Speaking of Evil...

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L.O.S.E.

Our friend, Kirsten, wondered today on Facebook how it is that Scooby Doo continues to be popular across the generations. It is something I have pondered myself. I loved it for a short time as a kid, but ultimately left it behind for the "sophistication" of Looney Tunes (especially any cartoon written by Michael Maltese). Not only were Looney Tunes vastly superior as animation, but they were chock full of sly and referential humor. I was so certain of the superiority of the fluid L.T. animation that it took me a long time to appreciate Rocky and Bullwinkle.

The boys, of course, love Scooby, in all its irritating versions, including "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" (one of the things that most annoyed me about American cartoons in my teen years was the proliferation of all those "baby" versions of my childhood cartoons like "Baby Looney Tunes"; but that's a rant for another day). One day while out visiting Grandma in her camper in Felton, we spotted a real life Mystery Machine. The boys screamed to pull over so we could go into the store (the Felton New Leaf grocery store) and find Scooby and the Gang. We spent months afterwards coming up with excuses ("modeling creativity" as Kirsten says) for why we couldn't go back out to Felton to track Scooby down or invite him to come over to play. Our explanations often involved resorting to a DVD of a Scooby show or movie to show them how often the gang traveled all over the world to solve mysteries.

I'm not sure why the boys love Scooby. I imagine it has something to do with the thrill of the contest with monsters. Sammy has occasionally professed fear of Scooby episodes and Peter has assured him that Scooby and the Gang "always win." Scooby, in short, is an utterly safe flirtation with danger. Predictable and totally earnest. And that is what both made Scooby tedious and then enjoyable in irony. Saying, "I'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids!" and "It's Mr. Jenkins!" in other situations made Scooby fun beyond the time when I was its natural constituency.

All of this is mere prelude to report that my boys are getting into a new cartoon that is introducing them to ironic humor: "The League of Super Evil". It is the story of four evil villain friends whose plans for nefariousness usually extend only so far as finding ways to delay the pizza delivery boy so that they can get their pizza for free. The League (L.O.S.E.) usually fail, but their motto—"Be afraid, be slightly afraid"—is a new household favorite.

The question of the moment: will the introduction to cartoon irony in League of Super Evil begin the boys' inevitable, yet only temporary, separation from Scooby?