4 ms·

Worse than Paw Patrol is Thomas the Tank Engine, a show about mentally handicapped trains forced by a literal monopoly guy into hard labor, with the threat of i

by Joeri 3y ago

Worse than Paw Patrol is Thomas the Tank Engine, a show about mentally handicapped trains forced by a literal monopoly guy into hard labor, with the threat of imprisonment or disassembly looming over those who refuse to obey. Just go read the plot of the Sad Story of Henry and know it is just one of many bleak episodes: https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sad_Story_of_Henry https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sad_Story_of_Henry

lliamander 3y ago
You could also explain The Wizard of Oz as "young girl travels to a foreign land and kills the first person she meets. She then teams up with three strangers to kill again" The purpose of Thomas the Tank Engine is not to speculate on the ramifications of living in a world with sentient trains like some weird sci-fi novel. You are welcome to write that if you want, but fat chance producing something kids will enjoy. Thomas the Tank Engine exists to delight children with the mystique of steam engines, and to provide the back drop for simple lessons on pro-social behavior that children can understand.
- rewmie 3y ago
  > Thomas the Tank Engine exists to delight children with the mystique of steam engines, and to provide the back drop for simple lessons on pro-social behavior that children can understand. It's kind of weird seeing someone claim "lessons on pro-social behavior" in a direct reply to a quote on how the show depicts immurement as a reaction to refusing direct orders from the company owner.
  - nvm0n2 3y ago
    The lesson it's supposed to teach is to be helpful to others, and that disobedience can lead to punishment. A fairly basic part of parenting, employment, fighting in the military or many other things that boys grow up to do.
    - rewmie 3y ago
      > The lesson it's supposed to teach is to be helpful to others, and that disobedience can lead to punishment. Unquestionable obedience to the company owner under the threat of immurement is not a basic part of parenting. I also question how formatting our children to unquestionably accept fighting and dying in armed conflicts as being healthy and in their best interests. The Fascist motto was “believe, obey, fight.” It is in line with the ideas you're trying to pass off as good parenting.
      - dzhiurgis 3y ago
        "Tell me you don't have kids without telling me..."
        rewmie 3y ago
        Tell me you're a shit parent without telling me.
    - stavros 3y ago
      This is a lesson nobody should learn. Blind disobedience ~never leads to anything good, and if you can be imprisoned forever because you were afraid of the rain, maybe it's society that is wrong.
  - lliamander 3y ago
    Again, that interpretation only makes sense if you are treating Thomas as a sci-fi novel for adults about sentient trains and the capitalist system, rather than as a fairy tale for children. Of course you will invariably butcher what the story was actually trying to convey. The lessons of the episode are simple: - you will not get what you want if you are selfish, mean, and unreasonable (Henry's paint is eventually spoiled anyway) - if you disobey your parents, there will be consequences (like timeout). Note that Sir Topham hat (as a parental figure) while firm, was very patient with Henry.
techsupporter 3y ago
> the Sad Story of Henry My local PBS station showed Thomas the Tank Engine on almost infinite loop and so I came into the show in kind of the middle as a kid. I didn't know why Henry was so "bad" at his job and all of that, only that he was cranky and didn't seem to like everybody else that much. Then this episode aired and my mother says I cried for two days over how Henry had been treated. (It didn't help that I was what was commonly called "a quiet child" and got picked on a lot for not wanting to play with other kids or just "being weird", something I think a lot of HN can relate to.) It wasn't long after that I stopped watching Thomas. Years later, my kid picked up watching the show and learned how to record it on his TiVo. I made sure we watched that episode together.
- Modified3019 3y ago
  >(It didn't help that I was what was commonly called "a quiet child" and got picked on a lot for not wanting to play with other kids or just "being weird", something I think a lot of HN can relate to.) Yep. Turns out I was autistic, but since it wasn't in a way that that was a bother other people had I no clue until my late 30's. Reading the episode description is really something else. They managed to perfectly capture the phenomenon of real life regular people casually being horrible cunts to each other, though I think they were probably just going for "shut up and obey".
mklepaczewski 3y ago
I know we're making fun of the article here, but Thomas the Tank Engine has dialog lines like this: "Am I a useful train?", Fat Controller: "Yes, Thomas, you are". Being useful seems to be a big concern for the trains. Not being useful is horrific and means decommissioning, which is sensible in the real world, but it's a kid's show. Being old and weak means decommission/death? It might be due to me being a Pole, my upbringing, and our history of WW II, but it triggers a light connotation with labor death camps whenever I hear the line.
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
  For me it reminds me of a boy I knew growing up who later got diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, who was absolutely enamored with trains. He was very smart, if awkward at times - I always liked hanging out with him when he was in his element. But even early on I think he knew something was off, because he constantly asked questions along this line when we did things like play Halo co-op together. "Am I being helpful?" "Am I useful?" Once I got so annoyed by these questions I just said No and he didn't talk to me again after that. There is something deeply, deeply sad to me about thinking through what kind of family life he might have had that he even felt the need to ask that question. I didn't grow up in a great environment either, but I never had any doubt that I was doing good things that would be a point of pride to most parents.
  - defrost 3y ago
    Beware the quiet train spotters: Malcolm (1986) Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffDBsSgS5Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffDBsSgS5Q
- tim333 3y ago
  A lot of traditional/popular children's stories are kind of dark. Hansel and Gretel - witch tries to eat the kids, they kill her in an oven. Harry Potter - fascist like guy kills the parents he kills him etc. I guess it helps deal with the real world that can be like that too. The early Thomas stories were written during WW2.
- fsckboy 3y ago
midasuni 3y ago
I thought the Henry story was traumatising. Then I watched Shed 17.

by Joeri 3y ago

lliamander 3y ago

You could also explain The Wizard of Oz as "young girl travels to a foreign land and kills the first person she meets. She then teams up with three strangers to kill again" The purpose of Thomas the Tank Engine is not to speculate on the ramifications of living in a world with sentient trains like some weird sci-fi novel. You are welcome to write that if you want, but fat chance producing something kids will enjoy. Thomas the Tank Engine exists to delight children with the mystique of steam engines, and to provide the back drop for simple lessons on pro-social behavior that children can understand.

rewmie 3y ago
> Thomas the Tank Engine exists to delight children with the mystique of steam engines, and to provide the back drop for simple lessons on pro-social behavior that children can understand. It's kind of weird seeing someone claim "lessons on pro-social behavior" in a direct reply to a quote on how the show depicts immurement as a reaction to refusing direct orders from the company owner.
- nvm0n2 3y ago
  The lesson it's supposed to teach is to be helpful to others, and that disobedience can lead to punishment. A fairly basic part of parenting, employment, fighting in the military or many other things that boys grow up to do.
  - rewmie 3y ago
    > The lesson it's supposed to teach is to be helpful to others, and that disobedience can lead to punishment. Unquestionable obedience to the company owner under the threat of immurement is not a basic part of parenting. I also question how formatting our children to unquestionably accept fighting and dying in armed conflicts as being healthy and in their best interests. The Fascist motto was “believe, obey, fight.” It is in line with the ideas you're trying to pass off as good parenting.
    - dzhiurgis 3y ago
      "Tell me you don't have kids without telling me..."
      - rewmie 3y ago
        Tell me you're a shit parent without telling me.
  - stavros 3y ago
    This is a lesson nobody should learn. Blind disobedience ~never leads to anything good, and if you can be imprisoned forever because you were afraid of the rain, maybe it's society that is wrong.
- lliamander 3y ago
  Again, that interpretation only makes sense if you are treating Thomas as a sci-fi novel for adults about sentient trains and the capitalist system, rather than as a fairy tale for children. Of course you will invariably butcher what the story was actually trying to convey. The lessons of the episode are simple: - you will not get what you want if you are selfish, mean, and unreasonable (Henry's paint is eventually spoiled anyway) - if you disobey your parents, there will be consequences (like timeout). Note that Sir Topham hat (as a parental figure) while firm, was very patient with Henry.

techsupporter 3y ago

> the Sad Story of Henry My local PBS station showed Thomas the Tank Engine on almost infinite loop and so I came into the show in kind of the middle as a kid. I didn't know why Henry was so "bad" at his job and all of that, only that he was cranky and didn't seem to like everybody else that much. Then this episode aired and my mother says I cried for two days over how Henry had been treated. (It didn't help that I was what was commonly called "a quiet child" and got picked on a lot for not wanting to play with other kids or just "being weird", something I think a lot of HN can relate to.) It wasn't long after that I stopped watching Thomas. Years later, my kid picked up watching the show and learned how to record it on his TiVo. I made sure we watched that episode together.

Modified3019 3y ago
>(It didn't help that I was what was commonly called "a quiet child" and got picked on a lot for not wanting to play with other kids or just "being weird", something I think a lot of HN can relate to.) Yep. Turns out I was autistic, but since it wasn't in a way that that was a bother other people had I no clue until my late 30's. Reading the episode description is really something else. They managed to perfectly capture the phenomenon of real life regular people casually being horrible cunts to each other, though I think they were probably just going for "shut up and obey".

mklepaczewski 3y ago

I know we're making fun of the article here, but Thomas the Tank Engine has dialog lines like this: "Am I a useful train?", Fat Controller: "Yes, Thomas, you are". Being useful seems to be a big concern for the trains. Not being useful is horrific and means decommissioning, which is sensible in the real world, but it's a kid's show. Being old and weak means decommission/death? It might be due to me being a Pole, my upbringing, and our history of WW II, but it triggers a light connotation with labor death camps whenever I hear the line.

hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
For me it reminds me of a boy I knew growing up who later got diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, who was absolutely enamored with trains. He was very smart, if awkward at times - I always liked hanging out with him when he was in his element. But even early on I think he knew something was off, because he constantly asked questions along this line when we did things like play Halo co-op together. "Am I being helpful?" "Am I useful?" Once I got so annoyed by these questions I just said No and he didn't talk to me again after that. There is something deeply, deeply sad to me about thinking through what kind of family life he might have had that he even felt the need to ask that question. I didn't grow up in a great environment either, but I never had any doubt that I was doing good things that would be a point of pride to most parents.
- defrost 3y ago
  Beware the quiet train spotters: Malcolm (1986) Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffDBsSgS5Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffDBsSgS5Q
tim333 3y ago
A lot of traditional/popular children's stories are kind of dark. Hansel and Gretel - witch tries to eat the kids, they kill her in an oven. Harry Potter - fascist like guy kills the parents he kills him etc. I guess it helps deal with the real world that can be like that too. The early Thomas stories were written during WW2.
fsckboy 3y ago

midasuni 3y ago

I thought the Henry story was traumatising. Then I watched Shed 17.