Comments on Pointless Planet: Dodge "Family Time"

If only that had happened to this family.

2010-01-25T11:28:25.421-05:00

If only that had happened to this family.

As a natural-born worrier, I don't really trus...

2010-01-23T12:10:40.665-05:00

As a natural-born worrier, I don't really trust the van-borne TV screen; it seems to me that in an accident, it might come off its mountings and transform into a guillotine blade.

One of the most absurd innovations of modern Ameri...

2009-10-17T12:19:15.866-04:00

One of the most absurd innovations of modern American life is the now-ubiquitous van-borne TV. From a parental standpoint, allowing your unmanageable and unimaginative children to watch TV while they're being driven around, just to keep them quiet, would seem to be an act of utter resignation.

Not to mention the more recent minivan commercial ...

2009-10-13T20:05:17.004-04:00

Not to mention the more recent minivan commercial that shows an entire fricking family abandoning the dinner table for a seat in the van, which is parked in the driveway, because somehow eating a meal from a plate balanced on some pop-out tray and watching a tiny screen is preferable to having lots of elbow room and a table and a large tv, and being able to talk to people without twisting yourself around and addressing the back seat...

Minivan ads have always been vile. "Now you ...

2009-10-03T14:32:34.158-04:00

Minivan ads have always been vile. "Now you can do everything you'd be doing at home anyway, but in the minivan! And you'll do it in forced proximity to one another!" I guess for some gruesome families, this would promote desperately-needed togetherness.

Do you remember the minivan ad from over a decade ago, (it might have been a Caravan, in fact) which touted itself as being either the first or one of the first minivans to have one of those now-ubiquitous pop-out televisions. (It might have predated DVDs, in fact, but not by much)

Anyway, the commercial was vile because it touted this as a way to keep your horrible children quiet and out of your hair. So we had two children in the back seat, who were so creepily blissed out by the television that they looked as if they were on heroin or peyote. And what was possibly the worst thing about the ad, following car ad convention, they were driving through computer-enhanced Monument Valley or somewhere similar.

So they were driving through spectacular scenery in the southwestern US, but the kids saw none of it, because they were too busy watching Aladdin or some such shit on their shiny minivan television to look out the window.

Pointless Planet forgets nothing, not even Billy&#...

2009-09-27T17:09:41.868-04:00

Pointless Planet forgets nothing, not even Billy's name -- although no baby boy born in the United States has been named either "Billy" or "Bobby" in the last 15 years.

you forgot the part where the sister forgets her b...

2009-09-21T19:00:01.731-04:00

you forgot the part where the sister forgets her brother's name- "you know, you're ok, Bobby."

"Billy."

The Stupid! It BURNS!