Lights, Camera, Oh Oh! by Kat Magendie

Sometimes I watch “America’s Funniest Videos” because I want a simple belly laugh. How can one not feel gratitude for all things great and good when one is laughing at their fellow humans, or their pets? One example is where the camera pans inside a small airplane with two men at the controls; and suddenly, from behind them floats this dog—he does a slow turn in the non-gravity of the cockpit, ears a-flopping, this funny doggy look—and every time I see it, I laugh until I cry.

Last night I was watching AFV and really noticed all the stupid (sometimes dangerous) things people do. The ones that make me crazy are when parents film their children and in the background you hear, “No, no little Johnny, don’t do that. Mommy says no. No. Mommy says No. Don’t. Stop that…don’t do it…” and all the while she’s filming and all the while little Johnny has a smirky grin on because he knows his mommy is filming him and he can just keep on doing whatever he’s doing—even if it’s eating a nasty ole bug! Ugh! Or, on his bicycle headed towards a tree—“Oh dear, Johnny has a concussion! Haw haw! Did you get that, Murline?”

I cringe a little at the ones where the kids act up when the parents aren’t around and in the background you hear their friends call out, “That was awesome!” or, "Wow, that must have hurt!” or “Hahahahahahahaha….oh my god, hahahahahahaha!” But, I thought about my days as a kid, along with my four brothers: The “daredevil” stunts we pulled. The days we explored the huge concrete drainage pipes from one side of town to the other—while barefooted, through grime, glass, nastiness, snakes and other vermin. The time my first boyfriend borrowed his mom's car and we went joyriding (fast of course) down a gravel road just so we could slide around in both joy and terror, while shouting, “Auuuuggghhhhh, hahahahahahahaha!” (Sorry Mom!)

Parents everywhere: We can be grateful in some instances that we do not to know everything our kids are doing. Once they are old enough to leave the house without us, they are old enough to test boundaries, feel invincible, do really dumb things (those things we did, gulp, oh geez). Then again, if someone, even an adult, has a camera handy and ten thousand dollars on the brain, all bet’s seem to be off. "We won! We won on AFV! We'll be using the ten thousand for hospital bills for little Johnny's busted up haid...hahahhahahha!"