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Well, THAT’s not very neighborly.
“The Daily Wire” host Andrew Klavan called out Fred Rogers this week for not being manly enough, opening his show on the right-wing website with a rant against the beloved TV personality who created and hosted the preschool hit “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” for more than 30 years.
The sweater- and sneaker-wearing Rogers endeared viewers for decades by taking them around the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, which was populated by puppets, as well as discussing difficult subjects like death and divorce, as well as peaceful ways to deal with negative, angry feelings.
But Klavan called the show “absolutely intolerable, unless you happen to be a three-year-old” — which many of the viewers were — “or a mom who needed to plant her three-year-old in front of the TV while she took a cigarette break.”
Hello, neighbor!
It only gets less-PG from there, with Klavan expressing concern that Rogers was a poor influence on impressionable young men.
‘Fred Rogers modeled decency and Christian values, which is great, but he also modeled the misguided form of Christian manhood that looks so much like metrosexual wimpiness, it’s really difficult to tell the difference.’
In Klavan’s opinion, Jesus was more John Wayne than Mister Rogers. He described the religious figure as “a steely man of integrity who was willing to sacrifice everything to say what needed to be said, and do what needed to be done.”
“Men, real men, are tough,” he continued, because life is dangerous. “A nation full of lovable Mister Rogers is a nation suitable for four-year-olds and three-year-olds who are controlled by soft-spoken, sweet-talking, all-powerful government authorities,” he said.
And here’s the kicker: “If you really want to have a beautiful day in the neighborhood, call John Wayne and tell him to bring his guns.”
Viewers on Twitter TWTR, +0.67% , including some identifying as Christian and conservative, quickly came to the late Fred Rogers’ defense.
“Completely sad that being genuine and kind equates with being a wimp with this guy,” wrote one person under the name Theresa Kelley. “So infuriating that someone so pure as Fred Rogers, who made such a positive impact on the lives of millions would be disrespected.”
Others took issue with his narrow definition of masculinity, or pointed out that Wayne was playing a character. “Who… still thinks John Wayne is the paragon of American masculinity? How old are these people?” tweeted a person under Dan Kelly.
There’s still plenty of love out there for Mister Rogers. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” the Sony Pictures SNE, +2.15% drama featuring Tom Hanks as the titular character, opened in third at the box office last weekend with $13.5 million, and is expected to perform well over the holidays.
