Saturday, October 5, 2013

Overheard on the playground

"Daddy?  Spiderman can beat up Jesus."

Actual quote.

Connor has gained an encyclopaedic knowledge of Your Friendly Neighborhood WebslingerTM: his alias Peter Parker, his beloved Aunt May, adversaries Venom, Green Goblin, Doc Octopus, Electro, theRhino, Kingpin... and so on. He gained all this without the benefit of seeing a Spiderman movie, reading a comic, seeing a cartoon, and so on.  That means he learned it on the playground.

Thing is, we're not exactly taking him to Sunday School. So it appears he's getting a primer in world religions on the jungle gym as well.  Not a working knowledge of such matters, mind you, just the facts as they can be comprehended by a team of five-year olds: Jesus was powerful.  He had magic powers. That means he's like a superhero.  And those with superpowers, by definition, must fight for supremacy.

I guess on that front he has a point - Spiderman has a better costume, better physique, and a cooler job, while Jesus, as Patton Oswalt duly noted, has the powers of an X-Man sidekick.  So maybe there's something to this: if he comes home Monday and equates the government shutdown to the kids who refuse to roll the kickball when it's not their turn, well, I'd be duly impressed.