The following is an example of how I like to meet new people when out and about as well as the bit about kiddie shows. Fully - on topic, in character and with examples. Just thank your lucky stars I can't draw or there would have been pics too.
I generally sit down in front of someone (or land in the middle of their table as the case may be), offer them a hand to shake (usually my own), say something like "Hi I'm ...* What's your name" wait barely long enough for a reply, then start with the info dump.
As a child, my TV habits involved the ABC from after Play School through to 7 o'clock. As a uni student, I was in to Play School. Now I struggle with Play Dough.
I just found out that I also struggle with Notes servers on a monday night. Bwahaha corruption is rife within this office - pun fully intended.
Pill, I still believe that Gadget was Penny's twin brother and suffered from that aging disease. Hence** he was actually quite a performer for an 8 year old or however old they were. I like Claw as the father now though. It fits well with the whole "never forgiven his son for taking his wife" thang due to the mother (Ms. Claw?) dying during child birth - (Well YOU crank out a baby with 80 foot arms and legs and a helicopter on its head and see how long you last.)
Fully.
Ms Claw (let's call her Gladys) is in labour. All of a sudden, there's a noise not unlike that made by a helicopter erupting from your stomach. Thus we have Gadget.
Now it's hard to believe that Penny would actually have room in da womb to develop along side Gadget and his add-ons, unless she was actually INSIDE the helicopter***. This is paralleled by the series script where we see Penny controlling Gadget by way of her dog Brain, who is in fact a pan dimensional being related to Douglas Adam's mice****.
So Claw, who was in the midwifery at the time now has a bit of resentment towards his children, not to mention a problem with relating to women. Later on, he starts dating Gadget's boss as a way to get close to then kill his kids. I'm thinking a look not unlike Saddam Hussein and Satan in the South Park movie, only with Claws cat as well. I keep thinking the cat was called Nero, but that was from that other legendary piece of 20th century art, Danger Mouse. Eventually, the family tension builds to exploding point. In an effort to go to ground, his children revert to their mother's maiden name which also explains the different surname bit.
As a theory, I know it's a bit rough around the edges, I know but I reckon I'm onto something.
And so it goes, only with more tangents and fewer breaths.
Anyhoo, I gotta find out what this Notes box has got against me, show it what-for, go home, get ripped, wash & dry some clothes, pack a case, get back to work and make sure the fix can handle regular traffic, open up a can of whoop-ass on it if it can't, then get to the aiport in 12 hours. I've had 4 hours sleep since saturday morning and haven't looked like coming down yet.
(I'm opening the book at 5 to 4 against)
S.
* I don't really tell them my name is "Dots Star" but you get the point.
** Cop that. "Hence."
*** So provided that Gadget and his copter are in fact the same entity, he is Penny's brother AND mother, showing that 1) you don't necessarily have to keep it in the family to keep it in the family and 2) the concepts portrayed to us in "Junior" weren't so unlikely afterall.
**** Read Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and sequels.