{"id":1981,"date":"2021-01-22T19:56:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T19:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2021-01-25T10:01:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T10:01:19","slug":"whats-up-with-danish-tv-for-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2021\/01\/22\/whats-up-with-danish-tv-for-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up with Danish TV for Kids?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If\u00a0DR<\/strong>\u2019s show John Dillermand<\/strong> had been about a lemur<\/strong> and its long, striped tail, nobody would have noticed. (Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

For the small size of their country, Danes have really managed to create a lot of outrage. (Remember the prophet cartoon crisis<\/a> or the killing<\/a> of the poor giraffe Marius?) This January, Danes did it again \u2013 with a children\u2019s tv show about a man and his very long private part. Er intet helligt <\/strong>(is nothing holy) in Denmark, a foreigner might ask\u2026<\/p>\n

(Please note that this is a blog about language and culture \u2013 it\u2019s not my job to judge the tv show. \ud83d\ude42 The debate caused by the show, however, should be interesting to students of Danish, as it definitely says something about Danish society.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you know Marsupilami<\/a> (in Danish: Spirillen<\/strong>), the leopard-skinned cartoon animal that looks like an abe<\/strong> (monkey) with a very long hale <\/strong>(tail)? \ud83d\ude42 Both female and male marsupilamis can use their flexible tails to pick up ting<\/strong> (things) and solve problems. If Danmarks Radio<\/strong> (= DR<\/strong>, the \u201dDanish BBC\u201d) had made a b\u00f8rneprogram<\/strong> (children\u2019s program) about Marsupilami solving problems with his tail, all would be fine. DR<\/strong>, however, covered Marsupilami\u2019s body and tail with a red and white striped bodysuit, turned him into a middle-aged mand<\/strong> (man) and moved the clothed tail from the back to the front and voila \u2013 it\u2019s a penis (diller<\/strong> in Danish children\u2019s slang).<\/p>\n

Although DR <\/strong><\/a>insists that \u201dJohn Dillermand\u201d<\/strong> is just a bit of harmless fun with no sexual undertones, many Danes just can\u2019t believe the show is aimed at 4-8-\u00e5rige<\/strong> (-year-olds). A parent I talked to, would not let his b\u00f8rn<\/strong> (children) watch it. Some experts worry that a show about a man using his magical private parts to master his surroundings would be unhelpful to the fight for ligestilling mellem kvinder og m\u00e6nd<\/strong> (equality between women and men) in Denmark.<\/p>\n

I tried to do a little bit of research on debatten for og imod<\/strong> (the debate for and against). An example<\/a> of the supporters\u2019 view would be the child psychologist Erla Heinesen H\u00f8jsted: \u201cJohn Dillermand talks to children and shares their way of thinking \u2013 and kids do find genitals funny.\u201d<\/em> To which the American comedian Stephen Colbert replied<\/a>: \u201dJust because kids think something\u2019s funny doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a good idea for a kids\u2019 tv show.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As any foreigner who has spent sommerferien <\/strong>(the summer holidays) in Denmark knows, many Danes have a very relaxed and down-to-earth attitude to life. People generally don\u2019t make a fuss if they see somebody bathing<\/a> n\u00f8gen <\/strong>(naked), for example. (Of course, Danish for\u00e6ldre<\/strong> \u2013 parents \u2013 also love their children, and would be the first to step in if something did not seem naturlig<\/strong>, natural.) I wonder if the views of Danes and foreigners sometimes \u201dcrash\u201d simply due to different traditions! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Helle Strandgaard Jensen, a scientist, talked<\/a> about a difference between Scandinavian b\u00f8rne-tv <\/strong>(children\u2019s TV) and that from other countries: While Scandinavians typically try to make TV from the children\u2019s point of view, non-Scandinavians often go for something more \u201deducational\u201d (nudging the children towards the adults\u2019 point of view).<\/p>\n

But also within Skandinavien<\/strong> Denmark seems to be the \u201dextremist\u201d: As a child I loved, loved, loved Bamse og Kylling<\/strong><\/a>, a show about a teddy bear (bamse<\/strong>) and his best friend who happens to be a chicken (kylling<\/strong>). Bamse is just like a big kid (which is why I and everybody else loved the show): He wants to eat all the cakes \u2013 poor Kylling can take the leftovers.<\/p>\n

But when Bamse og Kylling<\/strong> aired in Norge<\/strong> (Norway), Norwegian TV received a lot of complaints from parents worrying that the self-centred Bamse would not be a good role model for their children\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

For the small size of their country, Danes have really managed to create a lot of outrage. (Remember the prophet cartoon crisis or the killing of the poor giraffe Marius?) This January, Danes did it again \u2013 with a children\u2019s tv show about a man and his very long private part. Er intet helligt (is…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[542469,1993,2005,542467,542468,89877,293321,263710,542466,293330,542471,542472],"class_list":["post-1981","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bamse-og-kylling","tag-cartoons","tag-children","tag-controversies","tag-danmarks-radio","tag-dr","tag-equality","tag-frisind","tag-john-dillermand","tag-marius","tag-metoo","tag-stephen-colbert"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}