Funny or Die scores a comedy hit with a political punch, and we hope lawmakers will swallow a spoonful of satire and heed the message! In this scene, everyone’s favorite nanny Mary Poppins, played beautifully by Kristin Bell, is packing her things and preparing to find another position.
In the most delightful way possible, she uses the tune from “Spoonful of Sugar” to explain to the uncomprehending children why she truly must leave – or starve. Bell sounds very much like Julie Andrews as she explains (in song) how, at minumum wage, she is actually far below the poverty line. The legendary nanny shows the children just how quickly her small paycheck disappears when federal and state taxes, medicare and other items each take a bite. Oh, and Mary doesn’t get those birds for free, you know, and despite what you may have heard, they eat – a lot.
We even look in on the delightful cartoon penguin family, who – finding themselves in financial trouble, react much like their human counterparts. Despite their best efforts, their family unit disintegrates when stress pushes them over the edge.
The pity of it is, that things needn’t be so grim.In fact, it needn’t be grim at all! Argue with Mary Poppins if you please, but she has the charts to prove that a measly three dollars more per hour would make all of the difference in the world!
With just a small three dollar raise, Mary could remain with the Banks family, the penguins would stop smoking and become solvent and adorable again, and there would be one less magic umbrella poking around at the food bank.
If Republicans remain set on the notion that the minimum wage is sufficient for those with good budgeting skills, I think we can all agree with Ms Poppins that it’s “supercalifragilisticexpealibullsh**.!”