By Sean Patrick
We’ve heard the argument for decades: every school in America should be in session all year long and get rid of the traditional Summer Vacation.
That’s the worst idea we’ve had since Dippin’ Dots. Summer Break is as an American tradition as pretending to sleep through your alarm on Sunday morning to avoid going to church.
I remember in second grade, my teacher told us how intelligent the children living in Asia were because of their intense and competitive education system. They had 12 hour school days, they didn’t use calculators, they studied all weekend, and worst of all, they were in school all year long (when did they play kickball?). After hearing about all of this, the entire class was content with being inferior to these children when it came to intelligence. Then we practiced making fart noises.
Fact: When people from the Far East have their mind set on being the best at something, there is no stopping them. This was proven in the Men’s Trampoline event at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Asians were amazing, and in the end, three of the top four childish male athletes were from China and Japan (the other was a Canadian who was actually jumping for joy after meeting a relative of Wayne Gretzky).
Ironically, the people who are so passionate about eliminating Summer Vacations are neither the students nor the teachers: they are the bitter American workers who hate their jobs and hate people who are able to enjoy the Summer even more. At this time in their lives they have either forgotten how much they cherished their Summers, or they haven’t forgotten how they were forced to spend every Summer at a fat camp in Wyoming
But if you ask the people who experience our education system five days a week, I guarantee that every one of them will passionately oppose the idea of year-round education. Think about it. You’d be taking away their only reason to participate in the process.
Teachers would no longer be able to experience the three-month drunk essential to taming the temper that they acquired during the previous school year.
Kids, particularly from the north and midwest regions of our country, would no longer be able to go outside during the only time of the year where it is tolerable to do so.
Parents would no longer… actually, parents would probably prefer this, but don’t let them ruin Summer Break like they ruined their child’s all-candy-diet idea.
FACT: American education was designed so mothers could catch up on General Hospital reruns.
Some may argue that children forget the things they’ve learned throughout the school year during Summer Break. That’s incorrect. They don’t forget over the Summer, they forget immediately after they know they don’t need to know it anymore. That useless junk is just taking up the space in the part of their brain that is reserved for Zac Efron trivia and reciting dialogue from Twilight movies, and it is removed as soon as their final exam is completed.
FACT: If we retained everything we learned about in school, Jeopardy would have an extremely hard time picking between contestants.
(potential line of eligible contestants)
Other countries pride themselves on their intellect, but America… not so much. We like being good at other things, such as pointing out how we’re superior to everyone else, tying cherry stems into a knot with our mouths, and basketball. Think about how mad you get when a U.S. Men’s Basketball team is awarded the silver medal. Our government is forced into declaring war on the country who took home the gold (congrats to the 2000 Olympic Gold Medal Team from Afghanistan). We are the stern but compassionate guardian of the world, and we don’t want other countries to experience the pain that comes with losing at something they’ve tried so hard to be the best in. That’s why we purposely throw the World Cup and Miss Universe contests.
So to all you communist scholars out there, I ask that you please don’t try and take away Summer Break. Trust me, it won’t make a difference. Students will forget the periodic table regardless if they spend two months at Pebble Beach. Our youth will not be able to remember what the pythagoreon theorem is even if the Fourth of July is spent in the classroom. And our teachers wont become better at their craft if they are forced to do it year-round. In fact, without Summer Break, the teaching profession would take a huge hit. Why would anyone want to be a teacher when there is no Summer Vacation? The job entails getting treated like dirt by other peoples children. It’s like being a tour guide at Nickelodeon Studios. You don’t want to make it into a career… you just do it until you get a chance to steal something from the Jonas Brothers dressing room and then move onto your next job.
Also, please don’t forget about what we would be doing to Alice Cooper. He depends on the residual checks he receives every June for the frequent airtime his song “School’s Out” gets. Don’t make him have to tell his kids that daddy can’t afford the indoor skydiving machine he promised them for Christmas.
By Sean Patrick
During this sabbatical, I have grown a newfound appreciation for the game show Family Feud. It’s so entertaining, and unlike Jeopardy! and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, it doesn’t make you feel stupid.
Before I go on, let me put on record that I believe I am smarter than an average fifth grader, but I am not smarter than a gifted fifth grader. I’m not ashamed. Doogie Howser was in medical school in fifth grade, and I know I’m not smarter than he was. But I digress.
I enjoy Family Feud so much that I wanted to write up a mock Family Feud round. The two families competing will be the Jacobs Family and the Johnson family.
LETS PLAY THE FEUD!
Dah dah daaaaaaah, Dah dah daaaaaaah
(Family Feud Theme Song)
A representative from each family walks up to the podium (Shirley for the Jacobs family and Bill for the Johnson family). The guy that used to be on Seinfeld awaits and says a funny comment. The representatives from each family laugh, even though they were under the impression that the guy who played Al on Home Improvement was now the host. They wonder to themselves if that guy is dead. They both hope not.
Host: We surveyed 100 people, top six answers are on the board. Here we go! What type of…
Jacobs family member presses buzzer.
Host: Shirley.
Shirley: Racism!
You see, a contestant always thinks that they know what the guy is going to ask, and most of the time they’re completely wrong, which is one of my favorite parts of the show. The host then has to repeat the entire question back to the other contestant, revealing how wrong the answer that first contestant just made was. When this happens I always yell out, “Ooooooooh, don’t you feel salty!!!” (I talk like a sassy teenage girl from the late nineties when I watch this show)
Host: (shocked) OK… um… lets see, racism.
(pause)
(EHHHHHHHHH!)
Host: OK, Bill, let me repeat the question in its entirety. What type of food is typically eaten in the morning?
(me at home: Ooooooooh, Shirley, don’t you feel salty!)
Bill: Cereal?
Johnson Family Members: Good answer! Good Answer!
Host: Let me see, cereal.
(pause)
DING! Cereal is the number one answer!
Host: Do you want to play or pass?
They always play.
Bill: We’ll play!
I told you.
Host walks over to first Johnson family member who is a guy in his early thirties and is overly enthusiastic. His name is Jim. He wants to start a band and needs Family Feud money to buy a microphone. Later in life, Jim will find out that it’s tough to start a band when you insist that the band name be, “Dr. Wiener and the Butts.” His stubbornness will keep him from his lifelong dream.
Host: OK Jim, name a food that is typically eaten in the morning.
Jim: I’m gonna say… bagels?
Johnson Family members: Good Answer! Good answer!
Host: Show me, bagels!
(pause)
DING! Bagels is the number two answer!
Jim can already see “Dr. Wiener and the Butts” on the marquee at the Apollo Theatre. He knows his opening line too. He’ll come out on stage and say, “I’m Dr. Wiener and these are my butts!”
At this point the Johnson family is stoked. Like Jim, they can all see their futures changing before their eyes. They’ll be rich! However, there’s two problems with this mentality: One, I’ve never seen a family walk away from this show with more than $226 and a green 1993 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Two, most families on the feud are unable to come up with more than two correct answers per round. After the two good answers are in play (in this case cereal and bagels), they can’t think any more. Part of the problem is that once they start to get into a groove, it always seems to be grandma’s turn. Typically grandma hasn’t been listening the whole time. She actually doesn’t know where she is.
Host approaches Grandma Johnson. She is smiling.
Host: Well what a beautiful woman we have here.
He’s lying.
Grandma smiles nervously. She doesn’t know if this was the question. In fact, she doesn’t even know how this game is played. Internally she’s terrified. She doesn’t want to be put in a home and thinks answering this question incorrectly will seal her fate. She thinks that because her daughter made this exact threat during the opening credits.
Host: Name a food that is typically eaten in the morning.
Grandma: Um….. um………..
Host: Two seconds.
Grandma: Um………. well……..
EHHHHHHHHH!
Host: Sorry grandma, you ran out of time.
Grandma is near tears. Her daughter shoots her a quick dirty look and mimics a knife slitting her throat.
Host approaches the next contestant, Sharon. She is a female college student who is only on the team because Uncle Vern passed away on Tuesday. In fact, the Johnson’s are currently missing Vern’s funeral.
Host: Sharon, give me a food that is typically eaten in the morning.
Sharon: Cigarettes?
The college student on the team always does this. Since college life is far removed from a normal healthy lifestyle, they can’t fathom these types of questions. Sharon here hasn’t been up for breakfast in a while. Furthermore, the various frat houses she wakes up in every afternoon don’t serve breakfast. Her mother thought she would nail this question since Sharon is in a Morning Cuisine Cooking Class. Unfortunately, Sharon hasn’t been back to that class since the first day when she accidentally farted out loud during lecture. She is going to fail the course and will wind up on academic probation. To make things worse, her mother just realized that she might have taken up smoking. They will fight in the dressing room after the show.
Johnson Family: (Not very enthusiastically) Good answer. Good answer.
Host: Let me see… cigarettes!
(Pause)
EHHHHHHHHH!
Host approaches Carrie, the mother of Sharon, the aunt of Jim, and the daughter of Grandma. She is the one who convinced everyone to skip Uncle Vern’s funeral. “He shouldn’t have been driving if he was going to get hit by a drunk driver,” was her argument. She has big hair and is the type of lady who is mean to all of her coworkers. She also, just moments ago, threatened to put grandma in a home and possibly slit her throat. But she is very friendly on camera.
Host: Hello Carrie, how are you doing today?
Carrie: I’m great! I just want to give a shout out to all of my coworkers at General Postage back in Duluth, Minnesota! I miss you guys! Wooo!
Her coworkers hate her even more when they see this on television. She wont be invited to Midge’s birthday lunch in two weeks.
Host: OK, Carrie, if you don’t get this right, the Jacobs family will have a chance to steal. Give me a food that is typically eaten in the morning.
Carrie: I’m going to say, toast!
Johnson Family: Good answer, good answer!
Host: Good answer. Let me see, Toast!
(Pause)
EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
(I can’t get the X’s to line up. I should have taken a computer class in high school)
This is common. Toast is a very logical answer, yet the survey doesn’t have it on there. I’ve come to the conclusion that they leave the surveys up to their interns, and it’s a fact that interns in California are all on mushrooms (fact courtesy of Wikipedia). These interns begin the survey, but once they’ve surveyed between 12-17 people (as opposed to the promised 100), they decide to quit and make up the remaining answers. They’ve gotten away with it for decades. It’s brilliant.
Now we go to the Jacobs family, who have been deliberating for about three minutes. This part always amazes me. Even though five people have been collaborating for what is the equivalent of an eternity in Family Feud time, they always seem to end with the dumbest answer of the round… even dumber than grandma’s “um…. well…..” and the college slut’s answer of “cigarettes.”
Host approaches Jacobs family. He goes to the head of the group.
Host: We have four more answers on the board. Jacobs Family, this is for the steal. Name a food that is typically eaten in the morning.
Jacobs Family Representative: We’re gonna say, a pillow!
It’s obvious they didn’t understand the question. I’ve seen it many times. I once saw a family in this situation answer the question, “What is a compliment women like to hear?” with the response of, “Lose weight.” My lord.
So this round, the Jacobs gave two answers to the simple question of “what food is typically eaten in the morning”… racism and pillows. The host does everything he can to not laugh in their face and thinks to himself, “I was once on Seinfeld. What the hell am I doing here?”
Host: Pillow… um… ok. Let me see, Pillow!
(pause)
EHHHHHHHHHHH!
The Johnson Family celebrates. Host gains his composure.
Host: OK, lets see the bottom four answers that we couldn’t figure out. Number three.
(Pause)
OMLET
Audience: Omlet!
Families look at each other with, “duh! why didn’t we think of that?” expressions.
Host: Number Four…
(Pause)
FRENCH TOAST
Audience: French toast!
Families look at each other with, “duh, why didn’t we think of that?” expressions.
Carrie Johnson is furious. She said toast! That should have counted! She is going to take out her aggression by yelling at her cube mate Gail when she gets back to Minnesota.
Host: Number Five…
(pause)
CHICKEN
Audience: Chicken!
Families look at each other with, “duh, why didn’t we think of that?” expressions.
Host thinks. “Chicken? Fucking interns.”
Host: And number six…
(pause)
MUSHROOMS
Audience: Mush… rooms?
The interns are busted. The gig is up. They’ll now be interning at Jeopardy, making the game show much easier for drug addicts.
I apologize if you got carpal tunnel from all the scrolling.
