Sarcasm: On.
I ran across a piece posted on Boing Boing about how the NSA are revamping and filing trademark applications for the characters used in the children’s outreach section of their web page. As I read through the piece I couldn’t help but flash back to a great episode of “The Simpsons” in which some of the minor characters of the “Itchy and Scratchy” cartoons are enumerated. From the Boing Boing piece:
In addition, the NSA has added new characters to make a spy supergroup known as the “CryptoKids (TM)”. The new characters include Decipher Dog, Joules (squirrel), Slate (rabbit), T. Top (turtle), and Rosetta Stone (fox). Each of them have their own special abilities — they are like the Power Rangers for warrant-less wiretaps.
Here are some of the disturbing parallels I see:
- Crypto Cat is clearly based on Scratchy even if she is a teenage girl (transformed from a trench-coat-wearing male cat)
- Decipher Dog could either be Dinner Dog or the ever Rastafied surfer dog Poochie (as voiced by Homer, wikkity wikkity wak to the extreme).
- Joules could be our parallel for Itchy because they’re both rodents.
- T. Top the turtle and Slate the rabbit really are less clear. Manic Mailman? Ku Klux Clam? Disgruntled Goat? Who knows.
- The fox Rosetta Stone is a clear rip-off of Flatulent Fox.
These to me seem to be grounds for some serious lawsuits against the government, the most egregious violation of private trademark holders since the US Postal Service stole Manic Mailman for their “Mr. ZIP” character. The President may feel that the authorization for military action included in Congressional resolutions regarding the War on Terror give him the authority to violate trademark and copyright law, but I’m sure members of both parties in Congress will express their opinion otherwise.
Sarcasm: Off.
Tags: Simpsons
