Added: 1046 days ago by Arners | Posted in: World | 13 Comments

Rating:

 

Share:     Embed:     Fave:    

Item added to your favorites.

You must be logged in to add to your faves. Use the login box on this page or click here to regsiter.

<div align='center'><a href='http://www.kontraband.com/blog/16839/Childrens-TV-WTF/'>Children's TV - WTF??!!</a><br><div align='center'></div><br><a href='http://www.kontraband.com/blog'>See more like this on kontraband.com</a></div>

I don't know about you guys but some of my fondest memories of my younger childhood were sitting on a comfy chair (or more often than not on the floor) watching the big, black box; who didn't love watching two mice trying to take over the world, two guys with moustaches walking into things and inevitably hitting each other with ladders, or even the day-to-day life of a prehistoric family?

However, as I'm sure many of you with younger siblings or children will have discovered, kids' television nowadays hasn't necessarily got worse, it's just got really weird. Take, for example, the British show In the Night Garden - sounds like a fairly ordinary kids' show, meant to lull the little ones off to sleep for those parents who can't be bothered to do so themselves. Hmm...

The show, generally, follows the main character called Igglepiggle who journeys to the "Night Garden" on a small boat with a single lamp, through particularly rough waters (unrealistic but that's OK, I can suspend my disbelief - for now). The character then suddenly appears in the garden using a transportation device, which looks like a carousel but without the horses, and has a weird roof that kind of acts as an alarm for when it's time to go back (I think). This main character (we shall call him Mr Piggle for the sake of the article) is a normal-sized furry blue creature with small tufts of hair which resemble the last time my maths teacher tried to grow a beard, only in red. He doesn't speak but has a bell in his left foot, a squeak in his midriff, a rattle in his hand and falls over when he's surprised. For the sake of those unenlightened to the show I'll quickly run through the rest of the characters:

Upsy Daisy - The only proper female character. Upsy Daisy owns a bed that she's continually chasing around, and has a skirt that inflates on the pull of a rip-chord. Oh yeah, and her speech is limited to her name and "Daisy doo".

Makka Pakka - Basically the cleaner of the garden, he is on the round side, has three spikes on his head and walks around with a trolley with what appears to be a donut for a seat (but what my sister assures me is a sponge). He likes to collect rocks and he sleeps on a rock bed while cuddling a rock (so yeah, he likes rocks).

Tombliboos - Three characters plagiarised from another British kids' show, the Teletubbies. They're almost exactly the same except with stripes and are, I'm pretty sure, two guys and a girl all sleeping in one bed (nothing weird about that!?).

Pontipines and Wottingers - Two families of tiny people who live next door to each other - one red, one blue - who like to go on adventures. I noticed the Pontipines get a lot more airtime than the Wottingers. Interesting...

Ninky Nonk and Pinky Ponk - These are the modes of transport for those in the night garden, which are a train and a zeppelin respectively. They are oddly shaped and are used very little. So a stupid waste of government funds then.

Titifers - The birds of the night garden, they are particularly colourful and weirdly tropical for the English-set woodland surroundings. But hey-ho.

Haahoos - Quite possibly the weirdest things in the garden, they're massive random shapes of bright colours that kind of appear out of nowhere at random points (Riiiight...).

As you may have realised by now, this whole show was clearly thought up when the producers were on a massive acid trip, and not just that, but I imagine it would be the best show to watch were you on one (it's trippy enough without the drugs, so maybe with them it would appear normal?). However, are the creators critiquing something far more sinister? Mr Piggle is clearly a drugged up teenager constantly surprised by the slightest thing and incapable of speech except for weird noises, with heavy reliance on a blanket and no real direction in life. Miss Daisy is obviously his drugged up friend, quite clearly wants to get in her friend's pants (slut) and so has joined in on the whole drug thing in an effort to do so. Makka Pakka seems to be the dealer, with a good business head on him and with a weird thing for "rocks". Meanwhile all the other characters appear to be results of the trip (massive colourful shapes popping out of nowhere and weird birds remind anyone of anything?).

All in all I could be over thinking it and it's probably just a harmless kids' programme, but there's always that nagging doubt that the producers could just be trying to get them while they're young...

Added: 1046 days ago by Arners | Posted in: World | 13 Comments

Rating: