Way back in the 70s, Gil Scott-Heron said that the revolution will not be televised. Although a lot has changed since then, time has proven his statement to be both right and wrong: while the revolution has certainly not been televised (thanks for nothing, Fox News), it most certainly has been broadcast. A lot. And in case you’re wondering, I’m not just talking about the revolutions in the streets of Egypt and Libya, (or even our very own revolution here on Wall Street), but rather the revolutions that are occurring on a much smaller—and yet somehow much more critical—scale. I am speaking, of course, about all of the revolutions that are occurring in every backyard in every house containing at least one bored child. These revolutions are not about the right to vote (no chance of kids getting that any time soon), or even freedom from tyranny (ditto on that), but rather about the most simple, basic freedom there is: the freedom to do dumb stuff.
“Dumb stuff” in this case also being “dangerous stuff,” because, attention spans being what they are in childhood, it only stands to reason that the dumb stuff that has the best chance of being put up on YouTube is also the dumb stuff where somebody gets hurt.
A perfect example of this is going up on the roof; most parents have a rule against this. This is a good rule. A sound rule. A rule that I have both invoked as an adult and flouted as a child (the difference being not so much as increase in fear as common sense). In fact, the rule against going up on the roof is such a common one that whenever I invoke it I always take comfort in the knowledge that almost every parent, in every house, in the entire world (and probably beyond) has laid it down as the law at least once in their lifetime. Unfortunately, it is also such a fun rule to break that I’m willing to bet that almost every child, also in every house, also in the entire world (and beyond) has defiantly broken it just as soon as it was issued.
Of course, before the advent of YouTube this was just an untested hypothesis. Now, however, we have video proof. If you don’t believe me go to YouTube right now and type in “kid falls off a roof.” Instantly you’ll get over a thousand videos, thoughtfully segregated into subcategories like “Fat kid falls off a roof,” “emo kid falls off a roof,” “skater kid falls off a roof,” skinny kid falls off a roof,” and “chubby kid falls off a roof—hilarious!” (That the first and last categories are nearly identical, and yet completely different, makes complete sense to me. As a humor writer I can attest to the fact that “chubby” is a much funnier word than “fat.” Hence the extra “hilarious!”.) But, yes: there are over a thousand of these videos. And remember: these are only the ones where the kid actually falls off. Just imagine how many videos there are of kids not falling of the roof? (Probably none, actually. Who wants to see that? I couldn’t even bring myself to check for research purposes.)
So, what, exactly does that mean to us as parents? Not much, actually: even with the advantage of video proof, we’re never going to be able to stop our kids from acting like idiots. But it does mean that the next time we ask them “How did you ever manage to break that?” they can simply turn on the computer and say, “Watch this.” And it also means that, if their dumb stuff is spectacular enough, there is a very good chance that their little revolution, at least, very likely will be televised.