Turn On, Tune In LazyTown, Drop Out

Posted by Martin R on August 11, 2007
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My kids have taken to watching LazyTown, this really druggy and garish kids’ show on Playhouse Disney. It’s got a lot of caricatured puppets of children with the hands of real people, but also three live actors, the main character played by a little girl in a pink wig. The live actors, particularly the tall fey lantern-jawed villain, ham up their performances mercilessly. Their interactions with the vacant-eyed puppets lend an extra dimension of unreality to the show, and when you add the fact that it’s all been dubbed into Swedish so the lip movements don’t synch, you’ve got a product way off the scale on the weirdometer. Bad trip. Baaad trip. Yet LazyTown’s intended message is about the virtues of sports and exercise!? It’ll have a whole generation huffing paint stripper, mark my words.

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Comments

  1. #1 Amenhotep
    August 11, 2007

    Ha! You think that’s bad? My wife complains that I’m not as fit as Sportacus – not by a long way. I’m making an effort – I’ve promised to grow the moustache…

  2. #2 Kevin Z
    August 11, 2007

    Yes, my almost 2-yr old sometimes likes to watch it too. I do like it (in english, det ska vara jätte roligt på svenska) only because it teaches fitness and teamwork. I do not like the villian and the puppets though. I find them exceedingly annoying.

    You forgot to mention the dance+techno+europop songs!

  3. #3 Martin R
    August 12, 2007

    Kevin, my good man, there are certain things that are not mentioned in polite company. It is simply not done, if you follow.

  4. #4 Felicia Gilljam
    August 13, 2007

    I’ve watched LazyTown without sound, last summer when I went to the US they showed a couple of episodes on the flights back and forth. Without sound, you have absolutely no idea what’s going on, and that actually makes it even more trippy, if such a thing is possible…

  5. #5 Jon H
    August 13, 2007

    Of course it’s trippy, it’s from Iceland!

  6. #6 Kevin Z
    August 14, 2007

    And starring Iceland’s gymnastics champion too.