koolaid

Is koolaid man the liquid or the jar?

update april 2022

I was wrong…

original

i always imagined the koolaid man’s liquid to be the brain, just like a human has skin (the jar) and the organs, bones, etc. being the internals of the human body so

• glass = the skin
• liquid = the rest of what’s in a “typical” human body

now, IMO, humans are the body entirely, just meat, bones, nerves and other stuff

but if we specifically say person, then that becomes the brain alone. personality, decision making, emotions, memories, and consciousness, i.e. what makes a person a person, happens there. the skin (aka the jar) doesn’t do those things, it’s just a protective barrier.

thus, koolaid man with no jar = a person with no skin. while that’d be extremely painful, the brain exists regardless of the pain, as do the aforementioned things a brain does

now, possibly you could just say: “ok, koolaid man is still koolaid man even with no jar, the liquid is his brain after all, and that’s what makes a person a person. with only his jar and no liquid, he is nothing, he cannot think, make decisions, feel, or recall memories”

or, if you wanna get deeper:

but then you should consider: koolaid man is a mascot invented by a corporation to market their product. every single interaction he has ever produced has been scripted for that purpose since he started to exist. now, of course, he isn’t sentient at all. the question is about whether koolaid man is still koolaid man if you remove the liquid or jar. if we strictly adhered to what his creators created him for, then the answer is “both”, he can’t be koolaid man without both liquid and jar, they are a crucial part of the original design, and he was never shown as being without either in any TV commercial

however koolaid man appeared in several cartoons, most notably, family guy. refer to this video, kool-aid man is clearly seen smashed, his jar and liquid are no longer one cohesive unit, yet he is still able to talk, with blatant anger and recalling memories from before, and make the conscious decision to blame Stewie and Brian. i’d imagine koolaid let family guy use their mascot, and explicitly approved of the scene in which he was featured, i.e. smashed, the jar in pieces, the liquid spilled. which means the creators of kool-aid man allow him to exist in such a way, thus meaning kool-aid man does not need liquid nor jar. except:

koolaid man is shown there as alive, albeit in pain, the jar is no longer a jar, it is broken pieces of glass. but the liquid still exists. thus,

koolaid man can be koolaid man even with no jar. therefore: koolaid man is the liquid, not the jar as his consciousness does not depend on the jar as shown in that family guy episode