Joe Hildebrand: Why Squid Game has jumped the shark

It’s not easy being a parent in the era of the South Korean schlock thriller Squid Game, writes Joe Hildebrand.

It’s official: Squid Game has jumped the shark.

(It’s also official that any column that begins with “it’s official” has also jumped the shark but we’re here now so let’s just press on.)

The first sign of this was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a primary school warning parents that children were imitating Squid Game in the playground, which was clearly inappropriate.

Cosplayers dressed in outfits from the Netflix series Squid Game ride an escalator at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur. Picture: AFP

This was, at least, until a fellow parent observed that playing Squid Game without all the guns and actual killing was exactly the same as playing a childhood game in the playground.

“That’s kind of the whole point of Squid Game,” he said.

Fortunately, that parent has now been suspended.

The second sign was an article in the Australian Financial Review about a financial adviser who was searching for the meaning of Squid Game.

For an overdubbed South Korean schlock thriller it sure gets a lot of write-ups in the quality press.

At least in the latter case the concerns were valid: If there is one arena that is even more deadly than the killing fields of Squid Game it’s the cut-throat world of private equity.

But let’s bring it back to the children.

For an overdubbed thriller, Joe Hildebrand writes, Squid Game gets a lot of attention in the quality press.

Surely it’s only a matter of weeks now before some earnest-looking psychologist releases a book titled “How to Talk to Your Child about Squid Game” – completely ignoring the fact that rule one of Squid Game is that you don’t talk about Squid Game.

Or is that Fight Club? Or the Nationals party room? I’m starting to get confused.

The problem is that all my child wants to do is talk about Squid Game and the only response I’ve been able to think of so far is to snap back “There is no Squid Game!” and put a pillowcase over his head.

So thank you, Lord, for Squid Game and for all the other joys of 2021 that you have given us. Can we please go back to the 1990s now or what?

Joe Hildebrand is on 2GB Nights with John Stanley on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8pm

Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Why Squid Game has jumped the shark