Sunday, October 10, 2010

Is "Crutepy" a Word?

It's been a long time since my last quiz.  The muse is upon me.  Let's do dis thang.

Kids and kids' toys are cute.  Mostly.  It's all about context, really.  Sometimes there is a fine line between what is cute and what is creepy.  Let's see if you have the eye for detail necessary to discern between the two:

1) Pick the creepiest of the three scenarios below:
a) A two-year-old spontaneously struggling his way through the Pledge of Allegiance as he plays with his Legos (This happened a few days ago, to our shock and delight.).
b) A room full of two-year-olds listlessly struggling through the Pledge with left or right hands somewhat on their chests. (This apparently happens at school during the week).
c) A grainy black and white film showing a room full of two-year-olds flawlessly reciting the Pledge at attention and on command while rousing Sousa music plays in the background and a 75% transparent overlay of some sort of black, red, and white flag waves majestically over the scene. (This has not happened... Yet.)

2) One is cute, one is creepy.  Choose.
a) A two-year-old pouting on the bottom step of the living room stairs because his parents put him in "Time Out" for using his fork to catapult his chicken nuggets into the potpourri dish. (This happened, but it was probably my fault for complimenting him on the first one.)
b) The same child pouting in "Time Out" because put himself there for no discernible reason whatsoever (This actually happened, too - he suddenly stopped happily playing with whatever it was, stomped over to the step, and sat down, and pouted, until we reassured him he wasn't in trouble.)

Clearly, cuteness and creepiness are highly context dependent. A nice looking toy on a shelf in a brightly lit toy store can take on a definite Chucky-esque quality sitting by itself on the living room table in the semi-dark after the kid has gone down for the night, for instance.

This next question was inspired by one of the worst toys in our kid's arsenal. The Toy Story 3 inspired contraption is a sort of “fishing” game where 18 little plastic aliens rotate on a turntable while occasionally bobbing up and down. The goal is to use a fishing pole (of sorts) to grab the little guys when they bob up. The person with the most aliens wins. Whee.

This thing is L-O-U-D. According to the sound level measuring app (deciBel) on my phone, this thing clocks in at 78 dB at a distance of about two feet. On carpet. Not only is that about as loud as a washing machine, but almost all the noise is irritating high frequency stuff. The low rumble of a operating washer is acoustic bliss compared to this.

My high score so far is zero. Why? The turntable is too fast, the bobs are too fast, and the fishing poles grabby claw parts are too weak to do anything, much less try and capture a slick alien head moving in three dimensions. I am the first to admit that I am not the most coordinated person ever, but those of you that know me know that I am persistent and usually don't give up very easily. It's not me. This is just a badly made thing.

Wow... that got ranty for nearly no reason. Let's get back to the quiz and have some fun with the aliens.
 
3) Which picture is creepier?


4) How about here?


5) Pick the best caption:

 a) "Cool.  An alien!  Let's be friends!"
 b) "Two men enter, one man leaves..."
 c) Worst. Kirk vs. Gorn remake.  Ever.
 
Yeah, its all about context...

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