Everybody's a critic - 'Death to Smoochy'

HH

Substitute Barney for vice in this verse by William Blake:

"Vice is a monster of frightful means/ As to be hated needs but to be seen/ But seen too oft, familiar with its face/ First we endure, then pity, then embrace."

The verse still works, anyone who has been the stay-at-home mom for small children will attest. So the movie "Death to Barney" (I mean Smoochy) had immediate appeal to me.

I always enjoy a little black comedy (like "Death Becomes Her" or "Raising Arizona"); but as the movie permutes on with a foul-speaking Robin Williams as the revenge-seeking Rainbow Randolph after sappy, too-good-to-be-believed Smoochy (a brave Edward Norton), I found myself laughing less and less as the non-parents in the audience laughed more and more.

Ultimately too cynical and unbelievable for this young mom, I'd rather watch more Barney!

-- Fawna Jones, mom