My favorite aspect of Alice Through the Looking-Glass are the “Disney jokes.” Disney jokes are those lines you hear during a disney movie that are funny as a kid, but take on a whole new meaning as an adult. For example, in Toy Story 3 after Mrs. Potato Head gets her mouth stolen by some wild pre-schoolers, Mr. Potato Head gets a little sassy and exclaims “Hey, no one takes my wife’s mouth but me!” Children might find this part entertaining because Mr. Potato Head is a funny character, especially when he’s sassy. But adults also find it funny for obvious non-PG reasons. Similarly, Through the Looking-Glass is rife with passages that children find entertaining for its ridiculousness but adults appreciate for its wit. A particular favorite of mine is when the Unicorn meets Alice and doesn’t understand what she is (page 201). After being told that Alice is a child he remarks “I always thought they were fabulous monsters!” (201). I like this quote because it has so many meanings to me. It’s funny because it’s the typical ridiculousness you encounter in Wonderland. It’s also clever because many adults today would agree with the Unicorn in that children are little monsters. Finally, this quote is particularly interesting to me because it reminds me that while a virtual reality seems weird to us (because its new and disorienting), we seem weird to those in the virtual reality (because we are new and disorienting to them). This passage reminds me that the virtual reality or the unreal is in the eyes of the beholder, and so are Lewis Carroll’s jokes.
2 thoughts on “Disney Jokes”
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Though I’ve never heard them be called, “Disney Jokes,” I agree with you that there’s a certain delight in being capable of understanding jokes in media that are deliberately designed to go over their target audience’s heads as it were. What I feel like many people fail to realize as they defend a work with a child’s target audience (completely ignoring the fact that not being part of the target audience in no way requires you to justify your enjoyment or that being targeted for children somehow makes it inferior to works primarily meant for the fully grown) is arguing that the presence of such jokes makes it somehow not meant for children. It most certainly still is, but A. The creator is aware that the person experiencing said media isn’t going to be a child one hundred percent of the time, and B. Much more importantly, barring a few exceptions, the creators of media targeted at children are themselves adults, and will include the kinds of things that will make themselves laugh. Well, what they can get away with by being clever anyway. In addition, I will add as a personal anecdote, that being a child and realizing the innuendo is itself a delight as it makes one feel intelligent.
As much as I enjoyed reading the ‘Disney jokes,’ I also appreciated all the ideas and concepts that children might find funny, but wouldn’t understand on a deeper, more intellectual level. For instance, in chapter II, the Queen argues with Alice when Alice uses the word ‘hill.’ The Queen tells Alice, “I could show you hills, in comparison with which you’d call that a valley” (140), and the Queen also states, “but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”(140). Although this logic may seem silly and amusing to a child, they may not understand the meaning behind the Queen’s words. I believe that Lewis Carroll is trying to express that if you always speak in relative terms, anything could be categorized as either nonsense or sensible. Similarly, anything can be reality or an illusion, depending on your perception.