scottobear | What got me going.

An excerpt from Microserfs

Todd called me "decadent" today - this, after he discussed protein windows! I couldn't believe it. He said I was decadent because I was eating Lucky Charms. He said they were "symptomatic of a culture in decline - sucrose hysteria, you know."

I said "But Todd, Lucky Charms were invented during the Johnson Administration. Society couldn't have been more anti-decline than it was then. Guns and butter...I can't believe I'm even talking to you seriously about this. This is silly beyond belief."

Anyway, that was the seed notion. Karla and I wrote a big list of "decadent cereals" on the office dry-erase wall:

Cap'n Crunch: A) Colonialist exploiter pursues naive Crunchberry cultures to plunder. B) Drunkenness, torture, and debauchery implicit in long ocean journeys.

Sugar Frosted Flakes: Silky throated military-industrial complex spokes-toad "Tony the Tiger" exploits the need of the undereducated underclass for the paternalistic, Reagan-like figures. A cautionary tale of the perils of not indoctrinating at the creche level.

Trix: Well-meaning rabbit, "Trix," kept in continual state of malnutrition/subservience by dominant children of the parasitic bourgeoisie. "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" can only be construed as a call to class warfare.

Lucky Charms: Man with no known adult friends lures children into forest for purpose of nutritional (ideological) seduction. Sprightly twinkle motif on packaging (putatively an allusion to "flavor") are, in fact, metaphors for soul-deadening sucrose.

Rice Krispies: Snap, Krackle, and Pop thinly veiled emblems for the Trilateral Commission.

Cocoa Puffs: "I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs," the demented cackle of Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird/spokesmuppet, is resonant with the insanity inherent in the needless enslavement of the proletariat.

Count Chocula - Frankenberry: Gay relationship offers an excellent role model for this new era of diversity. Witty vampire motif plays on never-ending struggle of the oppressed to topple the ruling class.

-Douglas Coupland

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