What is it about them? Aaah, it’s so may things. They’re mindless. And dumb. And pointless. And a waste. I could go on and on. But I think the worst part is: they’re boring. How any child could enjoy watching something so incomprehensible is beyond me. Please tell me that this doesn’t signal the decline of “Sesame Street”.
But hot damn, can they accessorize!
No, you are not alone. I find them very vaguely creepy. The giggling is quite sinister. However, little kids are soothed and comforted by repetition, which the Teletubbies surely provide.
But slap my ass and tell me if you don’t think that there are some sort of subliminable messages being broadcast through their antennae. You know, the kind that tells the little children who watch them make a big batch of Guyana Koolaid and fall asleep with purple triangles over their faces, waiting for the MotherShip[sup]1[/sup] to carry them away.
If we suddenly start seeing rural communities go all Children of the Corn, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Teletubby link. And everyone knows that Tinky-winky makes people gay, because ALL gay people are androgynous toddlers who giggle and carry a purse.[sup]2[/sup]
[sub] 1 (Not the one that transports George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, though. If I thought it was THAT MotherShip, I’d watch the Teletubbies regularly).
2 :rolleyes: Because EVERYTHING Pat Robertsen says is the Gospel Truth. The man is a modern day saint.
Ok. That damn babyface sun creeps me out. Scarier than scooby doo.
My bro’s kids like the TT, though. And if I had kids and they liked it, and them watching it gave me a moment of peace, I think I’d let the kids watch it.
Let’s keep our Modern Saints “straight” (heh heh). It was St. Jerry Falwell who revealed the Awful Truth about Tinky Winky.
Vaguely disturbing? Just vaguely?
They’re freaks, I’m telling you! They’re not cute! They’re not charming! Tod Browning is somewhere looking at these little weirdos and saying “Ewwwwwww!”
I demand to know what is in that Tubby Custard. It frightens me. Some fast-food place around here put some in a kid’s meal. It was pink. A very light pink. What is it, damn you?? Is it the remains of innocent little babies who’s brains you’ve taken over?? Did you grind their bones to make your Tubby Toast??? AAAAAAAAAAGH!!!
And, pray tell, just what is up with that machine you’ve got? You know, the one with the wheels and the vacuum for a face. What does he do, huh? Does he snatch the children who have managed to escape your vile clutches? Or is he the one that removed any gender-identifying body parts from your freakish little bodies, and now HE’S the one that’s REALLY running your twisted little show? Huh? HUH???
Sorry. Sometimes my dislike for that show just gets the better of me.
OK, I hope to holy hell I’m not like this as a parent. My wife and I do not want my daughter (3 mos.) to be raised by the TV. I was, you see. In fact, when we visited my Mom last week, she says to Kirsten and I, Why don’t you just let Jessica watch TV. That will calm her down. I used to do it with you kids all the time. You’d just sit there and watch TV for hours. You loved it.
Holy fuckin’ shit, jump on a rhino, slap him on the balls, and call him Tinky fuckin’ Winky, because that was like a passage out of The Idiot’s Guide to Bad Parenting.
No way. Not our child. We’re sacrificing by having my wife stay home so we can avoid having her raised by other people and the media. It’s hard being a parent. I don’t want to give in and say, Here, watch TV and leave me alone.
I used to kid my nieces about the Teletubbies, but now they’re older (5 and 7), and they don’t watch them anymore. But they still call me “Teletubby Man.”
Anyway, I was trying to find a t-shirt or sweatshirt with some or all of the Teletubbies to wear when I’m around them, and guess what??? They don’t make 'em. Oh, sure, they do in small sizes, but nothing any larger that for a (maybe) six-year-old.
I think there are two reasons for it: 1) No one older than 6 would wear one anyway, and 2) So as not to encourage the raincoat crowd.
(BTW, my favorite is Nu-Nu.)
Wasn’t it debunked that Jerry Falwell actually had never commented on Tinky Winky?
My daughter was oh, about 15 months old, and she was wearing red footy PJs. I was behind her sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper while she was watching Teletubbies.
I happened to look up just to see Po (the red one) in a rear view. My daughter looked JUST LIKE HER!!!
Big head (in proportion to her body), big butt (diaper), short legs, big eyes, waddling. It was bizarre, but I think that’s why children like them so much.
Anyway, that’s my theory.
As an aside, I think Dipsy is the coolest Teletubbie. He has a tan, wears a jaunty, cow-patterned hat, sometimes he has a widow’s peak, plus his antenna most resembles an actual dildo. AND he’s green!
Horny bastard.
Teletubbies are certainly not vauguely disturbing.
There is nothing vague about the way Teletubbies are disturbing. They’re just plainly and obviously disturbing.
I think what’s really disturbing about it is that it is so effective with kids. They’ve distilled down certain simple elements that the pre-verbal really respond to- repitition being one of them- and they give it to them. In place of that kid being fascinated by rain running down a window, dust motes in sunlight, the cat walking across the living room.
The infant mind is designed to be fascinated with small and stupid things in the world- the better to learn about the world. But Teletubbies provides a substitute.
It’s like toddler crack!
Oh, I wanna say Jerry Falwell (well it wasn’t even him, one of his minions wrote the article. Not to say he didn’t publish it) didn’t out Tinky Winky. There was some gay publication that was talking about the purple purse weilder as an obvious gay symbol. As a joke. Quite obviously. The scary thing is somebody at Falwell Inc. took it seriously and brought up Tinky as part of the Homosexual Agenda.
Said it before and I’ll say it again: the Teletubbies rock when you are feverish, medicated, and loopy. I say this from experience. Tubby Toast? Don’t mind if I do!
That demonic giggling infant in the sun gives me hives.
My mother bought me a talking La-La doll (the yellow one… I think it’s La-La) because she said it reminded her of me. I was 26 at the time.
I think it’s the fact that their faces look like thick rubber was stretched over a skull. Features not very distinct, overly smooth, etc.
But it’s the extreme simplicity and repetition that I think draws little kids in. They used to creep me out, but now I find them sort of soothing.
I am not sure I’d call Teletubbies educational, but I happen to believe there is some value in TV for kids that IS educational. I’ve blathered about this before, so I won’t bother now.
Clucky, hope to hell all you want, but I don’t think the generalization about “this kind of parent” is supportable. Even if you choose to practice AP, you gotta take the sling off to cook. I’d rather have Junior watching Baby Mozart for 20 minutes than in flames on my hip.
Sure, there are some parents out there who use the TV foolishly, but you’d have a damned hard time convincing me that what racerx said is some sort of slippery slope to shitty parenting.
This is why I choose not to be a parent.
#1. I wouldn’t be a good one.
#2. I really don’t ever want kids. Ever. Really. None of that maternal mumbo-jumbo hanging around in my head.
FTR, while I support my bro, I don’t necessarily approve of his parenting choices. But he does have 3 kids with another one on the way, a 12+hour a day job, and his wife works out of the home. They are just scraping by and have no idea where they are going to put the next child. Not everyone has the luxury you have of a TV-free life for their children.
Spoken as one whose child is still parked in the crib when his wife (note: **Clucky{/b] isn’t the one staying at home) has to go to the bathroom.
In a year your wife will be glad to have something that keeps your little dear entranced for a couple minutes while she does something that doesn’t allow her to keep both eyes on the kid. Cluckette watching Teletubbies for a half hour isn’t letting the TV raise her, and she might get some useful lessons out of it.
I repent. Nothing against Racerx, I guess I just blew my rocker because of what Mom said a few days ago. Looking back at Racerx’s post, I probably shouldn’t have used it as an example. And, hey, I’m not telling anybody else how to raise their kids.
Also, I don’t think watching TV every once in awhile is horrible. Sesame Street’s a good show. I thought the Letter People was a good way to teach children. What I think is wretched is sitting the kid down in front of the TV and then going about your day. It promotes bad habits. My wife plans to play with our children, and we plan to have as many toys possible for her stimulation. Hey, she’s more insistent on this than I am.
And, what did people do before the invention of television? Were no lessons learned? Was there no other way to occupy a child’s mind? We plan to be creative and inventive. Like I said, I hope …
Hey! Once and for all, I’m the one who outed Tinky, in “Movieline,” a good year before Falwell got into this! I might add that I concluded that Tinky could not possibly be gay, as NO gay man would carry a red purse if he had purple fur.
I do agree, that creepy sun-face is a horror that even Stephen King in his palmiest nightmares couldn’t conjure up.
Clucky Thou art forgiven.
Sorry, I get a little defensive of my brother, he gets harassed from everyone it seems.
Based on what I believe is the original report to break the Falwell/Tinky Winky story, it does appear to have been St. Jerry’s minions rather than the Blessed Falwell himself.
Bah. Everyone knows that Po could kick Dipsy’s ass.
DON’T MESS WITH PO.