Lessons from the Penguins: Unity
I’ve thought about starting a series of short posts breaking down and analyzing some Penguins of Madagascar episodes. But to start, I wanted to discuss two episodes that I feel are very timely: The Red Squirrel and Our Man in Gurfurjiclestan
Brief Historical Context:
As many others have pointed out, The Red Squirrel episode can be interpreted as a metaphor and parody of McCarthyism. If you are not familiar with this part of US history, I will give a brief rundown: Basically, during the Cold War, a senator named McCarthy convinced many government officials and members of the general public that “communists” or public enemies had infiltrated the government, Hollywood, and other institutions. Thus, there was a lot of paranoia, turning on people, and targeting anyone who spoke out against McCarthy. Marginalized populations (including LGBTQ+ individuals and civil rights activists) and political opponents of McCarthy were accused of being “communists.” Do you see the similarities yet? These people were often black-listed, unemployed, or even imprisoned. Terrifying, right? But surprising? No.
If you haven’t put it together, in the episode “The Red Squirrel” Buck Rockgut serves as the paranoid McCarthy-esque figure, misleading the Penguins (except Private) to perceive their friends and neighbors as enemies. Any quality that differentiates other characters from the Penguins becomes justification for Rockgut to classify them as enemies. As we know, at the end of the episode, the Penguins realize that Rockgut is just paranoid and misguided, which is more than could be said about the real life McCarthy.
“Our Man in Gurfurjiclestan” is the unofficial sequel episode to “The Red Squirrel” where the Penguins encounter Rockgut again, this time in a video message. He tells the Penguins that there is a sleeper agent, or traitor, amongst them. Sound familiar? Only this time the Penguins accuse each other. They are so distracted by this message, which turns out to be a lie, that they begin fighting each other. Soon the Penguins realize that they have been lied to and that the real sleeper agent is Rockgut who is being controlled by the Red Squirrel. While the Red Squirrel had the Penguins pointing flippers at each other, he was the real culprit. However, the Penguins are able to defeat the Red Squirrel and free Rockgut when they work together and trust each other.
So how does any of this relate to unity?
Even though the days of McCarthyism have long passed, these episodes were incredibly relevant when released in 2010 and 2011. Even today 14 or 15 years later, we are constantly being inundated with misinformation about marginalized communities or people who think differently than we do. We frequently see people in power today (politicians, billionaires, influencers, etc.) spreading harmful messages about people who are different from us. Most people have more in common with immigrants and refugees, who have been especially and wrongly vilified over the past year, than they do billionaires or any of the people spreading misinformation.
In the episode, “Our Man in Gurfurjiclestan, the Red Squirrel uses the Penguins’ tendency to trust Rockgut, almost without question at first, against them. The Penguins are too busy fighting each other, as a result of misinformation, distracting them from fighting back against the real villain. Only when they come together can they figure out how they are being deceived and defeat the Red Squirrel. Like the Penguins in these episodes, people are stronger and better able to address social issues when they are united. These episodes serve as almost a wink to the audience to remember to think critically about the messages we receive and accept as truth, especially regarding one another.
So what are your thoughts? Anything else you picked up on from these episodes? Should I analyze more episodes?
