Jeff Deverett produces a kid’s show in Toronto called Ricky’s Room that is carried by some PBS channels. Deverett is currently protesting the new film, Death to Smoochy, a dark comedy about such children’s shows. According to Deverett, Death to Smoochy is the equivalent of the Sept. 11 attacks for kids.
When the World Trade Center fell, it was like a movie happening. But when a mascotted character like Barney gets his head blown off, that’s real. It’s real violence on their level. To [kids], this movie is Sept. 11.
Of course young kids who are watching an R-rated movie like this probably have at least one and maybe two problems that are far worse than anything in Death to Smoochy.
The funny thing is that Deverett claims he is suing Warner Bros. on the grounds that the Smoochy character is to close to his Ricky character. Yeah, because Everett’s the only person in the world who ever thought of putting an actor in a dumb-looking animal suit and building a kid’s show around it.
The 9/11 comparison, on the other hand, puts Deverett in a far more exclusive group of idiots.
Source:
Smoochy gets the kiss-off from kiddie show. Tamsen Tillson, Toronto Globe and Mail, March 27, 2002.