not the same as numbers. That doesn’t “prove” the inexistance of evil.
Comment by Chris — December 29, 2006 @ 4:51 pm
Its interesting the debate going on with you. It is said that to give evil power you must give it a name. Thus Lucifer.. In a way its just like anything else that isn’t an object you can hold or touch. For it to exist you have to believe in it. For a concept this big the whole world would have to believe that evil is non existant and that being good is all there is. However you take away free will. Evil and good.. simple ways to explain human nature. Without either one the world would be thrown into a state of zombified morons beleieving everything they hear or utter chaos. Anyway its just something that we have to deal with. Its a concept that people NEED to survive and live a somewhat healthy mental life. Besides… who cares if evil exists… It DOES in fact exist.. not in the way your talking about.. Thats is just an idea. Evil itself exists within those that do evil. anyway.. I’m rambling.. Robbie Rotten is Hawt! heh..
Comment by Skoobz!! — May 28, 2007 @ 12:47 am
GO GO GO GET UP LAZYTOWN!!
Love the show, so do the kids
We have the soundtrack in the car, and we even listen to it when the kids aren’t there.
As for your evil debate, you lost me when you got to the numbers?!?!
Course there is evil, if you believe in evil.
bing bang diggeriggerdong………
Comment by dhaanish shah — July 30, 2007 @ 12:10 pm
good lazy town is thank you very good but only engrey can be from dhaanish age 7
Comment by rt1 — August 24, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
First thing first: Lazy Town is FOR kids. I know a lot of kids and they LOVE Lazy Town. Two Year Old girls adore and try to emulate Stephanie, and there is plenty for other kids of different ages and backgrounds.
When you look at the origins of the show and the show’s characters, you soon realise that all bases have been covered. This has been finely tuned over a decade or more, so it works brilliantly.
It is High Definition TV - apparently the most expensive Kids’ TV show ever made at a million US dollars per episode. It is a mixture of real action, computer generated graphic cartoon and puppetry solidly based on a tried and tested stage show filled with chart topping songs.
Sportacus rejects being s SUPERhero in favour of being a SLIGHTLY-ABOVE-AVERAGE-hero, and he never ever preaches — he leads by example. This means that there is NO JUDGEMENT of good and evil.
The show is NOT about promoting health and exercise (of which it is often misrepresented). It is about helping kids made better choices in general.
So there is no evil per se. I mean — look at Robbie Rotten as the anti-hero. he’s not lazy — in fact he’s the most active person around! He’s not fat either. He’s actually a lot of fun. Check out his pirate disguise and the famous and fabulous song “You Are A Pirate” where Robbie Rotten is the Pirate.
One fo the biggest hit songs is Cooking By The Book — which is about making a cake! The cake is full of candy! One of the main kids character puppets eats candy all day and is always seen with a lollipop.
So the show is not anti-candy or anti-cake. Nothing is that simple. This show teaches kids that nothing is black and white! That evil generates a better good when overcome (and so has a purpose), that it is OK to paly videogames and have gadgets, but still important to interact socially, to plauy, dance and sing too.
As they sing: “No one is lazy in Lazy Town!”