I Have Some Questions About the World of Teletubbies

January 4, 2022 5:45 PM

Where do they come from? Are they prisoners? Are we complicit in their captivity? Why do my children love them so? After Teletubbies debuted, some parents and the Reverend Jerry Falwell were briefly appalled (the latter was concerned that Tinky Winky, who speaks with a male-sounding voice and carries a large red handbag, might be gay). But the show’s primary demographic—young children, although the show also became a cult hit among stoners—was immediately hooked. The tubbies released a hit single in 1997 (“Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh!’”), signed merchandising deals with McDonald’s and Burger King, and made the BBC more money than any previous show in its history.)
posted by folklore724 (40 comments total)

I met this guy who worked in a store in a big mall that was a front for a local PBS station. They had loads of books, videos, games, and toys. They also had a TV playing Teletubbies. He told me how he came in one morning to open the store - turn on the lights, straighten out stuff, turn on the Teletubies, etc. He said that morning he suddenly came to, and then realized that 20 minutes had gone by and he had a whole bunch of stuff he still had to do. What had happened? He had started up the Teletubbies video and then totally spaced out with what was happening on the screen.
posted by njohnson23 at 6:21 PM on January 4, 2022 [10 favorites]

I worked on the Care Bears TV shows back in the late 80s/early 90s. None of us felt terribly proud to be creating toy commercials disguised as entertainment but to hear that a show was being engineered to allow people to park their infants in front of a screen seemed like a horrifying progression.
posted by brachiopod at 6:42 PM on January 4, 2022 [18 favorites]

I'm not proud but thanks to returning from parental leave as the pandemic ramped up, I absolutely can attest that if you desperately need your six-month-old to focus on something so you can get half an hour of work done, the teletubbies are basically the only game in town.
posted by potrzebie at 6:52 PM on January 4, 2022 [13 favorites]

And if you're having trouble remembering which Teletubby is which, Lee Mack has a method to help you.
posted by dannyboybell at 7:42 PM on January 4, 2022 [8 favorites]

The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from the Tubbytronic Superdome.
posted by Naberius at 7:46 PM on January 4, 2022 [9 favorites]

This piece starts with a comparison to The Prisoner, which ends on a reveal that the entire modern world is The Village and that we are all prisoners (SPOILERS) and I can't help but feel as I read on that Teletubbies is much the same. Who does control the voice trumpets? Why do I get up and work every day? Why am I so entranced by this screen?
posted by rodlymight at 7:57 PM on January 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

Me and the other stoners used to spitball scenarios involving a fifth teletubby with a human adult brain
posted by anazgnos at 10:20 PM on January 4, 2022

Naughty Noo-noo!

...although I wish they spelled it Nu-nu - one who hasn't seen the show might interpret Noo-noo as "no-no"
posted by Rash at 10:40 PM on January 4, 2022

It was weirdly popular with students when I was at uni. Fast forward twenty years and small child is watching intently, one of the little telly he gets to watch on a computer. One day he climbs into our bed and completely unprompted, throws his arms around us and cries 'Beeeg Ugggg' thereby melting our hearts and making me forever thankful to the Teletubbies. Best part of a decade later we still have frequent Big Hugs in the morning.
posted by bookbook at 11:43 PM on January 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

Metafilter: He suddenly came to, and then realized that 20 minutes had gone by and he had a whole bunch of stuff he still had to do.
posted by Beverley Westwood at 1:41 AM on January 5, 2022 [29 favorites]

My roommate of 20 years ago and I would catch this most mornings, and our idea was that the Teletubbies, in fear and trembling, performed arcane rituals to appease the wrath of the terrible Sun Emperor in his baby form before he grew enough to begin his journey across the sky towards old age and night.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:42 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

We watched the Teletubbies a bit with my son in the mid-naughts, but they occupy a soft spot in my heart for a different reason. In 1998, my wife and I moved back to New Jersey from Minnesota into my parents' house as my mother was dying of cancer, and let me tell you, the escape provided by 25 minutes of the Teletubbies after dealing with that and work and everything else was a welcome and necessary respite. We occasionally speculate until this day about various aspects of the Tubbyverse.
posted by mollweide at 3:43 AM on January 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

If you want an even more trippy experience, try Boobah. It was the Teletubbies creators' follow-up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:10 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

Back when the Teletubbies were first on television, and Icelander named Illugi Jökulsson made a radio program where he made the case that the Teletubbies were Eloi, being raised for sustenance by underground Morloks. I’ve never really been able to think of them in any other way since.
posted by Kattullus at 4:15 AM on January 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

I give myself and my 17 month old am illicit tv break every afternoon (the APA recommends no screens at all before 18 months, but at 3 pm we’re both getting a bit cranky and in need of a brain break). Coco melon and Barney, he stares at motionless with his mouth open as if transfixed.

Teletubbies, he points to things on the screen, says excitedly “That, that!” when something interesting happens, and dances when they dance. So Teletubbies it is for us, at least for now. We’re on the first season, which I last watched over 20 years ago with my now grown nephew; what is with this passage of time?
posted by acantha at 4:23 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I recently saw this chilling conspiracy theory about Teletubbies, it's got me thinking very differently about the show.
posted by MiraK at 4:25 AM on January 5, 2022 [11 favorites]

I worked on the Care Bears TV shows back in the late 80s/early 90s.

I watched that show glorified commercial all the time as a preschooler! Apart from having spent way more time than I probably should have imagining crossovers with The Real Ghostbusters and contemplating what would happen if the streams of a Care Bear Stare were crossed, I think I turned out okay.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:46 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

My dad was 6’3” tall, quietly nerdy, intensely private, and deplored violence of any sort despite a fascination with (or maybe because of) the WWII history that had loomed so large in his childhood. I inherited a stack of his colored, heavy-weight, pocket T-shirts after he died in 2018, at 82. As I was sadly gathering them up, my mom told me he’d referred to the purple one as his ‘Tinky Winky shirt.’ At the time I was surprised he’d even been aware of the Teletubbies, and even more surprised that he’d identified himself with any of them. On reflection it suggests a sort of defiant self-deprecation that totally fits.
posted by jon1270 at 6:01 AM on January 5, 2022 [10 favorites]

It just sets kids up for the Industrialist Nightmare that is Thomas the Tank Engine, (New Yorker), see also this piece (The Guardian) which has given my family a lot of language to use sarcastically. My kids loved it, and I sat through many horrific episodes, including all the ones where the rare female engines mess everything up with their stupidity. Fortunately they seem to have taken my commentary on board along with all the other stuff.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:43 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Not many people know this, but Teletubbues is actually the sequel to Videodrome.
Long live the new flesh!
posted by rodlymight at 6:51 AM on January 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Teletubbies Say "Eh-Oh!", as performed by Peter Stampfel and Gary Lucas. It explains everything
posted by scruss at 8:13 AM on January 5, 2022

Yet amongst all that onslaught of merchandising, I still found Playskool's Talking Po plush toy was really rather enlightened for its time (1998) for speaking Cantonese (played by Pui Fan Lee in the TV series).
posted by fairmettle at 8:43 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm looking forward to Teletubbies vs. Boobahas in the toddler cinematic universe series of films.
posted by eotvos at 8:47 AM on January 5, 2022

Damnit, that should have said "boohbahs," which is the correct, made-up word.

With less snark, I spent some time collaborating with an often-unhoused, shy, fat, gay teenager who was probably in middle or late elementary school when the teletubbies first aired. He had so much enthusiasm for Tinky Winky - including carrying around a stuffed doll on a chain at all times - that it was impossible not to be moved by the influence it had on him. Like Disney's the Little Mermaid, it really resonated with some people in a way that I don't entirely understand but is worth celebrating. I'm tempted to suggest Falwell deserves some credit for turning it into a popular symbol of resistance, despite his intentions.
posted by eotvos at 9:05 AM on January 5, 2022

Eh oh indeed.
posted by y2karl at 9:28 AM on January 5, 2022

@brachiopod - As someone who never bought any of the toys, but recognizes that my early childhood interest in the Care Bears was one of the formative signifiers of my transgender identity: thank you. <3

That said, it's truly bizarre doing soul-sucking work on something that people grow to love dearly. I've definitely been there. I hope you're in a better place now (as I am).
posted by neuracnu at 9:29 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

The Teletubbies had a dark side too.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:43 AM on January 5, 2022

Teletubbies BTS
posted by chavenet at 9:50 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Previously, from 9 months ago - The Teletubbies, set to "The Rite of Spring".
posted by Rash at 10:41 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

to hear that a show was being engineered to allow people to park their infants in front of a screen seemed like a horrifying progression

I don't have toddlers, but I do have two kittens who get completely wired for a few hours each evening (hobbies include chess sets, spice racks, USB cables, and toilet roll) and being able to keep them transfixed for an hour with YouTube videos of birds and squirrels is great, so I can see where they're coming from.
posted by kersplunk at 11:34 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Someone gag-gifted me a plastic Teletubbies rip-off doll with glowing red eyes named "Bubbly Chubblies." Which is probably one of the best things to say out loud, ever.
posted by user92371 at 12:05 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I used to watch this show, unironically, in grad school. I would rush home from class so I wouldn't miss it, in fact, and would, most days, eat my lunch in the company of my friends Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po. Completely bizarre and utterly fascinating television, even if you're not stoned.

I have a friend who, at the time, worked at Scholastic, which had some of the American licensing rights for the show, and she would feed my habit with occasional Teletubbies posters and promo materials.

This post takes me back - thank you.
posted by Dr. Wu at 12:32 PM on January 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Teletubbies are nothing compared to In The Night Garden. That’s the real trippy shit right there.

Sigh. The transitions from show to show as my daughter ages are sometimes surprisingly bittersweet. Peppa Pig grew on me, once I knew about the vampire thing, Caillou can die in a fire, and the dad in Bluey is a stone cold role model. I miss them all. Apart from Caillou.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 2:24 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Teletubbies Discourse was ubiquitous for a few years; I heard all sorts of takes about how they were creepy or corrupting the children or teaching incorrect greetings or whatever. Don't think I ever watched an episode since I lived on the moon, but what did go viral in my school was a flash game called "Teletubbies: Mercy Killing".
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 12:18 AM on January 6, 2022

TUBBY CUSTARD IS MADE OF TELETUBBIES
posted by rhizome at 3:14 AM on January 6, 2022

I worked on the Care Bears TV shows back in the late 80s/early 90s.

I don't want to derail... but I also really want to hear more about this!
posted by pelvicsorcery at 6:41 AM on January 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

Here to second the fact that Teletubbies is just a gateway drug for In the Night Garden. It's made by the same people, and feels like they read all the conspiracy articles and stoned student appreciations of the Teletubbies and decided to make a programme for very small children based entirely on those. My kids loved it much more than the Teletubbies, and so I saw a lot of episodes. It never broke out into the wider culture the way Teletubbies did, but there's so much more to get into within. Not least the suggestion that you are watching someone else's dream.
posted by YoungStencil at 8:03 AM on January 6, 2022

One of the searing memories I have of my oldest son is when he was 4. After his really bad - painful appendix burst, seizure, allergic reaction to a drug, emergency - surgery, where he had a nasal-gastro tube in, he wouldn't talk. At all. For 3 days. The child life team was getting involved.

And then at like 2 am he looked over at the TV we had on in the corner for a night light and saw the opening for In The Night Garden and said out loud "look at the beautiful flowers." So, for me that show is always like, a beacon of hope. Weirdly. Very very weirdly.
posted by warriorqueen at 10:19 AM on January 6, 2022 [6 favorites]

Don't think I ever watched an episode since I lived on the moon

Okay, I just watched an episode of In the Night Garden for the first time ever, so I want to make sure the part of this sentence I bolded really does read "since I lived on the moon" or whether I am under the influence of some video-transmitted hallucinogen I maybe hadn't heard of.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:17 PM on January 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

The metaphorical, culturally isolated moon.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 10:26 PM on January 6, 2022 [2 favorites]