Teenage? Check. Mutant? Check. Turles? Check. Ninja? Ninja...really?

Okay, before this post commences I would like to thank Miss Ashley Hoover (Listen to her at wjyy.com weeknights at 7 PM.....cheap plug) for the idea for this blog, even though she didn't know what can of worms she opened in my head.

The can of worms happened one night in college when my friend Danny and I were very bored and my roommate Joe was busy listening to his music. I had recently received the first six episodes of one of my favorite shows of all time: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We decided to pull out some alcohol and watch all the episodes and analyze them with a critical mind, just to see if the show holds up.

Fortunately the show more than holds up despite the corniness of it...however in analyzing it, we realized how naive we were as youngsters. The first episode alone provides so many points of questioning that I would love to know how we bought it as kids. First off, the entire premise of the TMNT is a bit interesting and hard to swallow.

As Splinter explains their origin he tells April that "I knew the outside world would consider them freaks, so I trained them in the art of ninjitsu" (no I didn't need to turn on the DVD to get the exact quote, I'm just that cool/nerdy). Now the question I posed is why exactly would four walking, talking turtles knowing ninjitsu make them any less freaky to the outside world? I mean although they would be able to defend themselves, what other reason would Splinter have to teach them ninjitsu other than it was really the only skill he had? Keeping that in mind, why keep them in a big city atmosphere like New York in the first place? Wouldn't it be much more convenient to move them all to a place where at least there was a most hospitable life style for the turtles to acclimate themselves to?

There are a whole array of other questions I could ask about the turtles and their archnemesis Shredder. Such as how exactly do the turtles pay for pizza delivery? How does Shredder have cameras with perfect audio and video located on every street corner and even in the sewers of New York City, yet he still can't seem to find the turtles lair? With all the tunnels that the Technodrome and the transport modules have dug under the city, wouldn't there be long standing damage? Or how about the subway lines, wouldn't there be huge gaping holes in most of the lines?

I guess what I'm trying to get at by this very simple example, is to not believe everything you see on TV, no matter how pure you think it is. This could apply to the news, politics, drama seris, anything...just always remember to keep questioning and keep learning, to make yourself a better person. Now if you'll excuse me, tonight I dine on turtle soup.