"What's O-bama-da-nation."

June 7, 2013 6:46 PM

Cupcakes, lying, stealing, some pretty trippy animation, and one weirdly prescient line for 1965, courtesy your friends at the Southern Baptist Convention [previously]
posted by timsteil (18 comments total)

1. I'm quite bothered by the misspelling of a term appropriately rendered "ma'am." Ordinarily I'd let this by without comment, but these folks are entirely down with the Final Word Of Authority game, so I'm sure they won't mind me telling them they're WRONG, and accepting it meekly, without comment, sure of the rightness of my wrath.

2. The use of "ma'am," in responding to one's mother, bothers me. Maybe it shouldn't, but living in rural Georgia I have seen many boys call their paters sir, and at least once seen a poor kid harshly reprimanded for not using the expected title. "Ma'am" doesn't seem as bad, but still, as short for "madam," it seems an oddly formal manner in which to refer to one's beloved mum. And I've noticed that it's always highly religious families that insist on "sir."

Of course, different families are different, this is generalizing from specifics (although it is many specifics) and inductive reasoning, while sometimes insightful, is imperfect. But this seems to me almost like a distancing mechanism, a way to keep the kids from getting too close to their Ma's and Pa's. If this is accurate, it would be an odd behavior coming from groups that espouse the utmost sanctity of the family unit.

3. Kids, if left to themselves, will happily lie through their teeth, which is part of what's so endearing about the little yard apes. The cartoon's supposition that lying to parents will produce an impassible mental block until the matter is made right is, bluntly, as false as poor Jot's claim about the whereabouts of that cupcake. (I wonder if the Baptists who made this are ever kept from enjoying life because of a big word JOT physically keeping them from things?) The purpose of this cartoon, despite its appearance, isn't to illustrate to kids what will happen should they lie, but to try to instill this behavior. Basically, to make them neurotic.

But why is it bad to lie? This cartoon claims you actually hurt something inside you if you claim an untruth, but that's giving too much power to words. And sometimes it's good to lie, either to protect yourself or others. Here, the whole matter could have been prevented just by leaving the cupcakes on a counter out of reach. Putting them on the edge of the table -- the dinner table, enticing all anthropomorphic circles in range with their come-hither aromas, that's basically entrapment right there. You might as well set them on poor Jot's round head and dare him not to take the things. Here, the mother's insistence on lying is merely her excuse to leave cupcakes around the house willy-nilly. That's bad parenting right there, and I'm sure the state would lock her up, if they could bear to get anywhere whatever monstrosity that unseen parent must be if it could give birth to such a geometric horror as Jot. Lovecraft went on about such things you know.

Anyway, a word to timsteil: I expect this post would get more comments if it had been a bit more forthright in its subject. It's a Jot cartoon, one of a series in fact, but that name isn't even in the tags.
posted by JHarris at 10:46 PM on June 7, 2013 [7 favorites]

I'm quite bothered by the misspelling of a term appropriately rendered "ma'am."

Would it help to think of it as a contraction of 'Mamma' instead? There might be some strange kind of etymelangerie going on here.
posted by Segundus at 11:13 PM on June 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know what bothers you about "Mam" as an alternative to "Ma'am" -- seems even D.H. Lawrence used this version, and there are plenty of Southern writers as well.

As far as addressing one's mother, I'm old enough that I remember this was the "proper" way and I grew up in the Midwest (not that there was much evidence of its use). Especially when reprimanded. Deliberate informalism with regard to parental address is something that really started to change in the 1970s.

I won't comment on the metaphysics.
posted by dhartung at 11:16 PM on June 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I'll take D.H. Lawrence on on the spelling of ma'am. (At least I would if I was at all serious.)
posted by JHarris at 1:26 AM on June 8, 2013

> "Ma'am" doesn't seem as bad, but still, s short for "madam," it seems an oddly formal
> manner in which to refer to one's beloved mum.

It's standard to address a king and queen as "sir" and "ma'am" after one initial use of "your majesty", with "ma'am" being pronounded "mum" in the Auld Country. I called my mother "ma'am" when she was Right Royally Pissed Off at me about something I did.
posted by jfuller at 5:33 AM on June 8, 2013

JHarris: We always called our parents sir and ma'am, and never seemed to suffer for it. The worst effect has been teaching myself not to call grownups here in New England sir and ma'am, especially since I'm 31 now. And especially since New England women do not really like being called ma'am.

yard apes? seriously?
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 6:10 AM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Its kind of a minor point, and only really important in other contexts, but term that is translated as abomination in Hebrew, (תֹּועֵבָה) might be better translated as the polynesian word 'taboo' and does not carry connotations of objective badness so much as badness in the context of a specific culture. For example Genesis 43:32 and Exodus 8:26 describe various innocuous things that are abominations (תֹּועֵבָה) to the Egyptians. There in the uncited Proverbs 12:22 the LORD is specific about how lying is a taboo to him specifically, and thus lying should logically be read as being objectively not cool. However in other passages oft cited by purported Christians to attack their neighbors such as Leviticus 20:13 specifically lack that universalized context.
posted by Blasdelb at 6:26 AM on June 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

"Here, the whole matter could have been prevented just by leaving the cupcakes on a counter out of reach. Putting them on the edge of the table -- the dinner table, enticing all anthropomorphic circles in range with their come-hither aromas, that's basically entrapment right there. You might as well set them on poor Jot's round head and dare him not to take the things."

Alternatively, we could raise children to be something not accurately describable as yard apes such that we don't need to neurotically pander to their 'natural' bullshit. I mean, this little scamp is about the most adorable future lawyer ever, but his mommy shouldn't need to worry about where the sprinkles are and the world would indeed be a better place with fewer people developing the skills he is trying out right there.
posted by Blasdelb at 6:34 AM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

It must be Saturday morning, because all I see here is some really awesome cartoons. The artwork is great. Yeah, the morality story is a bit heavy-handed. But what a charming bit of animation.
posted by Nelson at 6:56 AM on June 8, 2013

JHarris: " Putting them on the edge of the table -- the dinner table, enticing all anthropomorphic circles in range with their come-hither aromas, that's basically entrapment right there. You might as well set them on poor Jot's round head and dare him not to take the things."

Oh, hey, it's the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil all over again!
posted by symbioid at 7:23 AM on June 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Um, hey, do people actually know what the term "yard ape" means? Can we not do that here?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:20 AM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

JHarris: I call my mother "Mam" not "Ma'am" a great deal of my Scottish friends do the same; this stayed with us even after moving to North Amerca, as in "MAAAAmmm can I have this" and so on.. maybe the southern one is a variation on that or Ma Mere the French?
posted by NiteMayr at 9:29 AM on June 8, 2013

I thought this looked familiar- Jot was discussed on the Blue way back in 2006 (although I doubt any of those links still work.) I remember these shorts from when I was a wee lass. I would get sucked in by how visually engaging they were, but I'd end up depressed and miserable by the time they ended. Just seeing the title sequence again, even after all these years, gave me a little jolt of anticipatory guilt. What a mean bait & switch to pull on a cartoon loving kid!
posted by biddeford at 10:15 AM on June 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

escape/Start Stuff - People may not be familiar with the same definition that you associate with it. I had never heard of a definition other than "kids running around outside", much along the lines of "monkeying around". Having said that, I do appreciate knowing how it might land on others' ears, since it's valuable to know how people might take colloquialisms in a different way than intended, so you can avoid looking like an ass.

Just saying I don't think it should be assumed that everybody knows the racist origins of phrases that have strayed from those meanings, or perhaps innocuous terms that later picked up bigoted implications.
posted by HotPants at 2:35 PM on June 8, 2013

Um, hey, do people actually know what the term "yard ape" means?

It's used as a racial epithet by some, but it's also used in other contexts to just mean "my kids who are fooling around in the yard like apes in the ape house". I honestly first encountered it used by a black woman. It appears to have been popularized by the children's book series Ramona the Pest, where it is Ramona's name for a boy she dislikes. You can find a number of 1970s and 1980s citations where it is an apparent Southernism; only in the 1990s does it seem to take on racial overtones.

It's one of those terms that may require some contextual sensitivity but I'm not sure it should be ruled right out.
posted by dhartung at 3:50 PM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Blasdelb: Alternatively, we could raise children to be something not accurately describable as yard apes such that we don't need to neurotically pander to their 'natural' bullshit.

I refer you to the ending of my previous comment.

As to the prior meaning of "yard ape," yikes. Was not aware of that meaning, I was intending to refer just to kids in general. My Bad, I fully retract that term.
posted by JHarris at 10:29 PM on June 8, 2013

I remember finding the Jot picture books in my (yup, Southern Baptist) church's library as a young kid. Good to know other kids were being indoctrinated through an even more powerful medium.
posted by Rykey at 5:08 PM on June 9, 2013

I have seen many boys call their paters sir

Maybe it's just my Quaker schooling and egalitarian convictions but I think it's ridiculous to use that word to address anyone and am repulsed when I hear it used by others.
posted by snottydick at 9:22 AM on June 10, 2013