Haha, that Kids video is hilarious. It makes me want to have children.
I stopped watching the video after a few seconds and the first thing that came to mind was how I would want to apply for a court order to take the kid away from his parents.
No, seriously, as a father, I just felt I needed to help that kid somehow.
you guys are pretty wussy when it comes to that video eh? I liked it, no strong feelings on the song itself.
If it was a cartoon or CGI or something, whatever, but my first thought was “I really hope whoever has custody of this child lost it shortly after letting this happen.”
Yeah. I’m with you on this.
-xtien
I thought that video was fucking awesome, especially the beginning.
Totally. Who cares about potential psychological trauma to a toddler as long as we have “edgy” videos and shitty synthpop?
Hey now, I’m not vouching for the quality of the song!
Other versions of the video (eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otjSmlAeBb4 ) I’ve seen have a Nietzsche quote at the beginning that is misattributed to Mark Twain…
And now I’m wondering if it was removed from the version linked above because they realized the mistake? I sort of assumed the mistake must have been intentional when I first saw it because it was just so very obviously wrong and Mark Twain is infamous for having other people’s quotes attributed to him…
I’m pretty knee-jerk about traumatizing children, but I assumed they couldn’t possibly have done that for the video. In fact, I really dug the video because my brain was figuring they’d found some way to create the illusion of a terrified toddler. For instance, maybe they brought all these monsters out and were laughing and playing with them and making a point of having all the adults think nothing of the outfits, as if they were Santa Clauses or Easter Bunnies or Barneys. Then they just waited for the toddler to get naturally cranky, at which point they started shooting.
At least, that was my subconscious thought process while I enjoyed the video.
But, yeah, that’s pretty grim if they actually freaked that poor kid out that much. Not unlike a couple of the scenes in The Fall.
-Tom
Are you sure it wasn’t one of Oscar Wilde’s?
I finally broke down and watched this damn thing, and I hate to break it to you Tom, but that kid was terrified. For a while I was like you, as there’s a lot of edited shots where the kid is reacting in one and the monsters are in another where I thought maybe they were just being tricky, but then there’s the shot of him running down the sidewalk crying at all the weird crap and then the brick planter ends and OMIGOD THERE’S A GIANT DOG MONSTER and he screams and runs from it.
So, yeah, fuck whoever did that to their kid.
Have you guys never watched Americas funniest home videos or something?
Hahaha. My favorite part was when the woman drops him absentmindedly at the corner like a heavy purse.
Have you worked with traumatised kids?
kerzain
4616
You’re doing a dis-service to real traumatized kids by lumping the kid in the video with victims of genuine abuse/trauma.
Way to go.
How so if I think that kid in the video is in fact being traumatised?
What makes you think the parents stopped at that video if that’s how much the parents think their kid’s mental well-being is worth?
As someone who worked with kids who have been physically as well as mentally traumatised, I certainly don’t think lightly of what that kid was going through.
Way to go thinking that treating children that way in the video is fine though and not genuine abuse/trauma.
You are one cold bastard kerzain. Frankly I dearly hope that video was somehow staged I am not sure how it could have been though. It would be goddamn terrifying to be that kid. Imagine your worst nightmares come true with no escape; that is what that child is feeling.
If the video is staged then kudos to them for seriously evoking an emotional reaction in the viewer. If it’s not staged, they are bastards, and that is child abuse.
I’m not so much of a cold bastard. I don’t like kids being abused any more than any other sane person. I also think it’s ridiculous how far parents will go to make sure their next little Jon Benney Ramsey grows up in the same manner as Drew Barrymore or Jaimee Foxworth. But that isn’t what being discussed here – instead we’re comparing the victim of a glorified Halloween haunted-house experience with sexual, physical or long term emotional abuse victims. I’m sorry, I know that the video affects some of you at your core, but that doesn’t mean it is going to harm the child as much as it has you.
I’m told that I freaked out and jumped out of the “It’s a small World” boat and into the river when I was about that kids age. I did this because apparently I didn’t like the idea of being eaten by a huge whale (At the start of the ride at Disneyland in California the ride-goers go into the mouth of a whale). Disneyland didn’t go dismantling the ride because of this, and it didn’t make every parent to bring their kid along after the fact a bunch of cold bastards either. Although Disneyland wouldn’t let my parents take me back through the ride that day I’m told that it was the first ride they did take me on our next trip through, because they wanted to teach me that there was nothing to be afraid of. That doesn’t make them cold bastards either.
Did the experience leave long term scars? Doubtful, when I look back at the scar-inducing moments of my life that isn’t one of them, I don’t even recall it, although just the thought of going on It’s a Small World as an adult sends shivers down my spine, for other reasons.
I don’t think the kid was traumatized, and I think it is silly to get so completely bent out of shape that you start demonizing people who agree with me on this. Yes, the kid was crying, but kids are made to cry for scenes in movies too – kids freaking cry when you look at them funny, or when you refuse to buy them A-Team underwear. It’s what kids do. The concept of getting a kid to cry for a scene didn’t begin or end with the geniuses at work behind a MGMT video. Although the content of the video might have been frightening, or at least emotionally evoking, it probably had a more significant long term impact on the viewer.
