Flying Saucer Drops Nessie Into Bermuda Triangle! Caught on Film by Bigfoot! “She Never Looked More Beautiful Than When She Was in Freefall,” Says Sasquatch!

Jinkies! When faced with complete absurdity, what is a parent to do, Velma? After all, your child talks intimately to Elmo and only vaguely approves of gravity. You don’t want to quash a normal fantasy life, but you want a responsible skeptic — not someone who argues for the sake of argument, but someone who is comfortable evaluating his world’s veracity. Sure, he’ll question your statements to bits as a teenager, but you also want him to question everything from the National Enquirer to the Pope and the Surgeon General. Sometimes the world throws parents a Scooby snack of support, as in Fred, Shaggy, and Encyclopedia Brown (the three wise guys).

Scooby Doo is actually pretty cool. The show debuted in 1969 as a mixture of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and I Love A Mystery. The ensuing generations who looked forward to Saturday mornings as cartoon time also learned that the world is not always as presented by those in authority. And absurdity is revealed as absurdity when you strip away the glowing paint and flippers.

For that matter, Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown is also pretty cool. (“You thieving, lying crook! You should be elected president so you can grant yourself a pardon.” — The Case of Bug’s Zebra.) Created in 1963 by Donald J. Sobol, the boy detective always throws the case back out to the reader for a solution. And the truth is out there.

Both Scooby and Encyclopedia have gone through numerous updates, but the essential message has gone unchanged. At least part of the secret of their longevity is that pursuit of the truth is its own reward.

May, 2006