RiffTrax

Farm Babies and Their Mothers (3x176)

: 15, 2012

When you look back at your formative education years, there are a few flashbulb memories when even as a young child, you realized that the educational system was truly doing its job. The first time you could recite your multiplication tables. The day you learned how to spell Mississippi. And of course, the day the teacher showed Farm Babies and their Mothers and you just sort of stared at footage of pigs sitting in the mud for a while. Yes, one day in the sixties, another crate of stock footage of animals arrived on the doorsteps of an “educational” film maker, and though their employees pleaded with them tearfully that it would not teach the children anything and instead might very well make them dumber, the cruel CEO demanded it be formed into something resembling a film that could be shown in schools. “I dunno, show the adult animals, then tell them what the baby animal is called,” they’d say. “Who cares, Coronet is gonna bury us all anyways!” Farm Babies and their Mothers has a bunch of footage of cute baby animals running around. It has no educational content whatsoever. We think you’ll agree that this is a perfectly acceptable trade off.