Friday, December 3, 2010

Cartoon Heroes





It began with a Twitter post several days ago.

"A lot of profiles in FB are turning into cartoon characters!"

The post didn't pique my curiosity at first. I was too floored reading juicy revelations from the Wikileaks. Julian Assange did a good job shaming the most powerful country in the world (at the expense of being jailed for his dirty disclosures) that to miss reading the gist of the diplomatic cables is tantamount to losing a cache of lessons in Global Politics.

It was only the following day that I did notice the change in Facebook. People had switched their profiles to cartoon characters.

There is a campaign going on right now. It says,

"Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon from ur childhood and invite ur friends to do the same. Until monday (December 6) there should be no human faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is for violence against children."

The idea sounds interesting, but the cynic in me called for a little spin. Instead of posting my favorite childhood cartoon character, why not put the picture of an "mature" heroine instead.


grind yer hips babe!

For those of you who don't know, Striperella was a TV series based on Pamela Anderson.  The superheroine/secret agent works as a stripper, while secretly protecting the city from capitalists dogs. She has a stockpile of special gadgets with questionable usefulness, but her intention to help others was clear from the start. The series was lame by geek standards, but what set it apart from other cartoons was its adult content.

I do not wish to spoil the fun and taunt the meme planners with a cartoon that represents everything they are against. So I picked another character which I find adorable.


when pigs fly

I know only a handful of people who watched Invader Zim on Nickolodeon. Zim was this annoying green alien sent by the almighty tallest (out of annoyance) to a backwater planet called Earth. He had a robot sidekick named GIR who disguised himself as a puppy. In the rest of the episodes, GIR served as a comic relief to the usually dark and twisted series.

Told Mami Athena what was happening on Facebook. I said it was fun seeing everyone changing their profiles to their favorite cartoon characters. "It was for a cause," I explained, but instead of getting an approval, she questioned the purpose of the campaign.

"How will the switch of profile stop deranged people from committing violent acts to kids?"  I was cornered.

"It might discourage individuals from turning violent to their own kids??"  It was a lame defense.

She apologized for being pragmatic but she has a point. A campaign will remain a campaign unless concrete actions are taken. Even when everyone on Facebook changes pictures to show their childhood character, unless new laws are passed, nothing will ever change.

"Sorry to say this kiddo, but you were duped to doing something that means nothing but pa-cute."   

Since the Patroness of Giggling Dogs doesn't have an FB account and my wish to catch up with everyone on social media has already defied my penchant for individuality, I went on to replace GIR with a cartoon superhero that best describes my childhood.

In the spirit of fun.


stand above the rest


We are what we're supposed to be
Illusions of your fantasy
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do

Aqua
Cartoon Heroes



14 comments:

Axl Powerhouse Network said...

whahhaa nawendang ako dun sa pic ni Pamela Anderson na cartoon ha hehe :D
yung when pigs fly di ko alam yang cartoon na yan hehehe..
tama.. mas maganda at astigin ang combatron... apir :D

Blessie Adlaon said...

I agree with your friend.

The danger with these campaigns is that they make us feel we're doing something when really, we're not. It's a treacherous form of apathy, where we think we care, but really we don't.

But putting a cartoon on our profile lets us lie to the world and ourselves that we are caring people, pacifying our conscience and letting child abusers go on their happy way undisturbed.

Lone wolf Milch said...

hmm pinanood ko yang striperella sa comedy central love that show lalo na ang drawn together na super favorite ko na cartoon hihihihi

basta bastos manood ako

c - e - i - b - o - h said...

i asked RS to change his profile pic in FB but he also asked me how will it help stop the violence against children..

i answered:
bsta un daw un., change mu n lang..

i think my answer's much lame than yours.. hihihi

Mr. Hush Hush said...

hmmmm… talagang napag-isipan ko toh:

Probably because when you reminisce your favorite childhood cartoon character, you'd think of good stuff, fun memories.. and remembering these make you happy and when you are happy (and gay? hehe), then you don't get violent. :) sheet. hirap ng analogy ko. hahahha :)

wanderingcommuter said...

for me, its more of the nostalgia of my childhood and the reminder that it brings against such act. kung meron man talagang advocacy yun, bonus na lang!

narealize ko, minsan, hindi naman kailangan laging maging deviant just because the entire band is on the wagon.

we just have to enjoy the ride, hindi mo naman ikamamatay yun o ikasasakit ng ibang tao di ba?!

hehehe
:)

Unknown said...

It's a fad, period. It has the same usefulness as when you "forward this message to all your friends to help so-and-so in battling cancer/heart disease/any other terminal disease", only more nostalgic.

Nimmy said...

same with wandering... nostalgia of my childhood. hihi

may dvd kami sa bahay ng invader zim. hahaha. ang cute lang ni gir. sabog kung sabog! tili kung tili! hahaha :)

my-so-called-Quest said...

first it's a call for awareness, but it gave me areason to use my trent lane and daria cartoon pic. hehehe

Bloiggster said...

gusto ko sanang maging si she-ra eh! kaya lang syempre, baka ma shock mga followers ko kaya male superhero na lang. hihihi!

engel said...

i read a similar post from corporate closet. i agree when he said that the campaign was flawed.

but regardless what the reason people have for changing the profile pic, seeing glimpses of our childhood was a lot of fun.

casado said...

i also changed my profile pic just to go with the flow, and i had fun doing it lols...first si spongebob nilagay ko, kaso madami nagreklamo di ko raw kapanahunan yun, so i changed it to Dick Dastardly of The Wacky races ahaha..

I don't see any flaw in it tho. It's a call for Awareness nga eh. Better than doing nothing at all.

Guyrony said...

The fight may not yet be over but it heightens the people's awareness, nothing wrong with that. This is a good thing.

Nothing will be lost too if cartoon characters are placed on a person's profile picture.

mikel said...

i do believe in this cause. it raises people's awareness about the problem. also, it reminds us that we too were children before. for all we know, we might be a future child abuser.
plus the cartoons are cute. hehe.

i think we have enough laws with enough teeth. what we need are more vigilant members of society, and an equally vigilant law enforcers.