Wonder Showzen contains offensive, despicable content that is too controversial and too awesome for actual children… If you allow a child to watch this show, you are a bad parent or guardian.” As viewers of the short-lived sketch series know, though, that doesn’t mean children were precluded from actually appearing on
the show. On the contrary, kids made up the vast majority of
Wonder Showzen’s on-screen talent, often appearing alongside puppets voiced by the show’s co-creators, Vernon Chatman and John Lee.
Advertisement
One instance where kids flew solo, though, was in the much-discussed segment Beat Kids, in which precocious elementary school students played investigative reporters. Armed with microphones and clad in Kermit The Frog-style trench coats, the Beat Kids ventured into adult spaces like butcher shops and racetracks, sidled up to grown-ups, and asked the tough questions. One kid reporter set up on Wall Street and asked traders, “Who did you exploit today?” Another threw on a tiny Hitler costume and—in a move that certainly wouldn’t fly 15 years later—asked passersby on a New York City street, “What’s wrong with the youth of today?” All of the questions were fed to the reporters by an on-site Chatman, but that didn’t stop the adults answering them from appearing agog, startled that anyone so cute would make them question their very existence.