In the pantheon of animal rights abuse, showing a confused hamster spinning round and round, a dog chasing his own tail or a domesticated pig pushing a toy wagon doesn't rise to the same level of cruelty as wearing fur or raising chickens in tiny enclosures where they step on their own shit.
But there's something about Animal Planet cable channel's "Planet's Funniest Animals" that has been bothering me for years.
Formerly known as "America's Funniest Animals," the show features a steady diet of oft-befuddled domestic and wild creatures doing "cute" things.
But this definition of "cute" I cannot often abide.
When I see these stunts, I don't think, or see, "cute." For they are not stunts. These are animals who are trying to do the best they can in unfamiliar surroundings. And when they don't execute well- or execute too well - we laugh at them.
Too often, I see domesticated creatures who must negotiate the physical artifacts and obstacles of our homes, backyards, and streets. Creatures that we hide their form from by adorning them in silly costumes, so that they look like caricatures of us.
Creatures with millions of years on this planet, but often not evolved to figure out that which we surround them with when we "domesticate" them.
And once in a while on this rancidly exploitive show, we will see wild creatures, similarly trying to adjust to a habitat created by a species (us, sad to say) that have been around for far less time on this planet.
Other times, this show depicts animals acting naturally- but their version of naturally draws laughs. Maybe a somersaulting chimp looks "cute," but we are deforesting his habitat, and have removed too many of his brothers and sisters from that habitat.
And we have the gall to laugh as he is shown either acting quite naturally in his habitat (one in which we could not survive in without tools), or trying to adjust to a habitat we have made for him. And when he acts perfectly natural, we are supposed to think it funny. And when he tries to figure out his new surroundings and acts in a way we deem befuddled, we sit in our couches, stare at the tv and giggle along with the laugh track.
I'm sorry. Far too often, the videos on "Planet's Funniest Animals" are not funny.
These videos seek to derive laughts from our shameful exploitation and cruelty we impose on too many of the creatures we share the planet with.
What if the situation was reversed? Would birds laugh at us as we try to fly and fall off the rooftop?