Does Parenting Make You Think of Death?

The Hairpin posted this very funny video. Check it out below (and run it through Bennyhillifier.com for even more hilarity):

All well and good–frippery of this nature is what the Internet was created for. What’s more, it’s nice to see something out there that is both cute and funny, doesn’t include cats (not that I have anything against awesome cat videos, and doesn’t involve nudity (not that I have anything against nudity).

What’s odd to me is the small commentary that the blogger at the Hairpin included after the video. “At what point,” she asks, “did you first think about death? (In relation to this video, not in general.) For me it was around 0:13. I wonder if eventually gravestones (and urns, plaques, memorial benches, etc.) will be able to embed YouTubes.”

What in that video  suggested death to her? I’m confused. Yes, I know the little girl is growing up, and flowers bloom in the spring only to die at first frost, and other poetic nonsense of that sort, but really–she was thinking about death?

Boy, nice to be the optimist every once in a while.

Published by Theodore

Theodore Ross is an editor of Harper’s Magazine. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, Saveur, Tin House, the Mississippi Review, and (of course), the Vietnam News. He grew up in New York City by way of Gulfport, MS, and as a teen played the evil Nazi, Toht, in Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. He lives with his son, J.P. in Brooklyn, and is currently working on a book about Crypto-Jews.

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