Fun Song Factory is a TV series (originally filmed live) where children sing songs in the factory operated by Ozzie, a big yellow dog, and his friends Hooter the green factory hooter, Fred the orange alien, Sally the cat, and his human friends. The episode 'Birthdays' was aired in 1998, in which Fred celebrates his birthday at the factory. On his home planet he marks the day by sleeping: whenever he tries to take a nap during the episode, the children wake him up to play games and sing songs. Eventually he stays awake and enjoys watching a clown and blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, and the episode ends with everybody playing Fred's favourite game, Sleeping Bunnies.
What a wonderful thing, to have friends to celebrate your birthday with you. Why would you want to waste the day sleeping, when you could be having fun? Supposed moral of the story: birthdays are fun! What a shame that this accompanies such a sad message of not accepting others' traditions.
I've not seen many episodes of Fun Song Factory, so I don't know if it's ever explained when and why Fred came to our planet. I'm assuming that as the only alien in the factory, he doesn't have alien friends on Earth. The culture that he lives in now is that of the factory: with no other aliens around, I imagine that he doesn't have much opportunity to engage with his home culture. On his birthday, the one day a year that as a child you have more freedom to do what you want, he chooses to sleep. The children and adults don't accept this - he must conform to what we on Earth to celebrate. One of the few things that Fred tries to keep from his culture is taken away from him with no compassion or attempt to understand - and this is shown as a good thing to viewers.
Positive message: Celebrating your birthday with friends is awesome!
Negative messages: Immigrants must conform to our standards, they must let go of their traditions from their home country, and we must push our own culture on them with no tolerance or understanding of their feelings.
What a wonderful thing, to have friends to celebrate your birthday with you. Why would you want to waste the day sleeping, when you could be having fun? Supposed moral of the story: birthdays are fun! What a shame that this accompanies such a sad message of not accepting others' traditions.
I've not seen many episodes of Fun Song Factory, so I don't know if it's ever explained when and why Fred came to our planet. I'm assuming that as the only alien in the factory, he doesn't have alien friends on Earth. The culture that he lives in now is that of the factory: with no other aliens around, I imagine that he doesn't have much opportunity to engage with his home culture. On his birthday, the one day a year that as a child you have more freedom to do what you want, he chooses to sleep. The children and adults don't accept this - he must conform to what we on Earth to celebrate. One of the few things that Fred tries to keep from his culture is taken away from him with no compassion or attempt to understand - and this is shown as a good thing to viewers.
Positive message: Celebrating your birthday with friends is awesome!
Negative messages: Immigrants must conform to our standards, they must let go of their traditions from their home country, and we must push our own culture on them with no tolerance or understanding of their feelings.
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