Mr. Doobins Meets Daffy Duck
A couple of weeks back I introduced Sparkle Girl and Doobins to the world of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety & Co.
It’s all fresh enough that Doobins hasn’t started calling Bugs Bunny by name yet. He just says, “I want to see a cartoon with that rabbit.”
When Garnet went to pick him up from the school the other day, she found out that, after being put in timeout for some routine infraction, Mr. Doobins earned a visit to the principal’s office by saying to the teacher, “You’re despicable.”
He’s really good with sound effects and voices, so, when Garnet told me about it, I could heard Doobins saying it in Daffy Duck’s voice.
At the principal’s office, Mrs. Parker helped him look up the word, and they talked about why it was wrong to say it to his teacher.
After I got home, I followed up with a little talk about how such things may get a big laugh around the house but you just can’t go around in public telling people they’re despicable.
The story clearly made the rounds of teachers because, as I was walking out the next day after dropping off Mr. Doobins, more than one stopped me in the hallway to tell me how much they had enjoyed hearing about Mr. Doobins saying, “You’re despicable.”
One – Mrs. Beckerdite – said it was a good thing she hadn’t said it to her because she might not have been able to keep a straight face.
She imagined herself having to say “Excuse me” and stepping behind something to laugh before returning to reprimand him for such talk.
Although I have not consciously embarked on a campaign of turning Sparkle Girl and Doobins into anarchists, it is true that I introduced them to “Calvin and Hobbes” shortly after introducing them to Looney Tunes.
With Calvin on the brain, Garnet said, there’s no telling what inappropriate comment is going to come out of that boy’s mouth at school next.
