The+Fairly+Oddparents+(p+205-210),+Cassandra+Butkowski

In Chapter six of //Kids Rule: Nickelodeon and Consumer Citizenship// Sarah Banet-Weiser discusses the show //The Fairly Oddparents//. After experimenting with //Ren &Stimpy I// and the grand success of //Spongebob Squarepants//, Nickelodeon believed it was time to introduce //The Fairly Oddparents// to its mainstream audience. //The Fairly Oddparents// follows the typical Nickelodeon format of an average kid surrounded by insane and abnormal world/adults. Timmy's parents being viewed as cardboard cutouts standing in front of the babysitter and Vicky as a working woman becomes unable to be nurturin**g can all be seen as a statement by the show about how kids are being raised these days.** The show is filled with double meanings for those looking for them. So the show offers a critique of American parenting styles? Who would be responsive to or attracted by this theme?

//The Fairly Oddparents,// along with //Spongebob Squarepants//, are viewed by Nickelodeon as the first times o**bscure humor or ironic humor can be sold to the mainstream audience.** The show also allows Nickelodeon to **play with the idea of superheros without having to create a superhero show.** Nickelodeon is against superhero cartoons because they promote violence and target only boys. Using Timmy's love for his superhero the “Crimson Chin”, the producers of the show can display their feelings about superheros in an ironic sense. They can make a show showing how these cartoon heroes aren't real but offer a great fantasy world to escape to when needed. **The producers can make episodes that have an anti-cartoon, anti-corporate, or anti-toy theme but by using ironic humor they can do so in a way that doesn't offend anyone.**

Nickelodeon was respected for being unique and other animators are copying their style but //The Fairly Oddparents// is a sign that Nickelodeon is also copying its competitors. The art style is not unique, it looks like it could air on any cartoon station. **Cartoon and children's television stations are becoming more and more alike** in their programing instead of being special. More importantly then that though is how Nickelodeon using show with such heavy ironic humor and childish fun can even offer true double meanings. They are using their ironic humor to make the show sell-able to everyone, because anyone can read any message they want out of every episode.

Good work here. It makes me wonder about why producers include these messages in their shows and I also wonder how children (and adults) interpret them. Watch for the comma, which always goes "inside the quote," like this. GRADE: A-