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Life
People are odd. No, the corporate machine is odd. Karenski was telling me about this toy she had when she was a kid. It was one of those punching dolls, the kind where you press one button and it punches a left jab, press another and it punches a right jab. This is all pretty normal; kid's toy, glorifies violence, etc, etc.
What struck me as being odd however was that the doll was ET, from the movie of the same name. You know - that lovable space alien that looks like a 30-week-premature fetus with a glowing red finger that can make bikes fly.
Apparently ET is supposed to be a metaphor for Christ, which in itself is entertaining in many, many ways, but the ugly little guy always struck me as being the nice sort. He (she? it?) went around healing people with that crazy glowing finger, making bikes fly, trying to get in contact with his family to let them know he is okay after crashing mum's spaceship (okay, he was probably trying to get them to pick him up, but hey...) and avoiding the nasty government agents in full environmental suites. The kind of sentient being that wouldn't harm a flea.
So which market-droid thought "hey, metaphor for god, let's make it into a punching toy that kids can use to beat up on their little siblings with." Maybe they were thinking of your old-skool vengeful-type god. Or maybe they just had some old program for coming up with product ideas that took random concepts and random implementations, combined them together and spat them out of a factory - like speaking logs or "I can't believe it's not bacon" and so on.
Which ever way, it is odd.
Comments
Mike. You are the undisputed King of Blog.
I am quite sure that 'company generates random fighting figure with recognisable features' is the correct theory to explain ET's incongruous toy manifestation.
However, I'm not so sure about ET being a completely innocent influence on da kids. When *I* was a child, and saw ET for the first time (I believe it was on video one day in Year 3 during the summer of 1988), it was the first time I had ever heard any kind of obscenity on TV (being a sheltered child, this obscenity is probably why I didn't see ET till it was a classroom video). From there on in, I attracted large amounts of trouble for taunting my little brothers with the term 'penis breath'. Looking back, I attribute this event to the beginning of my gradual conversion to the dark side, which is now complete, as I now live it up in the land of neon signs and general immorality.
Posted by: ann on March 27, 2005 01:42 PM
ET was always going to be a promotional tool for the corporate machine and a converter to the dark side. What about the unashamed interweaving of those shellac coated, Lac insect murdering Reese's Pieces into the plotline?
I always thought it was m&ms but apparently not.
http://luiscabral.org/iio/ch04/ET/
Posted by: karenski on March 28, 2005 12:55 PM
I see your boxing God metaphor, and I raise you a boxing God.
http://art4god.com/html/?go=product&id=un
Posted by: Joel on March 29, 2005 08:02 PM
We all know the fate of the Lac beetle is just part of the bourgeois conspiracy to keep us eating meat. Given ET was directed by a key patriarchal figure and leader of the conspiracy, it's no surprise that the film, full of phallic taunts, plays the role of covert vegetarian oppressor.
Resist! Revolt! Revolution!
PS: Joel, I'll race you to be the first to get an Art of God "Father" temporary tattoo. Gold!
Posted by: Mike on March 30, 2005 12:04 AM
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