You Grew Up Way to Fast

      One of the things I’ve noticed while watching reruns is that when I see a show as an adult that I had previously watched when I was much younger I wonder why I even liked it because I did not understand most of the jokes.  There’s a lot of adult themes and innuendo in sitcoms that I did not realize I was missing when I was to young for that type of thing.  One of the most recent examples of this is something I noticed while re watching Dharma and Greg in the past few weeks.  I believe when I watched it as a preteen when it originally aired I vaguely knew they were implying that Dharma’s father Larry was on drugs due to his behavior. When watching it again I realized how many specific references to the drugs they make in the dialogue its still implied but its implied with words and not just attitude.  There are references to “burning incense and eating a whole box of captain crunch”  “crème of mushroom soup” and “a stamp collection in the shed” Dharma usually referred to these things when compeering her state of mind to that of someone stoned. 

 Another example is Golden Girls I know I watched it with my grandparents when I was under the age of 8 when I saw it again in college I wondered why they let me watch something that was so about sex but I guess they knew I would not get it.  My sister and I watched the British sitcom Are You Being Served and she claims she spent a long time wondering “what was so funny about Mrs. Slocombe’s cat” (she referred to  the cat as her “pussy”).  Despite missing that joke we did sort of get the implication that Mr. Humphrey’s was gay.  Its interesting what you understand and what you don’t and what you remember when you get older. On the opposite side the Tom Baker era Doctor Who episodes I watched when I was younger were exactly the same when I watched them again in college I don’t know if this is because Doctor Who is considered a kids show or if science fiction is just easier to understand.  Even some sows that are made for kids had jokes that went over my head. I remember re-watching Tiny Toon Adventures and wondering why I liked it before when I did not get half of what they were talking about.  This was mostly cultural references to shows or movies I did not know about as a kid.  They say the grown up jokes are put in to kids shows so parents are not bored and I don’t believe in dumbing things down for kids but it was still surprising to learn that I was not getting as much out of the show as I thought.  I guess its part of the appeal of watching stuff again if a long enough time as passed then there’s new stuff that you don’t remember or did not understand the first time around.