An Analysis of Sid (the Science Kid)

Sid is a biracial boy (cartoon, of course) of indeterminate age. He acts 7ish, but must be in kindergarten, since the kids seem unable to write. I think this is an attempt to interest the preschool set by having the characters older (and thus, cool) but with similar experiences to your standard preschooler.

Sid's mom drops him off at school, and his grandma picks him up. His dad is around, but does not prepare meals, pick up, or drop off. He fixes things, and he helps with the kids, but in the kitchen, he does not cook or clean.

Sid is very attached to his microphone, which does cool things like reverb and record. He is playful and happy and sweet to his baby brother, Zeke. What the writers do well is combine Sid's enthusiasm with lots of tenderness and gentle curiosity. He is a Myriad of lovely Contradiction and the only character who escapes the stereotypes of race and gender.

Sid has three friends at school. The boy, Gerald, is all heavy metal and boisterous. He shouts a lot, and is a bit of a ruffian doofus, but he is kind to the others. There are two girls: Gabriela, who is basically just a poorly-fleshed out soccer jock; and May, a meek little librarian type. (She's everyone's favorite. If she were a real, adult person, she'd be a bad-ass knitter vegan who knew lots of useless, charming things. You would like her until you found out she had an ugly-ass, old man for a boyfriend, and then you'd be all yucked.)

May and Gerald are both cute and interesting, but Gabriela is dull. The creators could have escaped the Latina stereotype by having her be the nerd instead of May or by having her like badminton or cricket instead of soccer. Clearly, they need me to help them realize the error of their ways.

The parents are a little too patient with Sid, and their purpose is clearly to make the rest of us look bad. The dad doesn't mind a bit when Sid stops holding a flashlight which leads to dad banging his head on something. The mom and dad both seem practically blissed-out when Sid pulls out the bedtime delays. They fawn over all of his stupid ideas. Yes, I know. You are saying, "Isn't that a parent's job?" Sod off. We're tired.

The teacher is never around while the kids are at school, and when she is, she is singing some dumb song or another about some trippy thing, like breathing. During these interludes, the scene changes to ridiculous space lava flower land. The woman (whose name I forget) is clearly on drugs, and in real life she'd be fired. Also, no way does a school have a class size of four.

Obviously I let my son watch this thing, or I wouldn't know nearly as much about it as I do. There are worse things on tv for preschoolers, and I know this. But is it too much to ask that somebody produce something that doesn't portray gender and race in such stereotypical ways?