What the grownups are talking about

March 20, 2007 2:09 AM

"Did you see the politics? It made me angry." Conversations by Grownups As Imagined By Kids.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders (35 comments total)

UNICEF: Ha ha ha! Those fools! Soon I will have all the money in the world. For I am UNICEF, evil king of Halloween!

SERVANT: Sir . . . don’t you think you’ve stolen enough from the children? Maybe you should let them keep the money this year.

UNICEF: Never! The children shall toil forever to serve my greed!


Slagging UNICEF. That's cold man. And it isn't even funny.
posted by three blind mice at 2:21 AM on March 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

nice!
posted by beerbajay at 2:28 AM on March 20, 2007

I LOL'ed. Then I verbed a TLA.
posted by tomble at 2:28 AM on March 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

3BM your sense of humour will be in the last place you look.
posted by srboisvert at 2:39 AM on March 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

I thought the dinner conversation was fairly accurate. And funny.
posted by maxwelton at 2:52 AM on March 20, 2007

Funny stuff! I especially liked the last (60's) one.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:07 AM on March 20, 2007

Now I'm going to think of the protest one every time I'm in Union Square.

Also: Thanks for the link. It reminded me to move the last two weeks of New Yorkers from the kitchen table into the bathroom reading salon.
posted by griphus at 3:28 AM on March 20, 2007

The cartoon in the middle of the page (with the overachieving fisherman) was the funniest thing at that link. And I know my sense of humor is unimpaired, since I got a good laugh from "I've been waiting to say that since 1989", "If found, recoil in horror", "Random pedestrians are joining him in a complicated dance routine" and whatever xkcd did today (it's almost always funny).

And if you want good "kid viewpoint" jokes, try "The ball kills tiny people" and "Mayo smells like old people".

Webcomics are your best entertainment value.
posted by wendell at 3:56 AM on March 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

wendell - I hate to piss on your parade, but sadly, the cartoons rotate on reload.
posted by griphus at 4:12 AM on March 20, 2007

MOM: I had a lot of wine, and now I’m crazy!

I just had a horrible flashback to my own family's dinner table circa 1977.
posted by psmealey at 4:12 AM on March 20, 2007

Wow. Wendell reads all the same webcomics I do.
posted by slimepuppy at 4:20 AM on March 20, 2007

Hehehehehe. Loved the dinner table one. And the college kid one was mean but true.
posted by Jess the Mess at 4:22 AM on March 20, 2007

Mr. President! You must read what people are saying in MetaFilter!
posted by Dataphage at 4:24 AM on March 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

MetaFilter: It was so good. There was a big sex.
posted by rxrfrx at 4:39 AM on March 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

the cartoons rotate on reload
I suspected they might, which was why I specifically said "the overachieving fisherman" one... Of course, it being the New Yorker, they probably have a couple dozen cartoons about overachieving fishermen...
posted by wendell at 5:07 AM on March 20, 2007

hahahaha. I remember playing "house" as a kid. So much fun (I think. I remember setting up the games "you're the mom, you're the kid" etc. I don't remember what we did when we played, other then run around the neighborhood)

It's really insane how elaborate children's games get. It's really interesting how they can go on and on in their imaginations.
posted by delmoi at 6:39 AM on March 20, 2007

Shouldn't this be 'Conversations by grown-ups as imagined by kids as imagined by adults'?

Having participated in a politically motivated high school protest walk-out way back when, I can personally attest that damn near everybody involved thought of it primarily as a good way to get out of class and enjoy the afternoon.

This reads kinda like that recent Thomas Wolfe "what the hell are kids thinking about these days?" novel.
posted by bluejayk at 7:02 AM on March 20, 2007

Shouldn't this be 'Conversations by grown-ups as imagined by kids as imagined by adults'?

That pretty much captures the smarmy essence of all the humor-like shit to appear in the New Yorker on a weekly basis.
posted by psmealey at 7:19 AM on March 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

So when did the New Yorker decide to become McSweeny's, only less funny?
posted by thecjm at 7:24 AM on March 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Do you know what else is not that funny? The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Game.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:33 AM on March 20, 2007

How about the anti-caption contest? The answer to the caption contest is known, after all.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:44 AM on March 20, 2007

Yeah, I don't see any indication that this was written by kids, except for the author recalling his own third grade perspective on one of them. How hard would have been to have actual kids writing the conversations?
posted by rolypolyman at 8:29 AM on March 20, 2007

The purpose of public protest is to raise public awareness of a cause and the fact that people are backing the cause, through media reporting. The media don't report on it otherwise. Also those aren't by kids lol.
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:41 AM on March 20, 2007

So when did the New Yorker decide to become McSweeney's, only less funny read by five thousand times as many people?
posted by solid-one-love at 9:18 AM on March 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh, I was hoping for actual quotes form kids about what they thought their parents were saying. Very disappointing.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 9:30 AM on March 20, 2007

I thought it was funny. But I'm not going to link to a bunch of webcomics to justify my sense of humor, so feel free to disregard my opinion.
posted by painquale at 10:12 AM on March 20, 2007

GRANDFATHER: Hey, do you guys know what God looks like?
ALL: Yes.
GRANDFATHER: Don’t tell the kids.

OK, that was funny.
posted by brundlefly at 10:30 AM on March 20, 2007

I laughed. That is all.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:33 AM on March 20, 2007

There are actual monsters in the world, but when I post on Metafilter I pretend like there aren’t.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:11 AM on March 20, 2007

How hard would have been to have actual kids writing the conversations?

Not too hard. This American Life had a bit (or two) called Kid Logic. Its about the things kids believe, like if you held a girl's hand for more than a few seconds that meant you were married, etc.
posted by damn dirty ape at 12:47 PM on March 20, 2007

How hard would have been to have actual kids writing the conversations?

Not very.

A follow-up, "How interesting would it have been to have actual kids writing the conversations?"

Not very. Kids are, by their very nature, not very well equipped to writing an entertaining article. That's why you see so many "fake" projects like this (fake crayon letters, etc.).
posted by The God Complex at 2:30 PM on March 20, 2007

Kids areThe New Yorker is, by their very nature, not very well equipped to writing an entertaining article.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 5:13 PM on March 20, 2007

I liked the pigeon poop one better
posted by sid at 9:32 PM on March 20, 2007

So when did the New Yorker decide to become McSweeney's, only less funny read by five thousand times as many people? Oh, unclench Mabel. There's some space for a chuckle somewhere in between the Sy Hersch and the listings, isn't there?
posted by DenOfSizer at 3:37 AM on March 21, 2007

Oh, unclench Mabel. There's some space for a chuckle somewhere in between the Sy Hersch and the listings, isn't there?

I'm guessing you missed one of the previous comments in addition to the point.
posted by solid-one-love at 8:42 AM on March 21, 2007