# Educational kids shows you hate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2007, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589 "2007-05-03T07:40:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/1 "2007-05-03T07:40:44Z")
Wow, that \*Beakman’s World \* is something else. How they managed to turn scientific curiosity into the most headache-inducingly obnoxious show ever, I’ll never know. If I was a kid curious about science, I’d still avoid that piece of shit show. Way to ruin science for me, fucktards! You? ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/2 "2007-05-03T11:37:41Z")
That was my first impression when my husband TiVoed it for the boys. Evidently, he used to keep it on as background 😕 noise while writing papers after bartending shifts in the early 90’s. I thought the show was dreadful with its boings and pops and broad, go-for-the-joke style. I’ve since come to recognize its brilliance and happily admit I was wrong. My 7 year-old watches it about once a week and quotes it all the time. Not a day goes by that he isn’t dropping a nugget about air pressure, inertia, the Earth’s axis, or the length of the average human small intestine. There are other things that come up in our schooling or our daily lives that he just seems to know, and when I ask him where he learned it, he says “Beakman”. He pesters me to do the experiments/activities with him. We’re exploring wheels right now. I could still do without the pops and boings, but I concede that they’re not there for me, but for the kids, like my son, who probably wouldn’t choose to spend a half hour sitting still to watch a tv show about physical science. The show’s hook is its zany style, but it’s the real science my son takes away with him. Also, I learn something from every episode, and now I even let myself laugh at the broad jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/3 "2007-05-03T12:24:42Z")
Tots TV. I know enough basic Spanish (which they spoke in the American version,) that when the children say something, they are basically saying the same thing twice in my mind, which is mindbogglingly annoying. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/4 "2007-05-03T16:37:50Z")
OK, move aside, mothereffers, I have four kids. I’m a seasoned _expert_ at hating kids’ shows. **Lazytown**. I want to kick _every_ character on that show squarely in the box. **Oswald**. That show moves so freaking slowly…sometimes it takes 1/2 an episode for the titular character to put his damn hat on and get on his bike. **Dora the Explorer**. Because they repeat everything eight times! Especially the Map! The Map! The Map! Tha Maaaaaap! :mad: **Blue’s Clues**. Watching that putz (Steve, now Joe) spend twenty minutes in front of a green screen, talking to x marks on the floor, makes ME want to lose my mind. I don’t know how they did it. ---
**Author:** ![waits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df788c/32.png) [@waits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waits)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/5 "2007-05-03T17:06:50Z")
I loved **Beakman’s World**! However, I will admit that it went a bit downhill after Josie left. I watched a couple of episodes recently with my eight year old. He loved it and I was pleasantly surprised that it held up well for a show that’s close to 15 years old. I remember Paul Zaloom (Beakman) once saying that the most frequently submitted questions were about farting. I don’t know if they ever dealt with that subject but I’m sure they could have pulled it off. **Lazy Town** is creepy. Didn’t anybody think that those puppets would scare little kids. They kind of scare me. The only reason for the show’s existence is that Sporticus is eye-candy for the moms who get stuck watching with their kids. **Little Bear** is another of those gentle, slow-moving shows that drives me nuts. I keep wishing that Father Bear would get rabies and kill all the other characters. I do hate to say that **Wonder Pets** is growing on me–kind of like a fungus that will eventually sap all my resistence. On the other hand, **Backyardigans** rocks!! ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/6 "2007-05-03T17:31:20Z")
Would **Barney** fit underneath this rubric? If so add it to the list… ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/7 "2007-05-03T17:34:07Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Would **Barney** fit underneath this rubric? If so add it to the list… [/QUOTE] Barney defines this list. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/8 "2007-05-03T17:44:51Z")
[QUOTE=waits] **Lazy Town** is creepy. Didn’t anybody think that those puppets would scare little kids. They kind of scare me. The only reason for the show’s existence is that Sporticus is eye-candy for the moms who get stuck watching with their kids. [/QUOTE] I guess there has to be some analogue for “The Big Comfy Couch” (although that show didn’t suck in general. I might actually order some eps…mmmmm.) ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/9 "2007-05-03T17:48:39Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] I guess there has to be some analogue for “The Big Comfy Couch” (although that show didn’t suck in general. I might actually order some eps…mmmmm.) [/QUOTE] Good to know I wasn’t the only one who wanted to bend Loonette over the Big Comfy Couch. (Molly could watch.) ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/10 "2007-05-03T18:09:21Z")
Wonderpets grew on me too. I’ve found myself humming their song at odd times to myself. Backyardigans is also a favourite My son likes Dora, she bugs me but I can live with it. I’m trying to think of what ‘educational’ shows I truly hate. There is hate for certain kids shows, but those ones aren’t educational (unless you count Caillou teaching kids how to pout and tantrum to get their way). Barney… yup, that would be up there. One novel I read had the renewing of the Barney contract happening at the exact same time that evil made it’s way into the world. I could believe that. As for Loonette, well. The old Loonette was cuter and much better than the new one (the new one, the couple of times I watched it, seems just a little… touched in the head. Velociraptor doesn’t watch her anymore). ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/11 "2007-05-03T18:11:04Z")
Oobi. I don’t really allow my son to watch TV yet (he’s only 8 1/2 months old), but I turned on Oobi one morning just to see what it was. Never. Again. Holy shit, I wanted to grab Oobi and shove him through a plate glass window after about two minutes. E. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/12 "2007-05-03T18:15:39Z")
[QUOTE=Elza B] Oobi. I don’t really allow my son to watch TV yet (he’s only 8 1/2 months old), but I turned on Oobi one morning just to see what it was. Never. Again. Holy shit, I wanted to grab Oobi and shove him through a plate glass window after about two minutes. E. [/QUOTE] Oobi makes Teletubbies and Boohbah seem mentally stimulating by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![waits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df788c/32.png) [@waits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waits)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/13 "2007-05-03T18:18:44Z")
A friend once said that the only reason to watch **Big Comfy Couch** was to see which end of the binge-and-purge cycle Loonette was in when they filmed the episode. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/14 "2007-05-03T18:22:25Z")
Boohbah - those creepy bastards probably turn into gremlins if you feed them after midnight, but they’re all stoned so it’s easy to get away. It’s hard to narrow it down to educational shows because so many are classified as having some educational value even if the whole episode is about something like going to a birthday party and they slip a “don’t do drugs” or “how to read the invitation” in there. For what I consider true educational television (IOW, not Arthur) I have to say I am annoyed by that sloth in the tree. He’s high too. You know, you would think a reformed stoner would be more tolerant of my mary jane smoking educational friends, but they really just annoy the shit out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/15 "2007-05-03T18:42:33Z")
Oh, God, yes, _Barney_. =Shudder= How I hate him. My boys know that now, so they’ll purposefully put The Evil Purple Dinosaur From Hell on and then gleefully call me into the room, the better to torment me… :mad: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/16 "2007-05-03T19:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Blue’s Clues. Watching that putz (Steve, now Joe) spend twenty minutes in front of a green screen, talking to x marks on the floor, makes ME want to lose my mind. I don’t know how they did it. Me, I feel sorry for that poor bitch. Every time she wants to go for a walk, or eat supper, or play fetch, or _anything_, she has spend a half-hour pounding it through that idiot’s skull before she can do it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/17 "2007-05-03T19:45:34Z")
[QUOTE=waits] I remember Paul Zaloom (Beakman) once saying that the most frequently submitted questions were about farting. I don’t know if they ever dealt with that subject but I’m sure they could have pulled it off. [/QUOTE] The first episode I ever saw devoted an entire show to that very subject. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/18 "2007-05-03T20:35:18Z")
I’ll say what I said the last time: I don’t hate any educational kids’ TV show, although I do have a mock feud with Paz, whom I don’t really hate, but call “that goddamned penguin” for some reason. And _Hip Hop Harry_ just plain baffles me. Take the patented Barney “guy in costume teaches lessons to schoolkids” formula, except replace “giant purple dinosaur” with “giant rapping hamster.” > [@ShelliBean](#): > > It’s hard to narrow it down to educational shows because so many are classified as having some educational value even if the whole episode is about something like going to a birthday party and they slip a “don’t do drugs” or “how to read the invitation” in there. And then there are the networks like ABC who just stick the “E/I” label on their Saturday morning programs to fit in the FCC’s bylaws, despite the fact they just rerun Disney Channel shows that have little to no educational value. Sure, _That’s So Raven_ etc. have lessons in the plot now and then, but what can you learn from your average episode of, say, _The Suite Life of Zack and Cody_? How to annoy parents? I don’t think that’s what the FCC’s looking for. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/19 "2007-05-03T21:00:15Z")
Is it just me, or is every other character on Thomas the Tank Engine an asshole? ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589/20 "2007-05-03T22:32:49Z")
_The Doodlebops_ is enough to make me hate Canadians. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educational-kids-shows-you-hate/402589.md?page=2)