Context

These lines are from the poem "Television" in the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, written by Roald Dahl (1964).

Mike Teavee is the last naughty child on the factory tour to come to a not-so-nice end for being greedy. Since the boy sits around watching TV all day, he can't resist the chance to be shrunk down to a size where he actually fits on a TV set! To be fair, his last name is literally "Teavee," so we think he might have been set up to fail right from the start.

Just like they did for all the other bad little boys and girls in Mr. Wonka's factory, the Oompa-Loompas sing a little farewell song for Mike. In this poem, they let everyone know that TV is a very terrible thing and that it's probably best not to let your kids go near it. In fact, why not buy some books instead? Hey, those Oompa-Loompas are pretty darn smart.

Where you've heard it

You might hear this one anytime folks are advocating that kids watch less TV. Of course, things have changed since Dahl wrote the poem in 1964. Now we have iPads and video games to worry about, too!

Additional Notable References: 

• The song the Oompa Loompas sing in the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is based on this poem.
• The song from the 1971 version is less based on this poem, but still shares the same sentiment. TV bad. Books good.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Everyone knows TV rots your brain…but no one wants to get rid of it all together. As long as people assume you're not talking about how their kids watch too much TV, you're good.