Fairy Tales: S is for Scieszka and Smith, When Fairy Tales Get Too Meta

Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith produced The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales plus Squids will be Squids. These are parody-break the fourth wall-fractured fairy tales. 

The first, for instance, tells the story of "The Really Ugly Duckling" who grew up to be "a really ugly duck." Squids will be Squids parodies Aesop, pointing out that it is possible to make fun of people by pretending they are animals (as opposed to instructing humans by pretending animals are like them). My favorite morals from Squids will be Squids are "Everyone knows frogs can't skateboard, but it's kind of sad that they believe everything they see on TV" and "Whatever looks like a pigeon and acts like a pigeon usually makes good pigeon pie" as well as, for the tale about Straw and Matches: "Don't play with matches."

I laughed like crazy through both books.

 

Except--here's the thing--I don't have much desire to read them again or read more books by the pair.

 

Fractured fairy tales--as opposed to retold fairy tales--are like Robin Williams' genie in the first Aladdin.

 

Absolutely hilarious. A total hit. So funny, Disney just let Williams do his thing and then designed the genie around him. A legitimately top of line comedic production!

 

But--then everybody started to do it in Hollywood, and people lost interest.

 

The truth is, when it comes to storytelling, people want to be caught up in the moment; they want to engage with a story that takes them from Point A to Point C or D or Z. Constantly being reminded, "This is a story. The narrator is now addressing you" is momentarily hilarious and can be well-constructed. 

 

But it pales over time. Even Monty-Python's extremely funny skits lose their appeal (and it is likely not a mistake that the Holy Grail, which has an intelligible arc or journey, is one of the most popular). It's rather like having a very rich and sticky dessert and then wanting to go back to solid apple pie.

 

I recently watched an Asian drama series in which Season 2 started two of the characters' stories over. Such an approach is not unusual. But I was out of proportion angry until I watched the entire Season 2 and decided that the writers did a better job with the characters' stories the second time around. I was angry, however, because my engagement (I care about these characters--where do they go next?) was almost ruthlessly broken. I didn't get to follow the characters into the next season. I had to re-engage with them, which I did.

 

Readers and viewers know the difference between fantasy and reality. That doesn't mean they want constant interruptions, a kind of "Do you get it now?" query from the sidelines.

 

Let us enjoy the story for its own sake first.