Jonny Quest

Our family has become the proud owners of many, many SMC box sets, the most prized of which is the complete Jonny Quest DVD set. My husband thinks of JQ as a "two-fisted kids' show," and to many of our age-peers it is one of the most popular. Our son is finally at the age where he really, really enjoys it, now, so the past week has been JQ central. I cannot get the theme song out of my head, though, as cool as it is.

As we went through the canon, however, I became acutely aware of how much a product of the cold-war sixties JQ really is, complete with ugly racial stereotypes. And Hadji, sigh -- how many kids of Eastern Indian origin ended up with the nickname "Hadji" in trying to fit in with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood? I know of at least one from my childhood. A "Hadji" was also a handball term, for when the handball would suddenly fly straight up in the air when it hit an uneven seam of the paved court.

Anyway, if you are thinking of introducing your child to this otherwise great show, be prepared to have many, many "teaching moments" about stereotypes and living in this crazy melting pot we call America.

Swiped the picture of the DVD set from Cartoon Secrets