The Zen of Soupy

When we were kids, the rumor went around when Soupy Sales was taken off the air unexpectedly. He told a joke on TV, the rumor went, that didn't sit too well with the sensors. I would tell you the joke here, but since I've gotten into trouble before for much milder things, we'll just say that the joke was riske' and adult--so much so that most of us kids (age 7 or so) didn't quite understand it but laughed anyway.

Thing is, it was just the kind of thing Soupy Sales would do. Not because he liked to tell dirty jokes so much as he was in love with anarchy. While other children's hosts were doing the "Hi, Kids, we're going to watch 300 cartoons and pretend we like you," Soupy was doing things on his TV show like a parody of "My Fair Lady." His side kicks included a charactor named "Fang," of which all you saw was a large hairy arm handing Soupy a number of things, most of them irrelevant to whatever Soupy was doing at the time.

I remember Soupy today because he has passed away at the age of 83. I remember Soupy because when all was chaos around him, he maintained that unflappalbe Zen calm and deadpan expression which told us that it was all a joke and maybe there was more that was all a joke than just his show. Soupy let us know that it didn't matter if anyone heard a tree falling in the forest because most of us don't hear the tree falling in our back yards. Soupy knew well the sound of one hand clapping because, for most of his career, that's what he heard from the powers that be.

Soupy was a missed opportunity. He was a comedian for kids, not a kid show host. He introduced us to sophisticated concepts like irony and satire and foolishness that hid a sting.

Today you turn on Cartoon Network or most any kids' show, and irony abounds, from Spongebob Squarepants to Invader Zim to Fairly Odd Parents. None of these would have been possible without Soupy, who treated kids like they were thinking and laughing human beings, and not small pets for their parents who had to be entertained with empty silliness.

So goodbye Soupy. They remember you for the pies. I remember you for what the pie represented.