let’s not even think about the wuzzles until we get this one figured out, and then only on a case-by-case basis
26 03 2007Being the monument to human kindness and decency that I am, I volunteered to babysit for some friends of mine on Friday night so that they could go see a play. When I got to their house to fulfill my duties, everyone was eating dinner and watching The Little Mermaid. I hadn’t seen it in forever, and as I watched, I started wondering about the biology of the merfolk.
What specifically caught my attention was a remark that Poynt Blank made about King Triton’s nipples. And although you never see them because of some carefully-placed seashells, it stands to reason that all of the mermaids have nipples as well. I also noticed that Ariel clearly has a belly button, which would indicate the former presence of an umbilical cord. Both of these are clearly mammalian traits and would indicate that baby merfolk are carried in a uterus.
However, for this to be the case, one would have to assume that they had human sex organs. But since the lower half of any respectable mermaid or merman is that of a fish, and since this is where the aforementioned human sex organs are found, it sort of prevents that from being the case.
Most fish are oviparous, which means they reproduce by laying large numbers of eggs that are fertilized externally by a male, which is sort of gross.
Male fish: OMG, eggs! *fap fap fap*
Given that Triton has so few daughters, and all of them are different ages, this scenario seems to be highly unlikely.
There are, however, some fish (such as some sharks) that reproduce with a viviparous sytem, in which the embryo develops inside the mother and gains nourishment from her body instead of via an egg. There’s an advanced form of vivipary called placental viviparity, which, being closest to mammalian reproduction, seems to be a strong candidate for how the merfolk get things done. It doesn’t explain the nipples, but I think it’s as close as we’re going to get.
I also noticed that you never see a string of excrement hanging off of any of the merfolk the way you do with fish in a tank, but that’s probably for the best.
Seriously, it’s The Little Mermaid. You put way too much thought into things sometimes. :o)
Now that you’ve solved that dilemma, can you please do an analysis of why-oh-WHY there was only one girl Smurf? It’s troubled me for years.
Wow for as many time as I have watched that movie, how could I have missed all that? *smirk* You would be fun to watch tedious movies with! =)
*fap fap fap*
You kill me!
I had the same thoughts about Teletubbies. Are they siblings? Friends? Is that a commune they live in?
It’ll just get worse if you’re ever raising kids.
More importantly, what exactly IS a smurf? They can’t be bugs due to lack of appendages, wings or antennae, but they can’t be people either due to small size and color, though they have the appendages of a human.
You never see smurfet pregnant (the only girl, as mentioned above), so you can’t draw any conclusions about their reproductive abilities therefore making it even harder to distinguish type of creature.
At least we have an idea of what genus the mermaid/mermen would have originated from. Okay a somewhat unclear idea…
I’ve never seen the Teletubbies (aside from still frame shots), so I’m afraid I can’t offer any insight into their social status. Don’t they have really high voices? I wonder what their vocal cords look like. How big are Teletubbies in relation to a human?
As for the Smurfs, I can’t believe you guys don’t remember Sassette. She was one of the Smurflings (there were four of them, I think) and made it so Smurfette was not the only female Smurf in the village. Granted, she was underage and Smurfette was still the only viable option for some sweet Smurf lovin’ (unless there was a Pedo Smurf that lived on the outskirts of town), but she was there. I am not sure about Smurf biology for the majority of them, but I do know that the Sassette and Smurfette were made out of magic clay (Sassette by the other Smurflings, Smurfette by Gargamel in an attempt to get all the Smurfs to destroy each other in a fit of jealousy).
Wait a minute, did you see this?
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/mermaid.asp
I guess they wanted to get it in there somewhere.
Zesty…perhaps detective work is your calling.
All I can say is damn, I need to start paying more attention to things…everything…and thanks for the clarification on the Smurf girls…I think.
@TwoKnives: I was familiar with similar “scandals” with Aladdin (”take your clothes off!”) and The Lion King (”haha it totally says ’sex’ you guys!”), and I had heard that there was an issue in a similar vein (no pun intended) with The Little Mermaid, but I had never bothered to look it up to see what it was. The next time I watch, I will be forced to scan the background for sea pee-pees.
My question is this: What is a fraggle??
I’m beginning to think I could start an entire site devoted to tackling these issues.