Run, Shark, Run!

If you've spent any time at all around kids drawing, you may notice that there is a whole lot of, well, violence going on. Even the littlest ones will say, "See, this one's on fire, and this one blew that one up, and that's the flames coming out..." or whatever. Things explode, people end up dead, there are bombs, and fires, and all sorts of destructive events.

I think that this stuff comes from the same part of your brain that contains slapstick humor, the part that tells you that falling on your butt or hitting yourself in the head (or better yet, hitting someone else in the head) is funny.

And, I'm going to think about it more, but I'm guessing that these are really really short stories. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. Something bad happens, then something blows up, then someone dies. Or their head comes off. It's a great way to get a reaction from your audience too. Because if you're like me you end up saying things like, "Wow, that's a bummer for that guy." And this is satisfying when you get a reaction.

It's also satisfying to show big things happening, and destruction does that really well.

So, I don't worry about it too much. I mean, if a kid is doing a diagram on how he's going to destroy someone in particular, or seems upset, that's different. But the blam-o slapstick stuff is okay. Shoot, that's the old Warner Bros. cartoons.