From the "Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic" Dept.

Yesterday, we're driving in the car with the kids in the back seat, and we've got the radio tuned to Mike FM. A promo for the station comes on, which I can't remember exactly but which more or less goes like this: "Mike FM. Where we don't play anything offensive. Please listen anyway." That's not it exactly, but you get the gist of it and the point they're trying to get across-- this station is saying that they don't play "offensive" music. They're boring. They're non-controversial. So, you'd think, you can safely sit in your car with your kids in the back seat and let the music play with nary a care.

They go from that promo right into Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side".

Now, let me make this absolutely clear: "Walk on the Wild Side" is a great freakin' song. But did nobody see the irony in going from "nothing offensive" to playing a song with a reference to oral sex in the second verse?

And, you know what kids can be like. Kids listen, kids ask questions, kids retain things without you realizing it and then spout them back at inopportune times. Do I really want my two year old suddenly singing "...even when she was giving head"? Or "...the colored girls sing..."? Because it could happen- he's prone to singing "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" without any prompting at all. Also I'm not really thrilled with the idea of explaining what that line "even when she was giving head" means to my 7 year old and my 5 1/2 year old.

Lou got as far as "...Miami, FLA" before we changed the station.

Hm. Maybe I should rethink putting "Heroin" on that mix CD for the kids...

Comments

[Ron Newman]

May I suggest WJIB-AM 740 as an alternative? Good, pleasant music from the 1940s onwards.

[Aaron]

Obviously oral sex isn't offensive these days. ;)