As a fan of Scrubs, I recently watched an episode in which Dr. Cox and his wife, Jordan, attempt to tell their son a bedtime story. Dr. Cox begins to tell a story about the only thing he knows, hospital life, when his wife stops him and reminds him that he is speaking to a child, and should tell a story about something more appropriate. He begins the story again as a fairy tale, indicating that fairy tales are meant exclusively for children. The episode then turns into a parody of fairy tales, in which JD and Elliott, referred to as “the idiot and the princess” have a near brush with romance when they almost kiss, but then decide that their infatuation is not enough to make them fall for each other. The episode intertwines a classic fairy tale story with real life problem of a young girl needing a kidney transplant. In this way, it mocks fairy tales for being such an exaggeration of reality, yet at the same time reminds the audience of the lasting significance fairy tales have in the lives of adults. Although the story is being told to Dr. Cox and Jordan’s young son, at the end of the tale, Jordan is still anxious to know how the story ends, hoping for a happy ending for the princess and idiot. In a way, this was saying that fairy tales, which allow magic and supernatural creatures to have the ability to solve all problems, give us hope for solving problems in reality, even throughout our adult years.
Feel free to view a short clip of the episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rXB1Lwg9e0
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I haven’t seen that episode, but went and watched the clip on YouTube. The first thing that struck me on the page itself was the first comment I saw. User butterfly2772 said:
ReplyDelete"I loved this episode. It was so sad though…….
I thought the girl was going to have a happily ever after :( "
Even before I got a few seconds into the clip, I knew how the story ended! I thought it was very interesting that this YouTube user was so accustomed to the “happily ever after” ending that she (I’m assuming it was a she) thought the little girl would get a new liver and live happily ever after. We’ve talked a lot about how we expect this in popular culture today, but I still found it interesting. I also found it interesting that Dr. Cox felt that he had to change the story to tell his son. Right at the end of the clip, after Dr. Cox told his son that the maiden lived happily ever after, just as everyone would think, Jordan asks Dr. Cox if the girl actually got her liver. His answer is “Let’s just say that’s the way I’m telling it.” He didn’t want to put these negative thoughts in his son’s mind. Even though life is filled with disappointment (the little girl died), Dr. Cox wants to protect his son from that disappointment as long as he can. I know it is probably what any parent would do, but I wonder if this is good or bad for a child’s development. Does it create false expectations for us as we grow up?