MeatyTales

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Here's a thought provoking article about VeggieTales. There's a lot to consider.

Update: Barry says the link doesn't work for him. It does for me, but I've posted the rest of the article in the extended text. Click on "More" to read it. (I did leave out all the annotations that are in the original article.)

VeggieTating? Try MeatyTales!

MeatyTales® Theme Song

If you like your roast beef with gravy
If you talk to your pork chop
If you smile when you see baloney
And hang out at the butcher’s shop . . .

(Have we got a show for you!)

MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales,
MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales . . .

Bacon . . .
Fillet Mignon . . .
Turn the grill on . . .
MeatyTales!

Barbeque . . .
Hot beef stew . . .
Burgers too . . .
MeatyTales!

Leg o’ lamb . . .
Honey ham . . .
Can of Spam . . .
MeatyTales!

There’s never ever ever ever ever ever ever been a show like MeatyTales . . .
There’s never ever ever ever ever ever ever been a show like MeatyTales . . .

It’s time for MeatyTales!!!

Hi kids! I’m Mikey the Meatball!

And I’m Harvey the Hot Dog!

VeggieTales Glossary

VeggieTales: The super-popular animated series starring armless and legless vegetables, fruits, and gourds.
VeggieTellers: The creators of VeggieTales.
VeggieTalers: Enthusiastic watchers of anything VeggieTales.
VeggieTating: Knowing too many Silly Songs by heart.

What?! You didn’t recognize the parody of the VeggieTales theme song? Where have you been? You are completely out of the loop! VeggieTales is one of today’s hottest entertainment crazes. Before Pixar’s Toy Story, there was VeggieTales. Since 1993, 25 million videos have been sold (and probably a lot more by the time you read this). They’re everywhere, almost as ever-present as the Left Behind series. Entire websites are devoted to the characters and their stories. In an attempt to do our part in bringing wholesome but substantive entertainment to kids everywhere, American Vision has created MeatyTales. Like VeggieTales, we have our own theme song and characters. We’re hoping that Harvey the Hot Dog and Mikey the Meatball will cause the same types of smiles and giggles that Archibald Asparagus and Madame Blueberry evoke.

In a couple of Biblical Worldview articles, I made some off-hand negative remarks about the ever-popular VeggieTales videos. I suggested that a more appropriate series should carry the title MeatyTales.® The "meaty" reference was to call attention to the need for more substance in what we teach children (Heb. 5:12, 14), especially as it relates to biblical content and application. Armless and legless vegetables portraying Bible characters didn’t seem to be the best way to communicate a comprehensive and sustaining Christian worldview to children. Will the next generation of Christians be able to compete against the worldviews of naturalism, materialism, atheism, Islam, postmodernism, or whatever new "ism" has attached itself to the American soul after a steady diet of VeggieTales? You are what you eat and what you don’t eat.

VeggieTalers see the animated vegetables (fruits and legumes not to be excluded) as a way to compete with the gee-whiz graphics found in Nintendo, Game Boy, Play Station 2, Xbox, and razzle-dazzle movie special effects. The stuff is clever and fun to watch. The tunes are catchy and the humor sophisticated. A director of preschool ministry at a large church in Marietta, Georgia, says that "kids today have so much in front of them . . . [that when] they come to church . . . they’re bored. You can’t just open a Bible and start reading to them."1 Maybe not, but are vegetables as Bible characters the answer?

The Seed of a Big Idea

In 1991, Phil Vischer, then a 30-year-old Bible college dropout, first started developing ideas for a new computer-animated kids’ show. He had almost no money, no connections, and one computer. But he also had a big idea: to make kids’ movies that would push kids towards God, not away from Him and the values contained in His Word. Certainly a worthy desire. He started working out of a spare bedroom in his basement, with a little cash borrowed from some friends. Given his limited resources, Phil decided the characters for his show had to be extremely simple and easy to draw and animate: no arms, no legs, no hair and no clothes. And what exactly did Phil want to accomplish with these bald, limbless vegetables? The answer? Big Idea’s mission statement: "To markedly enhance the moral and spiritual fabric of our society through creative media." In December of 1993, Phil and two of his friends completed the first video in the now multi-million-selling series, Where's God When I'm S-Scared? Since then, the Big Idea staff has grown from 3 to nearly 200, with projects ranging from videos, CDs, games, and toys to a touring live stage show and a full-length movie. The G-rated Jonah debuted in theaters October 4, 2002.

A typical VeggieTales video usually contains at least two animated features: an Aesop’s fable-like story that contains a moral lesson, a completely random (but humorous) Silly Song with Larry, or a Bible story, with vegetables such as Larry the Cucumber, Jr. Asparagus, and Pa Grape (who’s not even a vegetable) filling in the roles of King David, King Saul, and the prophet Samuel. "Wait a minute," you may ask, "Talking vegetables teaching a lesson about lying by using a giant fib from outer space? That’s cute. And a dancing cucumber serenading little tikes with songs about his hairbrush and his water buffalo? How charming. But making the story of King David and Bathsheba into King George and the Ducky . . . is everyone else ok with that?" After watching several VeggieTales videos (I now know the "Hair Brush" song and the "VeggieTales Theme Song" by heart, sort of), I came away with several observations, some good and some bad.

"Be Sure to Eat Your Vegetables. . . They’re Good for You"

I love the edgy humor, not-so-subtle allusions to pop culture, and witty songs— much of which is lost on the kids. Parents laugh along with their children because Mom and Dad get the jokes. The superior quality of the features has attracted talented people from Disney, Dreamworks, and CBS. Now that’s a switch. There’s a lesson here for those Christians who turn out schlock and junk in the name of Jesus. You know the stuff. WWJD lollipops, "Jesus is the Real Thing" baseball caps, "Testamints–The Mints with a Message," Manna Mints, Scripture Soap, and John 1:10 sweatbands.2 Is it any wonder that non-Christians don’t take us seriously? Christian artisans should be the best at what they do and the standard for the world to imitate, not the other way around. When someone like Jim Hill, a columnist for the online publication Digital Media FX and self-professed heathen, gushes over the sophistication, humor, and profundity of VeggieTales, there’s hope for Christian art. Yes, VeggieTales, for all their silliness, is art, but what ultimate message is it communicating?

The storytelling with its moral lessons needs to be commended as well. Even the Silly Songs are kinda cute and certainly better than the mind-numbing Teletubbies. I can understand young children finding them engaging and fun to watch. Much of the humor is sophisticated enough that it flies over the heads of the intended audience. Of course, this was true of Bugs Bunny, Rocky and Bullwinkle,3 George of the Jungle,4 and the more recent Pinky and the Brain, also with its own catchy and silly theme song.5 The cartoonists for these shows wrote for themselves.6 That’s what made them good and enduring. An early inspiration for the creators of VeggieTales was the wacky humor of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Anyone familiar with the influential British comedy troupe can see the homage given to the series in several story lines. None of this bothers me. Christians should be funny, over the top at times, and live on the creative edge.

Chocolate Bunnies and Rubber Duckies?

It’s the telling of the Bible stories that drives me out of my gourd. Or should I say the retelling of Bible stories? Conservative Christians demand accurate Bible translations, but they don’t seem too concerned when the Bible is fictionalized in order to convey a message not actually found in the biblical story. Eugene Peterson, author of the contemporary language translation of the Bible The Message, makes note of the fact that "the Bible is hard. I don’t think we should compromise the accuracy of the Bible for ease of reading."7 The VeggieTellers are way too liberal in the use of their literary license. Acknowledging that "kids learn more and listen better when lessons are presented in fun, entertaining ways"8 is one thing, but to rewrite the Bible and denude it of its true message seems to be adding to and taking away from God’s Word (Rev. 22:18–19). For example, instead of King Nebuchadnezzar trying to get Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego to worship a giant golden statue, the story is retold as Nebby K. Nezzar as a despotic manufacturer of chocolate bunnies who forces Shack, Rack, and Benny to worship a giant chocolate bunny. This is supposed to be more appealing to modern children than the original story, and no doubt it is. But this and other stories are not true to the Bible, not only in content but in purpose.

VeggieTellers present the Bible as a compilation of morality tales and obscure its redemptive message by presenting morality as the Bible’s end-message. Many Christians are under the false assumption that if we just get our children to follow a certain moral worldview, all will be right with the world. If this is true, then what is unique about the Christian message? A moral worldview can be found in diverse literary and religious traditions, many of which have a great deal in common with biblical morality: Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Babylonian, Hindu, Jewish, Ancient Chinese, Platonic, Aristotelian, Greek, Old Norse, Australian Aborigines, Anglo-Saxon, and Christian. C. S. Lewis called this common morality "the Tao" or the Natural Law.9 The moral lessons of VeggieTales could just have easily been chosen from these diverse cultures and religious traditions with the same cuteness, silliness, and profundity. No one would know the difference. I have a problem, however, with VeggieTales being sold as "Bible stories."

The Bible tells a comprehensive story. Its many elements cannot be separated from the whole or its many parts. Biblical stories always include the fall, judgment, redemption, and morality. Morality, even biblical morality, cannot be taught alone without degenerating into works righteousness. Why pick a Bible story to make some moral point when the retelling of the story misses everything the Bible is trying to communicate? If the Bible were a compilation of moral stories that could stand on their own, then there would be no need for the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This is why VeggieTales stories generally focus on the Old Testament. By leaving Jesus out of the picture, they are nothing more than morality tales common to numerous cultures. Mike Nawrocki is honest enough to admit, "We’re not going to tell a story with Jesus in it directly."10 The VegieTellers have other problems once they delve into real biblical theology. "We really wanted to avoid portraying Jesus as a vegetable. We felt that would be stepping over the line."11

This raises the issue of trivializing and truncating the Bible’s message. Studies have shown that most of Christianity’s converts are teenagers.12 Studies also show that a high percentage of these same teenagers walk away from their childhood faith as they approach adulthood. They are hit with arguments against Christianity that they never had to consider as teenagers since few churches actually teach on worldview issues and apologetic methodology. Christianity is perceived to be a religion for children. Children get the message that the Bible can be treated lightly. High school youth groups are run more like secular encounter groups rather than the rigorous study of God’s Word and its real-world application.13 Although not written specifically about VeggieTales, the following comments are appropriate: "It is tragic that churches have trivialized God by creating a user-friendly deity who lacks mystery and transcendence."14

Am I overreacting? You be the judge. How does the following story of David and Bathsheba, hardly recognizable as King George and the Ducky, measure up to the Bible? After Jimmy and Jerry Gourd unsuccessfully attempt to host the show (complete with cardboard Bob and Larry costumes, and an independent film entitled "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down With All the Bananas"), Bob the Tomato proceeds to narrate the story of King George and the Ducky. The kingdom of King George (played by the always goofy and lisping Larry the Cucumber in a robe) is off at war (albeit a pie war), but all he wants to do is take baths with his rubber ducky. One day, while taking a bath, King George overhears a very familiar squeak. When he looks out over his balcony, he sees Thomas (Jr. Asparagus) taking a bath with his ducky, his favorite (and only) toy. King George becomes insanely selfish, and even though he has a whole closetful of perfectly good rubber duckies, he wants that one. So he sends Thomas to the front lines of the war ("He’ll be creamed!" he he), so that he can sleep with—er—steal his faithful subject’s wife—er—ducky. Well, to make a short story, um, even shorter, the prophet Nathan (Pa Grape) tells King George a story (with the aid of a beautiful flannel graph) about the rich man and the poor man with the sheep . . . you know. Anyway, King George decides to make things right. Thomas comes home from the pie wars (without his mind) and King George gives him a hot bath and his own rubber ducky. Thomas gets his mind back and his ducky back, and King George promises never to be selfish again. (Too bad things didn’t work out so well for Uriah the Hittite and David in the Bible.) Is this the way you want your children to learn the Bible?

Sufferin’ Succotash!

Putting aside the issue of whether it’s appropriate to turn Bible characters into vegetables, the VeggieTales rendition of the inspired Bible stories are inaccurate and hopelessly trivial. If my Bible memory serves me, Uriah was killed when David sent him to the front lines of the war, and Bathsheba lost her baby that was conceived through her adulterous affair with David.

Now some VeggieTalers might say that such topics are too sophisticated for children. Impressionable youngsters should not be exposed to negative and sometimes embarrassing story telling. Then I suggest that VeggieTales stick to Silly Songs and moral lessons and leave the Bible stories alone. The day will come when they will be mature enough to handle the "meat of the word." Teach them the truth about the Bible while they are young. Fill their little sponge-like brains with Bible stories told in an engaging but accurate way.

My wife teaches a first-grade Sunday School class. Among other things, she has them learn the Ten Commandments. They can understand the seventh commandment quite well. So much so that they are on the edge of their seats as she explains what the commandment means in real-life terms without going into too much detail. They get it without the aid of duckies or talking vegetables.

The Bible has no problem with its own content. If some of its parts are embarrassing to explain to our children, then the problem is with us. At times the Bible does use euphemisms: "Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain" (Gen. 4:1). It’s obvious that the Hebrew word translated "know" means, in this context, "have sexual relations with" (cf. 19:5, 8). When Ehud killed the king of Eglon, the king was in "his roof chamber" behind locked doors "covering his feet" (Judges 3:24). What does it mean to "cover your feet"? He was, as translators render it, "relieving himself." The fat king was on the toilet when he was assassinated by Ehud (3:22).

Too many Christians want an edited version of the Bible, devoid of topics like adultery (Judges 19:22–25), incest (Gen. 19:31–36), rape (Gen. 34:2; Judges 19:22–25), cutting off thumbs (Judges 1:6–7), cannibalism (2 Kings 6:28), decapitation (2 Sam. 16:9), dismemberment (1 Sam. 15:32–33), gouging out of eyes (Judges 16:21), hanging (Joshua 10:26–27), human sacrifice (2 Kings 3:27), and suicide (Acts 1:18). How should we explain the graphic sexual allusions in Ezekiel 16, the sexual symbolism of the Book of Hosea, or the erotic overtones of the Song of Solomon?15 When G. Bryant Wright, Senior Pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, posted his sermon title "Tough Love in Dealing with Raunchy Sex" on the church’s outside signboard, some people objected.16 If you object to the sermon topic, or even to the public display of the sermon title, then you object to the Bible.

What about fictional story telling and animating the inanimate? Is this a problem? Not at all. Rivers and trees are said to clap their hands (Psalm 98:8; Isa. 55:12). Jesus used parables as teaching devices. The Old Testament is filled with picturesque and descriptive narratives. Isaiah describes God as "sitting above the vault of the earth" looking down on its inhabitants who look like "grasshoppers" (Isa. 40:22). There’s Jotham’s parable of the three trees that speak (Judges 9:7–15). Maybe the people at Big Ideas got their inspiration for Pa Grape from the vine in the story. Probably not, since the grapes are used to make wine "which cheers God and men" (9:13), certainly a taboo in fundamentalist circles where VeggieTales are a big hit. There is nothing in the Bible that should be trivialized, and there is a great deal in the Bible that would never find its way into a VeggieTales video.

Dave and the Giant Pickle

I need to make one last point. What is the purpose of Bible stories? They are not included in God’s Word just for teaching moral lessons, although there are moral lessons to be learned. A lot of biblical story telling misses the redemptive historical content. Here’s the VeggieTales version of David and Goliath. The show opens not in the traditional way with Bob and Larry introducing themselves, but with Larry the Cucumber prancing around in purple spandex and plungers on his head calling himself LarryBoy. When Bob asks Larry what he’s doing, Larry replies that he doesn’t want to be plain old Larry anymore; he wants to be LarryBoy, a super vegetable who will save the world. Bob then proceeds to tell Larry the story of Dave, a little guy (Jr. Asparagus again), and how he defeats the Giant Pickle, a big thing (special guest appearance by a Giant Pickle). Between tipping sheep and French (Philistine) peas, and a duet between Dave and King Saul (Archibald Asparagus), Bob eventually makes the point that with God’s help, little guys can do big things too! The closing verse from Qwerty (the talking computer companion and named after the first six letters on a keyboard) is "With God, all things are possible" (Mark 10:27). So, of course, Larry the–oh, um LarryBoy says, "Well, I’ve always wanted to be a chicken, does that mean God can make me a chicken?" (Sure, Larry, come and join the staff over here at the MeatyTales studios, and we’ll fix you right up.) So Bob tells him no, that it just means that we can do whatever God wants us to do. A little deep for a four year old, don’t you think?

Is this why God put the story of David and Goliath in the Bible, to show that with God’s help little guys can do big things? Not at all. The Bible is about Jesus Christ. No matter where you point your finger, Jesus speaks through the words and stories of Scripture (Luke 24:27, 44). After the fall, God made a promise to Adam and Eve: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel" (Gen. 3:15). As we read the Bible, God reminds us of this long-ago promise. We see it when we read how the woman Jael put a tent peg through the head of Sisera (Judges 4:12–22), when "a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull" (9:53), and when David lopped off the head of Goliath (1 Sam. 17:51). The redemptive promise culminates when the stake of the cross crushes the head of the serpent at Golgatha, "the place of the skull" (Matt. 27:33; Mark 15:22; Luke 23:33; John 19:17). Told this way, the Bible stories are interpreted in their proper redemptive context. And how do these redemptive stories apply to us? "And God will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Rom. 16:20). The story of "Dave and the Giant Pickle" obviously misses the biblical point, and children are not learning the Bible as a result.

Conclusion

If you want to enjoy VeggieTales, stick to Silly Songs and moral lessons, and leave the telling of Bible stories to someone else.

Posted by Robert at November 10, 2002 01:06 PM | TrackBack