If you thought that children’s television couldn’t get any weirder, Denmark raised the stakes.
Danish public television network DR – Denmark’s equivalent to PBS – launched a new children’s entertainment program, “John Dillermand”, featuring an unfortunate common man with an extra long penis that he uses, in the style of Inspector Gadget, to help him in your day to day adventures.
“Diller“is, in fact, the Danish word for penis, so yes, the emphasis on the male sexual organ is deliberate, although its purpose in the program is definitely asexual. According to The Guardian, the program is aimed at children aged 4 to 8 years and was done in claymation style in 5 minute episodes.
In the series, John Dillermand is an adult man with a handlebar mustache who appears to be wearing an old-fashioned swimsuit with red and white stripes and cannot control his extraordinary penis.
In different stories, John tries to do common everyday things, sometimes using his penis to help him (stealing children’s ice cream, raising the Danish flag on a flagpole, rescuing a runaway baby stroller before he can roll over in traffic). Most often, he finds that his penis only causes chaos.
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Critics of the show cite what an example the producers are setting by literally introducing a man who cannot control his penis. The Guardian reported that DR’s response to the criticism was “he could easily have done a program ‘about a woman without control over her vagina’ and that the most important thing was that the children liked John Dillermand.”
American expert on parenting and child development Dr. Deborah Gilboa told TODAY Parents that she agrees with critics of the program. “Children’s television has a unique opportunity – and therefore responsibility – to shape the thinking of a generation about who they can be and what they can achieve,” said Gilboa.
“This is, at best, a missed opportunity. It is, for most children who will see it, a confused and unnecessarily sexualizing message about boys’ bodies. Worse, for a percentage of children, it will speed up their genital exploitation. before your cognitive development in ways that can be harmful. “