Those of you who’ve watched ABC at any time over the past week or so have likely seen this promo for “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown,” featuring Charlie Brown, or rather “Charlie B.” rapping.
Here’s a sample of the lyrics:
OK, I have to be the one to ask. What the hell’s wrong with these people?
Word.
Meh, it’s 15 seconds long and pretty easy to ignore. I feel bad for the people that feel the need to get worked up over something like this…not that there’s anything to get worked up over now that I think about it. What’s the problem with it?
[Mammy] It ain’t fittin’, it just ain’t fittin’. Hmph! [/Mammy]
Well, for one, it’s a lame attempt to be hip. Second, why mess with a classic. And third, making Charlie Brown into some sort of badass rapper is just wrong on so many levels.
The 30-second version where he actually does the hip-hop hand gestures is even worse:
Terrible stuff, though it’s amateurish enough to brush aside easily. I’ve seen YouTube animated screencaps that looked better.
But yes, it’s the general Poochie-fication of traditional kids’ entertainment that is most troubling. See also: Disney BLAM!
Excellent.
There are rumors of persons unknown approaching Charles schulz’s grave with magnets and copper wire…
Word.
Yep, I griped about this in the pit mini-rants. It’s just wrong.
I think it’s cute. I don’t take it as an attempt to be hip; more like a gentle poking fun at, let’s face it, the whitest white kid in comics, who was created by one of the whitest white men of the 20th century. So it’s funny. At least I laughed at that last bit: “Word” with the classic downcast CB expression. And the Great Pumpkin special is old enough that I can’t imagine anyone claiming it was misrepresented to them by this.
I an still working on a treatment for “It’s Great Cthulhu, Charlie Brown!”
Oh, god, yes. I have to link to this dead-on parody (which is so well-done, some people thought it was real, despite the subject matter).
As for Rappin’ Charlie Brown, I have mixed thoughts on this. On one hand, it certainly reeks of “old white guys trying to keep in touch with today’s youth and failing to do so.” And I’m sure if Sparky hated “Peanuts” on its own, he’d loathe “Peanuts Posse” even more.
On the other hand, it’s just a promo meant to get your attention- which it certainly does. Some people might think the idea is just the sort of thing that would happen now that the Peanuts franchise is owned by the same people who own Ecko and Ed Hardy, but this promo was actually used last year under the old ownership as well. And for that matter, is it any less semi-keep-with-the-times but also semi-dated, as say, Snoopy doing a disco/Flashdance parody in 1985 (in a special I’m assuming Fergie has to put on her resume)?
That’s fantastic.
Massive, MASSIVE meh.