Voices

I wasn't sure what to write here today (sad, isn't it, that the blog's only like, a week old, and I'm already running out of ideas?), and then I read Lileks's blog entry for today, in which he spoke of different funny voices he does that his daughter hates. Sometimes I have the exact opposite problem. (full disclosure: some of what follows is quoted verbatim from my email to Lileks).

I forget which voice I did for my daughter that she first latched onto, but for a while, all she wanted was for me to be anybody but me. Among the repertoire: Shaggy from Scooby Doo, the Professor and Mojo Jojo from Powerpuff Girls, Carl Weezer and Hugh Neutron (Jimmy's dad) from Jimmy Neutron. The voice she hates? Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddie. She keeps demanding I be Eddie, instead, which I can't do nearly as well. And she hates it when I do Billy from Grim Adventures (can you tell we watch a lot of cartoons around here? Perhaps I'm being a bad father by not limiting her TV watching more, but I can't help it; I love cartoons). She will also occasionally demand a voice I can't do, like Sportacus from Lazy Town, Numbuh One from Code Name: Kids Next Door, or the aforemoentioned Eddie. It's frustrating for both of us when I can't deliver.

Almost as frustrating are the bizarre scenarios she comes up with, because she hasn't really developed her improv chops yet.

HER: Daddy, you be Shaggy, and I'll be Velma as a little baby.

ME: (shrug) Okay. (Shaggy voice) Hey look, Scoob, someone left a little baby here. What's your name, little baby?

HER: Goo.

ME: ...

Because where do you go from there, really?

If you need me for the next few days, I'll be locked down in front of the TV, marinating in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition goodness (gotta love post-Christmas sales, not least because that means it's now post-Christmas). I may be writing some LOTR related stuff for the next few days because of it.

And by the way: Gandalf's voice? The girl hates it. And don't even try Gollum.