Saturday Afternoon Awww

Cidu Bill on Jul 17th 2010

Nicole:

mrrogers.png

Metatext: “”Mr Rogers projected an air of genuine, unwavering, almost saintly pure-hearted decency. But when you look deeper, at the person behind the image… that is exactly what you find there too. He’s exactly what he appears to be”

Filed in Awww, Bill Bickel, Mister Rogers, comic strips, comics, humor, xkcd | 28 responses so far

28 Responses to “Saturday Afternoon Awww”

  1. Katie Jul 17th 2010 at 12:21 pm 1

    This made me go look up Mr. Rogers quotes and remember how much I loved his show.

  2. Elyrest Jul 17th 2010 at 12:39 pm 2

    I’m grateful that there are/were people like Fred Rogers in this world. When I was in school in Pittsburgh, PA I did some volunteer work at WQED - the public television home of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I met Mr. Rogers several times and he was always warm, gracious and welcoming. I was too old to have ever watched his program as a kid - Captain Kangaroo was my Mr. Rogers, but I understand all the children who loved him. What a wonderful person.

  3. schleifnet Jul 17th 2010 at 01:24 pm 3

    but, wasn’t mr. rogers gay?

  4. Kamino Neko Jul 17th 2010 at 01:42 pm 4

    If he was, he was really committed to staying in that closet. He was married to Sara Joanne Byrd for 51 years - from 1952 until his death (at age 74) in 2003.

    And Mr Rogers was almost impossibly good in every way - to the point I have a hard time imagining even THIS much of an argument with his wife….

  5. furrykef Jul 17th 2010 at 01:42 pm 5

    Dunno where you get that idea, schleifnet. He married (a woman, mind you :P) in 1952.

  6. Tullia Jul 17th 2010 at 02:31 pm 6

    In grad school, one of the master’s students says he saw Mr. Rogers naked in the locker room at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. I obviously can’t verify this, but the MA student claimed to be kind of traumatized, and sometimes when I was drunk I thought the whole thing might be an allegory of something. I never did decide what, though.

    A gay friend of mine also told me that Mr. Rogers showed up to some event at a gay-themed gift shop (A Pleasant Present, I think it was called), one of those 110% pride-flag-plastered places. Apparently Mr. Rogers beamed and said something like, “I just think it’s so great that you people have a nice place like this to shop.” Awkward, yes, but, coming from Mr. Rogers, kind of cute.

    And yes, there is a part of Pittsburgh called Squirrel Hill. There is a hill there — well, Pittsburgh is mostly hills, anyway — and there are squirrels there.

  7. Mark in Boston Jul 17th 2010 at 03:17 pm 7

    Mr. Rogers was Jewish? I always thought he was Presbyterian.

  8. Woodrowfan Jul 17th 2010 at 04:08 pm 8

    He was Presbyterian, you’re right.

  9. Kate C Jul 17th 2010 at 04:37 pm 9

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upm9LnuCBUM

    Love this video. Mr. Rogers receiving the Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Well, day time Emmy, which makes it all the better: all those soap opera actresses tearing up, legitimately.

  10. zino Jul 17th 2010 at 05:14 pm 10

    I’m French and have a poor knowledge of American popular culture in the 1980’s. That’s a CIDU for me.
    So apparently, Fred Rogers was a really, really nice person, so that the only way he can fight with his wife is by saying nice things to her.
    But I don’t understand the [no video] thing.

    Would anyone explain?

    Thanks!

  11. Dave Jul 17th 2010 at 05:22 pm 11

    I took this as a direct contrast / response to the recent Mel Gibson phone call.

  12. Elyrest Jul 17th 2010 at 05:25 pm 12

    Plus since xkzd is a comic that uses stick figures as characters there really isn’t any way that we could tell it was Mr. Rogers anyway.

  13. Kamino Neko Jul 17th 2010 at 05:39 pm 13

    Mr Rogers isn’t of ‘the 80s’, by the way - Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood ran from 1968 to 2001, and was working in television for more than a decade before that.

    (Interesting trivia I just learned looking up the actual years - Several elements of MRN were apparently created when he was working for the CBC - and he was ultimately instrumental in the creation Mr. Dressup - which ran from ‘67 to ‘96 - as Ernie Coombs (Mr Dressup himself) was a friend of Rogers, who came to work with him when he was at the CBC.)

  14. Kate C Jul 17th 2010 at 06:26 pm 14

    zino–

    Mr. Rogers hosted a children’s television program for years; it isn’t just that he is “nice,” but that he was extremely gentle, nurturing, and pleasant. He never condescended, or yelled, or got judgmental.

    And it isn’t, as in this strip, that he’s just being nice. He’s being open and honest, and acknowledging his feelings.

    I also thought this was a Mel Gibson joke. And one of the better ones I’ve seen.

  15. George P Jul 17th 2010 at 07:53 pm 15

    There’s a probably apocryphal story that his car was once stolen. After this was reported, the car was returned with a note of apology.

  16. Gilgamesh Jul 17th 2010 at 09:57 pm 16

    When my children were young I would watch PBS with them. They were somewhat apathetic about the MTV flash of Sesame Street, but loved the Mr. Rogers show.

    Mr. Rogers helped instill empathy and kindness in two generations of children. He was a great man. My children and I loved him.

    Rest in peace, Mr. Rogers. A job well done. You made a difference in this cruel, cynical and selfish world.

  17. turquoise cow Jul 17th 2010 at 11:10 pm 17

    My brother used to love to play pretend as Mr. Rogers. Basically this game consisted of taking off a coat and putting on a sweater while destroying the theme song. (My brother is very tone-deaf.)

    I had a nightmare once that I was in a mall visiting Mr. Rogers the way you usually visit Santa Claus. And there was something about him that scared me - maybe he was yelling? After that, I couldn’t get past the idea that he was actually a scary dude. Thankfully, I had this dream long after I’d outgrown watching the program. When I was actually of viewing age, I liked it.

  18. minorannoyance Jul 18th 2010 at 02:53 am 18

    I recall him turning up on one of those blooper shows. He was trying, unsuccessfully, to set up a small tent and ad libbing to cover (”In some parts of the world, people live in tents . . .”). At last he broke down and — chuckled.

    The recurring theme in articles I’d read was that he was always genuinely interested in listening to everybody, whether it was a kid volunteering detailed information about a toy car or an adult with an unusual last name.

  19. mitch4 Jul 18th 2010 at 08:59 am 19

    Yes, as I have heard it, there is really not much gap between the image and the reality. I’ve heard him interviewed on “Fresh Air” or the like, and he’s clearly not quasi-childlike all the time — but apparently is truly firendly and even-tempered.

    In this quoted conversation, I’m just a little puzzled by the “have you in my family” bit — the asymmetry or direction of that.

  20. EmpressPenguin Jul 18th 2010 at 09:02 am 20

    My mother grew up in Pittsburgh and I live there now; Mr. Rogers was a dear family friend when she was growing up, and although I’ve never met him she has told me that his on-air persona was not an act at all. He was genuinely that caring and gentle. He knew that children are little people with genuine, legitimate emotions and he encouraged them to explore those emotions and attain a level of self-awareness that people often don’t attribute to the little ones.

  21. Feelin Old Jul 18th 2010 at 12:25 pm 21

    Having grown up with the Friendly Giant (Look up, Look Way Up) and later on Mr Dressup, I never saw Mr. Rogers till I was an adult and found him cloying and thought he was a fraud but what I’ve heard since makes that doubtful. I suppose if I went back and looked at the other two with and open mind I’d think the same about them.

  22. Jeff S. Jul 18th 2010 at 12:30 pm 22

    mitch4, the “have you in my family” part just means he’s glad they are married. He brought her into his family.

  23. Chuck Jul 18th 2010 at 02:37 pm 23

    I feel like the word choice is because it’s a modified actual quote from an episode.

  24. Proginoskes Jul 18th 2010 at 04:39 pm 24

    Derf (who writes the comic “The City”) told about a real-life encounter with Mr. Rogers, when he was hitching a ride:

    http://www.derfcity.com/images/comix/fred/fred1.gif
    http://www.derfcity.com/images/comix/fred/fred2.gif
    http://www.derfcity.com/images/comix/fred/fred3.gif
    http://www.derfcity.com/images/comix/fred/fred4.gif

  25. jjmcgaffey Jul 18th 2010 at 08:54 pm 25

    Zino (10) - see the caption in the comic. It’s from an audio recorder, so there is no video - sometimes you see stuff on YouTube that’s just audio, and they show it as a black screen with a note of [no video] on it while the audio plays.

  26. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Jul 19th 2010 at 10:35 am 26

    Even National Lampoon’s spoof of Mr. Rogers captured his gentle nature:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJTb130GR0E

  27. Araxie Jul 20th 2010 at 02:39 pm 27

    Nobody’s mentioned the excellent article that mental_floss.com did on him? http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/5943

    After I read that I wanted to make shirts w/ the letters “WWMRD” printed on them: “What Would Mr. Rogers Do?”.

  28. Richard Jul 21st 2010 at 06:48 pm 28

    I’d like to add that I spent my early childhood living in Squirrel Hill and Mr. Rogers attended the church that I went to. (He was an ordained minister but never led his own church.) As I child, I remember having many wonderful conversations with him.

    I returned to Pittsburgh many years later for college and again met him at church functions and also while I was volunteering at KQED/KQEX.

    He was indeed, just as nice in “real life” as depicted in the show.

    -Richard

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