Everyone's always telling me about this British children's cartoon from the 50's called Captain Pugwash. Apparently, they always say, this children's show was chock full of sexual innuendo and double entendre, e.g. the main character's were named Master Bates, Seaman Staines, and Roger the Cabin Boy. The show aired on Saturday mornings throughout England for years, and the happy seamen had grand sailor adventures.
For example:
Somewhere in the ocean, the Britsh navy ship HMS PEACOCK sails beneath clear blue skies. CAPTAIN PUGWASH, a robust, roundish figure paces back and forth on the poop deck, clearly irate. Lined up before him stands the SHIP'S CREW, erect, patient.
CAPTAIN PUGWASH: Men! Somebody's been swabbing the deck and making a bloody mess! I'm going to uncover the swabber if it takes me all day.
PUGWASH walks to the end of the line and executes a flawless about face. THE CREW is breathless.
PUGWASH: Well. Was it you, Master Bates?
MASTER BATES: [cowers] Oh Captain. . .
PUGWASH: Spit it out, Bates!
SEAMAN STAINES: It was me, Captain, sir. I was swabbing the poop deck.
BATES breathes a sigh of relief as PUGWASH turns to face STAINES.
PUGWASH: [steamed] Staines! Again! This is the last time somebody sneaks off and starts swabbing the deck without my explicit approval. Just look at the royal mess you made.
ROGER THE CABIN BOY: I'll clean it up for you, sir.
Turning to acknowledge the slight figure behind him, a barely discernable smile flicks across PUGWASH'S unwashed mug.
PUGWASH: Very good, Roger. You may go back to my aft cabin and wait for my command.
You get the idea. The beautiful thing was that the children didn't get the jokes but still enjoyed the cartoon, while the adults sat back on the couch, snickering. The show targeted two distinct audiences: naive kiddies and perverts like myself.
Sure, I know this is commonplace. Most media target mutiple audiences, for example Wheel of Fortune simultaneously targets the 'asleep in a coma' population and the laundromat crowd. But aiming a chidren's cartoon at both kids and adults was pretty avant garde for the 50's, TV pre-pubescent era. Nowadays everyone's doing this. Witness the ballyhooed Shrek, or any of the Disney mega-cartoons -- Look ma! That talking animal is telling dirty jokes. The fact that people of all ages and innocence levels can come together and enjoy the same media experience is either yet another demonstration of our sophistication as media consumers, or a sign that American culture has regressed back to Jr. High levels of sophistication.
Actual publicity photo, for actual KLBB DJ
Since my public radio membership card finally arrived in yesterday's post, I've been listening to commercial radio again. For me, commercial radio is synonymous with AM 1400 KLBB, a fine local station that plays nothing but big band and elevator music from the 30's, 40's and 50's. The station is aimed primarily at senior citizens, a fact made abundantly clear by the ubiquitous ads for medicare plans and crematoriums. But I am convinced, unshakably convinced that the station is consistently winking at a younger, smaller, less wealthy demographic: people like me.
Maybe it's all in my head, but I think the KLBB DJs are just dripping with sarcasm. This morning I was listening to Pam Lundell, DJ host of the morning program called called "The Breakfast Club." She kept repeating their Breakfast Club slogan ("Where the Coffee Pot is Always On") while she interviewed a singing group called "The Blenders," who performed a live in-studio slightly-out-of-tune version of "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. While no doubt seniors were eating all this up with a spoon, I too was getting my jollies listening to KLBB, and it just kept getting better as the denture cream commercials started airing. Am I just a crackpot kitsch-monger, or can sincere and ironic people peacefully coexist? If KLBB is trying to bridge the AARP with the hipster, I would say that's the 6-10 split of demographic bowling.
Club 14 KLBB, yet another double-stuffed media success story. Listening to this station leads me to wonder: How many other media out there are double-stuffed, able to successfully reach two distinct, diverse, probably contradictory audiences at the same time? Here's a rough brainstorm:
The Music of Bo Carter
Mike Myers Movies
Iron Chef
Anything with Yodeling
The Bible
Animal Planet
Select Kung Fu
The Careers of Sonny Bono
Martha Stewart
Most Things Japanese, now that I think about it
Marilyn Manson
Backwoods Radio Preachin'
The Novels of D.H. Lawrence
The Entire Island Nation of Japan
Actually, everything else on TV too, except PBS, Tom Brokaw and Everwood
Nutritional Equivalent:
Saltines
Postscript: Oops. I looked it up on the internet and actually the Captain Pugwash bit (aired 1957-58, 1974-5) is a tremendous urban myth started by a hippie comic in the 70's. It turns out the show never really had any subversively named characters. Except (of course) for Captain Pugwash. And Sir Prancealot. And The Flowerpot Men.
