# Am I the only one who finds the Teletubbies vaguely disturbing? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 30, 2001, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420 "2001-01-30T16:54:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Clucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clucky)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/21 "2001-01-30T20:57:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racerx \* > \*\ ***Clucky** Thou art forgiven. > > Sorry, I get a little defensive of my brother, he gets harassed from everyone it seems. \*\* Hey, if you didn’t get defensive of your brother, what kind of sister would you be? I’m sure he and his wife are doing the best they can. I’m lucky we can (barely) afford for my wife to stay home. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/22 "2001-01-30T21:05:26Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. This is good. May I recommend watching some children’s television yourself? If you take a little time, you really can separate the wheat from the chaff. There really are some good quality TV children’s shows out there, that kids enjoy and learn from. And they learn even more if you get yourself involved. Oh, and don’t be afraid to allow your children to _occasionally_ watch the brainless stuff. Their little brains need a break, too. The key is to find the right kind of nonsense. That can be a little harder, but if you do it right, and balance the educational with the completely silly, you’ll end up with a kid like mine–delightfully imaginative, but with enough sense to put pillows down before she jumps off the couch. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/23 "2001-01-30T21:09:03Z")
I think we can tell the old drug users from the non-users just by where they stand on the Teletubbies. I find it to be really cool. Especially the sun baby. As for people who find their sensibilities accosted by the TT and are anything over three years old, _the show is not aimed at you!_ Barney is not aimed at anybody over five. Jerry Springer is not aimed at anybody with an IQ larger than their hat size. And the people who created these show _don’t care that you don’t like them!_ You are not their target audience. **Clucky** , I always accept a good repentance. 😉 And since you are new, I will regale you with the Tale of Wife Versus Sesame Street. A few years back, Sesame Street had a new character named Party Animal. Much like a cross between Poochie (on Itchy and Scratchy) and Animal (on The Muppet Show), Party Animal was edgy and hip with a limited vocabulary of a yelled “PAR-TAY!” Wife gets on the horn to complain. She works her way up the hierarchy to the main announcer, a grandfatherly type who was also an executive with the station. She explained to him her objections to the character, especially his call to “PAR-TAY.” As this phrase is generally thought to imply binge drinking and illicit sex, she felt this was a poor choice for a program and network that as much as tells us we can safely park our kids in front of it for hours on end with no fear of exposing our precious little ones to anything worse than bad puppetry and worse singing. She went on to tell stories of Saturday nights working in the ER, pumped stomachs, and cases of alcohol poisoning in young children. This was enough for the TV guy, and Party Animal was never seen again. Another victory for a Cranky Mom! ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/24 "2001-01-30T21:31:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racerx \* > **Ok. That damn babyface sun creeps me out. Scarier than scooby doo.** Is it me or does the baby sunface look like the lead singer from Radiohead? And I get the impression that La-La is a little full of herself, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Clucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Clucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clucky)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/25 "2001-01-30T21:39:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\ ***Clucky** , I always accept a good repentance. 😉 And since you are new, I will regale you with the Tale of Wife Versus Sesame Street. > > A few years back, Sesame Street had a new character named Party Animal. Much like a cross between Poochie (on Itchy and Scratchy) and Animal (on The Muppet Show), Party Animal was edgy and hip with a limited vocabulary of a yelled “PAR-TAY!” Wife gets on the horn to complain. She works her way up the hierarchy to the main announcer, a grandfatherly type who was also an executive with the station. > > She explained to him her objections to the character, especially his call to “PAR-TAY.” As this phrase is generally thought to imply binge drinking and illicit sex, she felt this was a poor choice for a program and network that as much as tells us we can safely park our kids in front of it for hours on end with no fear of exposing our precious little ones to anything worse than bad puppetry and worse singing. > > She went on to tell stories of Saturday nights working in the ER, pumped stomachs, and cases of alcohol poisoning in young children. This was enough for the TV guy, and Party Animal was never seen again. Another victory for a Cranky Mom! \*\* **Cranky Mom’s** my hero! Maybe there should be a **Cranky Mom** character on Sesame Street. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![racerx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5e9695/32.png) [@racerx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racerx)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/26 "2001-01-30T22:03:55Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Alphagene \* \*\* > [@](#): > > Is it me or does the baby sunface look like the lead singer from Radiohead? > > \*\* Now that you mention it. . . fake plastic love. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/27 "2001-01-30T22:47:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Clucky \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by racerx \* > > \*\*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. \*\* > > 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. \*\* Ha, ha, ha! Wait until your wife wants to take a shower or go to the bathroom by herself. Your kid might be OK being left in the crib now, but eventually she will scream if she is awake and Mom (or Dad, but you will be at work–no help) is not right there. And your wife will eventually discover that a small shot of Teletubbies (or Sesame Street, or Mr. Rogers, or whatever) will distract the kid long enough to take a five-minute shower, pee, or take something out of the oven. Maybe the kid will learn something, too, but the point is sanity (and safety, in the case of the oven example.) What did parents use before TV? Grandma, probably, or maybe an older sister, since families were larger then. Or else they just let the kid scream, and neighbors were more sympathetic and less likely to direct-dial Child Protective Services. But families and communities aren’t structured quite the same way today, for better or for worse. Don’t say “I’ll never do that” or “My kid will never do that” unless your kid is older and you (or the kid) never did that. Three months is a bit young for TV, though, I’ve got to admit. ---
**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/28 "2001-01-30T22:55:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alphagene \* > \*\*And I get the impression that La-La is a little full of herself, don’t you? \*\* Don’t be dissin’ La-La. ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/29 "2001-01-30T23:05:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\* > As for people who find their sensibilities accosted by the TT and are anything over three years old, _the show is not aimed at you!_ \ You are not their target audience. > \*\* Hee hee. This is what I told my 33 year old, childless brother. He asked me why I let my son watch them because _every time_ he watched them, they creeped him out. I said “Why the hell are you watching them more than once??” Weirdo. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/30 "2001-01-30T23:17:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > \*\*[sub]2 :rolleyes: Because EVERYTHING Pat Robertsen says is the Gospel Truth. The man is a modern day saint. > \*\* Two Nitpicks. A. Pat Robertson, with the O B. And it was Jerry Falwell who claimed that, anyway. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/31 "2001-01-30T23:23:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Saint Zero \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > > \*\*[sub]2 :rolleyes: Because EVERYTHING Pat Robertsen says is the Gospel Truth. The man is a modern day saint. > > \*\* > > Two Nitpicks. > > A. Pat Robertson, with the O > B. And it was Jerry Falwell who claimed that, anyway. 😃 \*\* Okay, so it was Falwell’s Followers who put out the report, having learned of it from our own Eve. Now I consider myself enlightened. And out of this debate. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/32 "2001-01-31T00:56:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\*As for people who find their sensibilities accosted by the TT and are anything over three years old, _the show is not aimed at you!_…And the people who created these show _don’t care that you don’t like them!_ You are not their target audience. > \*\* Hmm. This line of thought presumes I have no control whatever over what my (hypothetical) kids watch, and they rule the clicker. Hah! The people who make these shows _better_ care if I like them. _I_ am the who decides what my kid will watch. Besides, no 2-5-year-old has developed any standards for good TV. It’s not like he knows he’s watching crap, or can call the network to complain. So I will just do it for him. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/33 "2001-01-31T01:14:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > **But slap my ass…** I just noticed this **magdalene**. Are you inviting someone to give you a spanking? 'Cause, uh, I can do that. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/34 "2001-01-31T01:36:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lizard \* > \*\*It’s not like he knows he’s watching crap, or can call the network to complain. So I will just do it for him. \*\* Ah, to be young, idealistic, and childless again! While you have MacNeill/Lehrer on, Junior Lizard will be bored stiff or flushing the contents of your wallet down the toilet. But that is an unfair comparison, since it and Teletubbies are on the same channel. Instead, see what’s on OPPOSITE Teletubbies and you’ll Superglue the tuner to PBS. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/35 "2001-01-31T06:59:34Z")
Sniff, I loved Party Animal. 8^( ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/36 "2001-01-31T07:06:04Z")
My sister-in-law opined: > [@](#): > > Whoever came up with the teletubbies must have been on some serious acid. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/37 "2001-01-31T13:13:39Z")
I’ve long had a theory about the Teletubbies: 1.) They live in an idyllic garden space that is lovingly tended by someone else who is never seen. 2.) All their food is provided for them. Teletubbies do no work, but spend all their time playing. 3.) What little work we seen is done by macines or underground entities. Conclusion: Teletubbies are the Eloi from H.G. Wells’ novel “The Time Machine”! This means that, wandering around in the bowels of that Teletubbie house there must be Morlocks. If you’ve read the book, you know that the ultimate fate of the pampered upper-class Eloi is to serve as food for the worker-class Morlocks ("Eat the Rich! followed to its logical conclusion). I don’t know about you, but it helps make the Teletubbies palatable to think that, ultimately, Tinky-Winky will serve a useful purpose as a Teletubby steak on the table of some deserving Morlock family, to be replaced by another Tinky-Winky out of the cloning division’s frozen Teletubby embryo case. THIS, by the way, is why Rod Taylor was so secretive about the Eloi when he was telling the story to his friends at the Club. He didn’t want Sebastian Cabot to know that he was dating a fuzzy Kewpie doll, instead of a Playboy centerfold. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/38 "2001-02-01T04:43:52Z")
Man, there are days when my son doesn’t stare at his own parents with the rapt fascination with which he views that damn show. Ex-druggie here who also thinks that sun is way cool. Babies like it because they like looking at other babies. I like it because of those funky blue eyes. Don’t give me any shit because my kid watches a little TV. I don’t park him in front of it and leave him there, or anything like that. But it is nice to load the dishwasher without him getting in it, you know? Teletubbies rock, so does the Bear in the Big Blue House and Rolie Polie Olie. BTW, if it’s not on Disney, it just doesn’t exist, so I have a hell of a time keeping track of events in the adult world. Oh well, my son’s world is much more entertaining! ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/39 "2001-02-01T05:51:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Lizard \* > > \*\*It’s not like he knows he’s watching crap, or can call the network to complain. So I will just do it for him. \*\* > > Ah, to be young, idealistic, and childless again! > > While you have MacNeill/Lehrer on, Junior Lizard will be bored stiff or flushing the contents of your wallet down the toilet. But that is an unfair comparison, since it and Teletubbies are on the same channel. Instead, see what’s on OPPOSITE Teletubbies and you’ll Superglue the tuner to PBS. \*\* I don’t know why I feel so combative these days, but I can’t let this slide. ( **dropzone** , I should warn you ahead of time I’m not trying to start something here. I’m just being a lot less restrained than usual.) Why do you assume that because I don’t have kids I must therefore know nothing about them or how to raise them? How do you know I wasn’t the primary caregiver for two younger siblings for most of their lives to date? How do you know I didn’t have to babysit several even younger cousins _without_ the benefit of television to keep them occupied, because we didn’t have one? You can’t possibly know those things, can you? It _is_ possible to raise kids without the tube as a co-parent. That’s how I was raised, and I never missed it. Okay, I have no younger siblings or cousins. But I wanted to point out that _you did not know that,_ and therefore asssumed too much in your last post. And what I said about growing up without a TV is 100% true. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420/40 "2001-02-01T18:12:51Z")
I find them **VERY** disturbing. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-finds-the-teletubbies-vaguely-disturbing/52420.md?page=3)