serakit ([personal profile] writerkit) wrote2022-02-12 11:37 pm

Recontextualizing

Having just had one of those moments of "well, that went way over my head when watching this as a child":

There is an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in which nasty limericks feature as a major plot point. We never actually hear the limerick in question beyond the first line-- "There once was a witch from Helsinki"-- followed by an exclamation to the effect of "Who did WHAT with her pinkie?" which it being clear that it's very ick.

Much later we get a throwaway line from the writer of these limericks composing the next one: "There once was a witch from East Venus" and she's interrupted before she gets to the next line.

There's a really obvious rhyme there when you're an adult. This is, mind you, a show aimed at tweens airing on network TV in 2002. I am kind of amazed they got away with it.