really?  huh.

evidently, at least three generations of czechoslovaks took it as "look for the simplest solution and think before you work."

judging by the increasing number of highly qualified slovak IT graduates, who were raised on a je to, the "big bad commies" behind it didn't win.

typical western reaction.  any country with a disproportionate amount of consonants in its name and you can think of nothing but breadlines and barbed wire.  i really hope you were being ironic.

...The guys build a machine (granted, a silly one), it does the work for them, it runs out of work to do... then it just randomly goes fucking haywire and throws furniture around? Explain to me, since I'm apparently so dense, how this realistically reflects what happens when we automate things to save time / energy for ourselves?

thanks, ape.  what country are you from exactly?  because if it's the states, you're one of the first people i've met from back home who knows anything about the czech republic or slovakia.  yes, the astronomical clock is incredible.  seen it many times.  have you been to prague?

i hope no one would share kevin's opinion and i hope, as i said, he was being ironic or, at least, he was being too hasty.  because at face value his words were motivated by three things:

1. prejudice towards communism, or his understanding of it.

2. ignorance of czechoslovak culture and history.

3. (and this is the worst.)  the identification of czechoslovak culture and history with nothing more than communism (and, it seems, communism of a monolithic sort, as if there were no differences between the regimes of the soviet union, czechoslovakia, poland, yugoslavia, etc.).

Actually, my opinion was derived solely from the cartoon. Yourself and DA were the only people to bring-up Czech history/politics at all.

Care to address my question rather than fling ad hominems?

I'm from the US.  I'm a fan of Tom Stoppard and Vaclav Havel and my dad's a really big fan of the .22 rifles they make there, so I suppose I have some middling familiarity with the country from that.  Also I enjoy defenestration and slender, apple-cheeked blonde women.

And Kevin, you're correct on the "real engineering" thing.  Douchey of me, and a True Scotsman fallacy on my part, at least linguistically--it wasn't intended, and I wasn't setting up any kind of basis of comparison.  But I stand by my statement that the goal of engineering is the parsimonious use of resources in design and construction.  

ok, well let me present my arguments.

1. it develops critical thinking skills.  children have the opportunity to point out why pat and mat ended up in trouble (and they do, i've seen it).  there are other episodes with more realistic quick fixes where one can clearly see why they went wrong.  often the message is "don't do sloppy work."

2. it presents real life situations, albeit in a funny and caricatured way, unlike looney tunes, or disney, or pokemon, or even sesame street.  czecholslovak children can relate to it because their apartments look exactly like pat and mat's.  (yes, it was i who was too rash with "no claims to realism," but i think it's obvious even to a child that pat and mat's contraptions could never exist in real life.)

3. it encourages learning practical skills.  i've seen more slovak children playing with toy hammers and wrenches than action figures, and that's a direct result of programs like a je to.

4. it encourages friendship and helping others out of difficult situations.

now, let's hear your arguments, because all i've heard is a vague notion of "working for the state."  i really don't know how you can compare this to wiley coyote or foghorn leghorn.

exactly.  which is why i said that the message is often "don't do sloppy work."

anyway, it's clear from this thread that people other than me spotted life lessons in this cartoon.  i like it because it tries to teach children things without talking down to them (they're given an unguided window on two adults) and, unlike most of the educational cartoons on nick jr. and stuff like that, without resulting to talking dogs or time travel or fantasy in general.  maybe i was being a tad hyperbolic when i said it was the most valuable children's cartoon i'd ever seen, but it's definitely one of, and i just don't understand how no one could take a practical lesson from it.

I grew up on this "goodnight cartoon" and it's truly legendary among young and older czechs and slovaks (and surely in other states)
I also enjoy the animation, it's no computer trick, it is most probably a real wood, metal, cloth, paper, and so on. This makes the catastrophes much more realistic and hilarious.
It seems this cartoon is a result of communistic phenomenon - Do it yourself. In these times, many shops were badly supplied,  and it was common for people to make some of their furniture, repairs, or various gadgets, improving a life, or sparing an useful space in cramped blocks of flats. There were some popular specialized magazines for handymen. Another typical effect is also a culture of weekend houses, to which whole cities made an exodus every friday.
And yes, there surely is a reference to "golden czech hands", a hopefully still present national trait of engineering ability. Last time I truly felt it, was thanks to machines from the communist era.
I must say, some communistic technics, like cars (old Tatra models), washing machines or fridges, lasted more than 15-20 years.
So it was with Sony audio technics. In these times things had to hold together and be well repairable, because it was unsure when another piece will be smuggled through the iron curtain or bought for "bons". Nowadays, all is crappy.

Btw, I can't view this particular video. I'll try tomorrow from a different computer. I'm also curious at the eastern slovak dialect, I'm not yet familiar with it. Maybe I'll understand practically everything, maybe not. Dialects can vary a lot.

As for working for the state, I think this (and weekend houses) is a typical example of people doing something for themselves. The state was mostly there to not work for it too much, because others might not work fast enough on par with you. There was also a lot of small "borrowing" from the public socialistic property, as the proverb says, "Who doesn't steal, steals from own family."
But this was puny, compared to gigantic thievery shortly after the revolution, when people dazed by sudden "freedom" didn't notice that whole milliards and institutions are being stolen right from under their butt.
Now, Czechs (and maybe Slovaks) should:
- again learn the art of defenestration and practice it whenever necessary. A dung heaps should be put under the parliament windows, as it was the thing which once saved the lives of counsellors last time they were defenestrated.
- make a politic job to be in a monastical regime, involving poverty, less freedom and privacy, minimal personal possesions (for the time of being in function) and a temporary ban on politics as a punishment for corruption and scandals.
- forbid to film anything what resembles Kundera's book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- sell the most of military technics (which we don't need and never will), and abolish paying money at the doctor's. (2 dollars just for showing up there)
- allow techno parties (instead of spending 1 million for a police action to avenge a 20k worth damage on a meadow by dancers )
- tolerate marijuana (instead of arresting old ladies for several years, for growing one plant to heal their Parkinson. President usually saves them by giving them a pardon, but it's getting awkward)
- make a vaccination of children not compulsory, as it is in civilized states. If i'm right, there's still a 600 dollar fee for every rejected vaccination.
- and not think that this list is nearly complete

Well, I could.

The characters in Sesame Street were metaphorical examples of different strata in society. Oscar's was the most obvious (the homeless; and it's somewhat notable that Henson did not use Oscar to demonize people who live among our discarded things. Grumbly and dark-humored, but considerably resourceful and suprisingly kind when the chips are down); I don't immediately recall what Big Bird or Elmo represented.

i don't see any reason why it couldn't be for both humor and teaching.  the humor side: a machine like this probably couldn't be built in real life, and certainly not so quickly, but children love exaggerated things and funny contraptions.  the education side, if you're going to build a machine or even use one, it requires constant attention because something unforeseen can happen.  and no, i won't can the appeals to popularity because i think you're just being obstinate in maintaining that there's no lesson here.  you certainly haven't gone out of your way to show why all the other lessons people are picking out of it aren't really there.

Actually, he's wrong. Engineering is an applied science and thus obeys Occam's Razor whenever possible. Since engineering is well defined, it does not fit the intent of No True Scotsman. Compare to "real scientists use facts to confirm or disprove hypothesis," and conversely "real cats nap during the day." On the one hand, there is nothing in the definition of cat to say that it must sleep during the day, while the definition for scientists is essential to what a scientist does. The idea that there are no true engineers is thus plainly seen as false from the implication that "engineering could be about finding the least parsimonious solution to problems of ham and cheese."

Nuh uh!

I would say that the most important lesson is that one should not build a steam engine without a proper safety release valve. It also says that one should not try to multitask took much.

The characters essentially repeated the behavior of leaving the iron unattended (which resulted in a hole burning through the floor).  In their second attempt, they left a complex machine powered by a steam engine unattended which resulted in an explosion.  This implies that the complex machine is more dangerous, and therefore less desirable, especially in situations where they are going to be left unattended.

Essentially they tried to solve the problem without addressing the root cause, which was leaving a hot iron unattended.  The ideal solution would have been to make sure that you never leave the iron unattended or to modify the iron so that it shuts off automatically. Instead, they build a machine that is superior to the iron, but more dangerous when left unattended.

The true moral is that when you solve problems, find the root cause or your solution may cause new problems.

yeah, it's eastern slovak dialect, which is in many ways similar to polish.  people from bratislava probably wouldn't understand this.  hell, many people from kosice wouldn't understand this!

as i said, i hear this dialect all the time, since i live in an eastern slovak village.  my in-laws use it a lot.

interesting fact, the US ambassador to slovakia, vincent obsitnik, can speak this dialect!  his family is from near humenne, i think, and he visited there a lot growing up.