While on the subject of nursery rhymes
I’d like to put the tale of Little Red Riding Hood under the microscope. A
little girl walking through the woods heading for her grandmother’s cottage although
as this was once upon a time in a galaxy far far away….oh hang on one moment….I
may be getting slightly mixed up there. No she wasn’t one of the Jedi siblings from
Star Wars was she? Ah that’s right, my investigations revealed Red now has ten
children all by different fathers and is believed to be doing this just for the
money it affords her from the state which she uses to pay for her severe crack
habit. If her lovely old grandmother could only see her now. I mean her actual
grandmother and not the wolf in a grandmother suit. How blind was this girl?
She mistakes a big grey furry wolf for her own grandmother. I mean talk about
getting it wrong. Okay so some grannies may have a bit going on in the facial
hair department but when you take a wolf to be your grandmother surely that’s
stretching it a bit too far? Had Red’s mother sent her with a picnic basket
full of hair removal products?
Moving back to the story I’ll begin by
mentioning that it is stressed very
clearly, as clearly as the clear crystal of the Crystal Castle (which I don’t
recall was that clear at all now I mention it) which is of course defended by
the mighty She-Ra (He-Man’s twin sister) who I saw in the pub last week. She’d
recently split up with her girlfriend so was considerably upset at the time
drowning her sorrows in booze which is never the best way to cope with a
relationship breakdown even if it may be the most common. I think I managed to
cheer her up a bit and almost convinced her to come for a curry with me
afterwards until remembering she’s a cartoon not possessing the capacity to
digest food. This reminded her she couldn’t drink real beer either so she left behind
a huge puddle of it on the floor where she’d been sitting. No waste at this pub
though as Benji the landlord’s domesticated aardvark was later seen licking up
every last drop after which he began belching ferociously before collapsing
like an elephant after a one minute run on a treadmill (picture it complete
with sweat bands).
Anyway back to Red Riding Hood. The
tale begins by explaining it took place at the time when all birds and beasts
could talk just as well as you and I, ‘and nobody was surprised to hear them
talk as I suppose one would be nowadays.’ This I pitch at both extremes. Whilst
I find it extremely insulting in that it’s another great big whopper of a lie
which of course as kids you don’t find out until much later (and by yourself
for that matter) at the same time I thought it kind of nice they at least seem
to tackle the fact animals in this story do talk. With that rhyme detailing the
exploits of the laughing dog, the flying cow and the violin playing cat, none
of these things were addressed were they? No precursor or warning of such
strange behaviour from these animals that might aid us in not going rather
insane. It all ended up like an advertisement for hallucinogenic drugs – and
this for children!!!
So it is explained that the animals do
talk but on the other hand nowhere does it stipulate they live and interact
with humans. The little girl (although not quite so little now after giving
birth to such a numerous litter of brats) toddles off to her grandmother’s
cottage somewhere in the woods singing as she goes. Exactly what she was
singing nobody knows but rumour has it this will be released on a forthcoming
retrospective soundtrack entitled ‘The Music of Little Red Riding Hood.’ This
should be available for download on iTunes in due course.
As she gets nearer to her destination
she encounters the wolf for the first time who tells her he knows her
grandmother – yeah right – picture it now him going round every Thursday for
afternoon tea.
‘Mmmmm, grandmother I think I’ll have
your leg on a sandwich with my tea please,’ licking his big wolf lips (okay so
wolves don’t exactly have lips but are we certain in this crazy world that they
did not at the time of this tale? I mean they do talk after all? Evolution is
sometimes a strange thing). ‘That’ll be two sugar lumps for me please me darlin’
Adopting a contemplative expression on his big wolf face he might then add, ‘On
second thoughts grandmother dear, no sugars for me as I have a dentist
appointment tomorrow and he’s not going to be impressed with me for bingeing on
grandmother body parts as it is!’
The wolf fools the little girl into
racing him to the old woman’s cottage. What a dizzy bint? How stupid would you
have to be? This girl seriously needed some kind of intervention. Naturally he
arrives before her to lie in wait. When the girl arrives she finds she cannot
get inside so has to be instructed in opening the door by her grandmother,
alias the wolf dressed complete in granny clothes and hat to boot.
After finally gaining access to the
cabin she comments on how bad granny’s cold must be to make her sound so
hoarse. WHAT? This girl is deaf as well as completely stupid. She sounds like a
bloody wolf god damn it because she is a wolf, where did the horse come into it?
I’d like to know what horse she has spoken to or heard speak because from my
experience these beautiful creatures talk so softly almost as if in song most
of the time. I was regularly in the audience on ‘Sunday Morning with the Band
of Horses’ just listening to them conduct and debate their equine politics for
hours on end.
When Red finally walks into a very dark
room granny is in bed with the duvet pulled right up to her head so fair enough
perhaps she can’t see the wolf underneath. That is a pity because a big bad
wolf in drag is quite a sight I can tell you, had me in hysterics for days when
I saw the CCTV footage. It is known to most animals however that Thursday night
is drag night at The Animal Inn, a place where the animal community gather
together socially resulting in much merrymaking, frivolity and where it has
been common to encounter wolves in granny drag complete with purple or blue
rinse wigs if not wearing ever more elaborate hats. I do advise caution when
planning a visit to this strange yet magical establishment if only to spare you
the Pig N’ Dale strip show every other Tuesday, now that is a display to give
the most hardy of folk nightmares for life.
What happened next in the actual story
should really have given it away as the granny-wolf put out his big furry paws
and began to open the basket the girl’s mother had sent. Of course in this
basket there was hundreds of tiny flesh eating spiders that would have devoured
the old dear so Red’s parents could move into the cottage and live happily ever
after free from the evil old witch she’d become. Therefore in theory one might
conclude the girl should’ve let the wolf open the basket and all would’ve ended
quite well for her, but no they got chatting. The wolf probably imagining the
girl roasted on a huge platter accompanied by mashed potatoes, peas and
carrots. ‘Knew I should’ve bought along some mint sauce,’ he might have
thought, ‘it tasted so nice on Little Bo Peep and those three little pigs…mmmmm.’
‘What great arms you have!’ the girl
observed out loud still not twigging it was actually a wolf and not her dainty old-aged
grandmother. Of course in those days most grannies had big grey bushy arms with
paws at the end and no opposable thumbs. The wolf’s response was seemingly
polite.
‘All the better to hug you with.’ This
translated into wolf-speak literally as, ‘All the better to claw you to death,
rip you to shreds before dicing you up to fit in the pot with a nice red wine
sauce!’
‘What great ears you have!’ the girl
continued observing these striking features. You think she would have realised on
her previous visits her grandmother having these. And I’m sorry but the ears
should’ve been a dead giveaway!! If not then they should have at the very least
given rise to some level of concern given they protruded through the night hat.
Further, by this time she must have now been looking at the wolf’s head yet
still not recognising it was an imposter. Her poor grandmother is all I can say
for she must have been one ugly hairy looking old lady.
More talk ensued as the girl continued
noticing more and more alarmingly odd features until, ‘What sharp teeth you
have!’ she cried, the penny finally dropping in her tiny brain after all she’d
seen and heard thus far.
‘All the better to eat you with,’
shouted the wolf who wanted to tell her at length how he would prepare her like
lamb and suck on her bones but after it took her so long to twig he was
actually a wolf in granny drag he found himself no longer bothered for, ‘why
should he waste his intelligence on someone so dense?’ he thought. It had been
a very long day and he had had to wear old lady clothing on a day that was not
Thursday (animals in drag night at the pub) so he would be a laughing stock as
it was. I suppose that’s the price a wolf must pay for fame to get into one of
these stories.
At that very moment the door to the
cottage flung open revealing two tall heavily muscled and tattooed woodcutters
bearing heavy axes. ‘Ok Miss Spooner,’ they bellowed enthusiastically, ‘which
one of us gets to go first today?’
‘Or perhaps you can take the both of us
at once if you’ve been taking your cod liver oil?’ added the second one. Well,
perhaps Red didn’t grow up to be much different to her grandmother after all.
The two woodcutters actually killed the
wicked wolf by gruesomely axing the creature and all in front of this little
girl. Being as dense as she seemed she probably thought they were murdering her
grandmother. She goes off in tears, understandable after such a near death
experience and witnessing the brutal slaying of the wolf, to search for her
actual grandmother who happens to walk through the door at that moment. It was
her friend Mrs Hall who had been unwell so okay then everything is fine. Little
Red Riding Hood will grow up to be a one parent slut due to this scarring
incident but no harm no foul. Word has it those two wood cutters each fathered
one of her children but due to the circumstances it is impossible to tell which
particular kids and when.
As with all these tales they insisted
everyone lived happily ever after but how can they even attempt to convince us
this is true after what happened? The actual point from all this, if there is
any point I suppose one might add, is the gruesome nature of these tales we
tell to young children and the constant lies we weave about them.
