So today I was rewatching a show from my youth, reliving the happier and simpler times in this crazy world we have right now with cartoonish exaggeration for comedic effects. Today I came across this shows take on the germaphobe plot. You know the one; a character learns about germs and becomes hysterical with trying to be clean. The character will wear surgical masks and goggles everywhere, spray disinfectant on everything, constantly washes their hands, demands everyone stay very far away because they might…have…germs, and it’s…all…done…for…comedic…absurdity…
You know, I know children’s shows are for children, but I think a lot of adults today could benefit from watching these episodes. Like, this isn’t the 3.5 foot deep society or life experience lets you know what real danger is, this is actual childhood lessons we used to instill in our youth through entertainment (like my millennial generation). Pretty much every cartoon and over the top comedy show I watched as a kid had an episode that dealt with the kind of paranoia we’re seeing today, and the lesson always was “you’ll be much happier when you accept that germs are a part of everyday life, be reasonable (like wash your hands after going to the bathroom), but don’t try to sanitize the world.”
Now here’s how these episodes always played out, the germaphob character would lose all their friends because their friends couldn’t handle the craziness anymore, and are given the ultimatum of “choose the germs or us, because we’re not going on this crazy train with you,” and sometimes would tell the crazy character “germs are everywhere, you can’t stop them.” All of us, we’re the rational friends, and it’s the climax of the episode. We need to tell all our crazy germaphobe friends “it’s us or the germs” to snap them back to reality. If you don’t want to go nuclear just yet, maybe try to find their favorite cartoon as a kid and find the germaphobe/safety freak episode (because if it wasn’t germs, the character would go crazy over “I need to earthquake proof the house, round off all corners, get rid of all glass so it can never break,” with the same principles and lessons) and show it to them, and see if they notice anything similar to what they’re doing and what the obviously crazy character is doing. I haven’t had time to test this out yet but it’s a good lesson everyone needs a reminder of.
*Note: this is not about elected officials that say “freedom for me but not for thee” that are imposing mandates, this is for the aunt that is saying “everyone needs to be vaxxed for me to feel safe, and even then I’ll still wear a mask because you can’t be too careful.”
Here are some episodes that you might want to share.
- Recess: Germ Warfare (season 4 episode 38, available on Disney+)
- Crash and Bernstein: Crashtagion (Season 1 episode 14, available on Disney+)
- The Weekenders: The Most Dangerous Weekend (season 3 episode 5, safety episode)
- Catdog: Safety Dog (season 1 episode 14, safety episode)
- Hey Arnold: Sid and Germs (Season 5 Episode 16)
- Ned’s Declassified: Sick Days (season 1 episode 6)
- Invader Zim: Germs (Season 1 episode 4)
I’m sure you can think of some others, but here’s a good start.
Here’s a youtube bootleg of the above mentioned recess episode. The similarities between this episode’s comedic exaggerations and real life are uncanny.