Video
You can’t escape the Thriller—not even in math class
So you want a Michael Jackson post? Well, this isn’t one, exactly, but I do want to indulge in a little ’80s nostalgia. One tiny twig of Jackson’s branching legacy was the music videos on Square One TV, a high point in PBS’s kids’ educational programming. Square One taught grade-school-level math and its applications, and it did it by skits, music videos, and other segments that were often brilliant little parodies of their inspirations in their own right. Here’s the relevant one for today, a Thriller parody about probability:
Sorry the quality isn’t any better; the native resolution of the file, from Ellery’s Square One site, is pretty small.
Square One succeeded because it treated kids as intelligent and interested viewers. It was digestible for its 8-12 target audience, but it was never delivered with condescension, nor were the concepts ever dumbed down. Instead, the material was delivered with both a respect for the subject and a little snark directed at the pop-culture source material.
The best part of the show, of course, was Mathnet, a series of serials in which Kate Monday and George Frankly (Mathnet!) use math to fight crime. Each week had a new five-part case; Fridays, when the villain was unmasked (once literally, in the mother of all cases where George was put on trial for robbing a bank), was pretty much one of the most anticipated parts of my week for a while. (Yes, my childhood was kind of dorky. But someone else out there remembers being hooked on Square One, right?) Many of the serials are available in pieces on YouTube; in addition, Ellery’s site has sample clips of several of them.
YouTube and Ellery also have several of the music videos. All the uploaders have my thanks for keeping these clips available; the show has never been released on DVD. Make sure to check out Archimedes and the Angle Dance for examples of the show’s awesomeness at its zenith.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by an individual contributor to this blog are not necessarily shared by all members of FreeThought Fort Wayne. That is what makes this organization so interesting. Commenters on the FreeThought Fort Wayne blog are expected to abide by our comment policy. About the author: To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Read more from this author
The You can’t escape the Thriller—not even in math class by Butter, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Discussion
3 comments for “You can’t escape the Thriller—not even in math class”
Post a comment
Categories
Our Readers
lol, I remember Mathnet…
Wasn’t a fan — a little too old, I guess. But his death wasn’t a huge surprise. He looked like he might have weighed 90 pounds. Not eating food: A bad health move.
I won’t assume too much, but the tox screen may be revealing.
Joel:
What was your favorite case? The George-robs-a-bank one is classic, but I always enjoyed the one with the parrot that knew the Fibonacci numbers.