The quote is actually considered by the end of the article:
“To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, Scooby Doo has value not because it shows us that there are monsters, but because it shows us that those monsters are just the products of evil people who want to make us too afraid to see through their lies, and goes a step further by giving us a blueprint that shows exactly how to defeat them”.
and goes a step further by giving us a blueprint that shows exactly how to defeat them”.
Ensnare them with some sort of Rube-Goldberg contrivance and tear their rubber masks off?
The reason I never made this whole connection as a kid, even one very positively disposed towards skepticism and rationality, was because the methods and skills used in Scooby Doo seemed so inapplicable to real life.
It’s been a while since I watched much (any) Scooby-Doo, but IIRC, isn’t the Rube Goldberg contraption only the start (a dramatic opening demonstration), and then Velma etc. explain all the clues and oddities that would have convinced anyone with a brain (of what the contraption forced even the dullest townspeople to realize)?
The Rube Goldberg contrivance (usually not so much a device as an unnecessarily convoluted plan to accomplish a simple task) is generally how they arrange to catch the villain. The plan usually goes wrong in some way, but ends up succeeding regardless due to dumb luck. Then they take the villain’s mask off, and explain the clues that allowed them to know who was underneath in advance.
Once they’ve worked out that all the supernatural menaces are actually human charlatans, they could deal with nearly all of them (those which aren’t some sort of device operated remotely) simply by catching them and taking their masks off, thereby circumventing the need to figure out who’s inside beforehand.
Traditional fairy-tales tend to focus more on the idea that if you interact with strangers or do anything out of the ordinary, you will die horribly :P (At least that’s what I noticed when reading Aesop’s fables recently).
Also the idea that the letter of the law is more important than the spirit, and sometimes the idea that even if you are unintelligent and lazy you’ll still win so long as you’re obedient.
In contrast consider this quote:
G.K. Chesterton
The quote is actually considered by the end of the article:
Ensnare them with some sort of Rube-Goldberg contrivance and tear their rubber masks off?
The reason I never made this whole connection as a kid, even one very positively disposed towards skepticism and rationality, was because the methods and skills used in Scooby Doo seemed so inapplicable to real life.
It’s been a while since I watched much (any) Scooby-Doo, but IIRC, isn’t the Rube Goldberg contraption only the start (a dramatic opening demonstration), and then Velma etc. explain all the clues and oddities that would have convinced anyone with a brain (of what the contraption forced even the dullest townspeople to realize)?
The Rube Goldberg contrivance (usually not so much a device as an unnecessarily convoluted plan to accomplish a simple task) is generally how they arrange to catch the villain. The plan usually goes wrong in some way, but ends up succeeding regardless due to dumb luck. Then they take the villain’s mask off, and explain the clues that allowed them to know who was underneath in advance.
Once they’ve worked out that all the supernatural menaces are actually human charlatans, they could deal with nearly all of them (those which aren’t some sort of device operated remotely) simply by catching them and taking their masks off, thereby circumventing the need to figure out who’s inside beforehand.
Traditional fairy-tales tend to focus more on the idea that if you interact with strangers or do anything out of the ordinary, you will die horribly :P (At least that’s what I noticed when reading Aesop’s fables recently).
Also the idea that the letter of the law is more important than the spirit, and sometimes the idea that even if you are unintelligent and lazy you’ll still win so long as you’re obedient.