So I was playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES over the weekend.  Aside from remembering how much harder video games were when I was a kid, I caught myself reciting the theme song to the 80s cartoon under my breath.  It was at this point that I realized that the entire chorus of the song was the name of the show repeated over and over. As a kid, this type of introduction not only got me singing along in my pajamas on Saturday mornings but jumping up and down like such a spaz that by the start of the show, I was covered in the hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, blue moons, pots of gold, rainbows, and red balloons of my once undisturbed bowl of Lucky Charms.  I was adorable, hyperactive, and magically delicious.

This method of theme song writing was extremely effective in drilling the name of the show into my head, making me want to watch it, and especially giving me the vital tools necessary to annoy my parents in toy stores and anywhere else I existed. After a little research, I found that many other shows meant for children employ this methodology in getting kids obsessed with watching them.  Here’s a list of 8 that I thought were especially effective:

8. Animaniacs

Though only saying the name of the show six times in the minute-long theme song, “Animaniacs” does a very effective job of grabbing the attention of kids and introducing the show and its characters to them. This introduction also repeatedly shows the program’s title logo when saying the name of the show to establish association between the two, much like another Warner Brothers’ show, Tiny Toons. Also like Tiny Toons, the Animaniacs introduction, as previously mentioned, finds the time to introduce different characters, their motives, quirks, and ability to dress themselves.  Notice how Wakko wears no pants, but Yakko and Dot go topless?

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Why haven’t I updated my blog as much as usual?  It’s the tryptophan, I swear.

Figure 1 - I found the turkey had an enlarged prostate and wasn't long for this world, so we were right to kill and eat it out of mercy. Tasty mercy.

It’s that time of the year. You barely see some family members the whole year, then you see them all, a lot, in the span of two months.  Kind of like that rash I’ve been ignoring, except less itchy, and with presents.  It’s a busy time of year for a lot of people, including me. I made a choice to let my blog suffer to spend time with my family, get some shopping done, and play video games.  The opportunity cost between that and my approximately $0.12 a month in ad revenue made it an easy choice.  I don’t do this blog for money, though, I do it for my own enjoyment. I just enjoy my family, turkey, and PlayStation 3 more than blogging.

So they won out.

Thanksgiving was relatively uneventful, and that we made it the whole meal without any burping contests or audible flatulence. I also got to carve the turkey with my brother (Figure 1).  Nothing whets the appetite like being elbow deep in a turkey’s ass.  The food was awesome, the football games sucked, and nobody reading this blog probably gives a crap.

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