I believe in teaching tolerance. We must all learn to live and let live.  We should embrace our differences whether they be religious, lifestyle, race, sexual orientation and so on. Being that I have most of that covered I have moved on to another group to try to tolerate. This “new” group has proven to be the biggest challenge in my mostly liberal, progressive life. Over the years I have grown as person, and a dad by building up a tolerance for (deep breath) children’s television characters.Â
I love Barney and Barney loves me. Blue has a clue. I am a closet Sesame Street/Sesame Workshop fiend (I guess I just came out of the closet). From Big Bird to Elmo those guys can do no wrong in my book. Bob the Builder has an enviable management style. Boobah, Teletubbies, and the Wiggles freak me out but I don’t hate them. And if I say anything bad about Thomas the Tank Engine I may have a runaway kid on my hands so I will stay zipped.  However there is one show that to me is simply unpalatable. It makes me long for seventh grade science where I had to purchase a disecting kit in order to expose the internal workings of a certain type of amphibian. I will throw myself down the stairs of the Empire State Building or leap from the torch of the Statue of Liberty before I sit through an entire episode of the most nausea inducing children’s show since the beginning of nausea inducing children’s shows. What show holds my ire like no other? Ribert & Robert’s Wonderworld.  This show has single-handedly set back my tolerance movement by decades. Â
If you have never seen the aforementioned abomination, consider yourself lucky.  When I hear my son stirring in his bedroom early in the morning I often crawl out of bed only to see a friggin’ grinning frog dancing across his TV screen while invisible children chant “Go Ribert, go Ribert.” Yes Ribert go. Please go! As for Robert, well, he makes me conjure images of Steven King’s It.  That guy must be the human form of something unworldly; something that has crossed over from another dimension to wreak havoc on the sanity of parents.  Pure dread creeps into my chest as I think about that show and of the fact that tomorrow morning is only hours away. Â
But my son loves it, and (gulp) I guess that’s all that matters. I’m in the process of building tolerance one therapeutic blog post at a time.Â
While tolerance is a wonderful thing I’m sorry but there’s an unspoken parenting law that forgives the forbidding of one completely overbearing character. For me its Barney, sorry can’t do it (ask my 4 year old and he’ll tell you we do NOT like Barney). For my sister it’s the Wiggles- they give her hives so her children have yet to see them and never will. Ive never heard of Ribert and Roger and you are definitely making me appreciate that because I might have to increase my allowance of one forbidden character.
for me, the unpardonable one is Caillou. Once I hear that sickly sweet grandma narrator or catch a glimpse of that idiot little bald boy, I have to run screaming from the house
I’m with Yolanda. Barney and all of those doggone sing-a-alongs used to get on my last nerve. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder if the show was meant for kids who were just a tad on the slow side. Maybe it was just me, but didn’t those children (the ones on the show) seem a bit too old to be hanging out with the likes of a purple dinosaur?
I find your comments for this show completly inapropriate and without an educated point. This is one of the few shows on TV that actually teach from the school ciriculum, as well as asks kids to think from the heart and make good moral decisions. If you even watched an entire episode I think you would be happy your child isn’t sitting there mesmorized by pointless shows that don’t care about it’s message.
If you actually knew the Human who plays Robert, you would be embarassed by your ignorant comments.
Teletubbies don’t freak you out? When’s the last time your child has learned anything from that show besides thinking the sun is a 3yr old baby.
I agree with you that Sesame street can do no wrong, but if you did your homework you would learn that the educational consultants from “Childrens Television Workshop” were also consulatnts on Ribert & Robert.
There’s a reason why the show won best Independant show ages 2-5 at this years Kids First Film festival in LA amongst over 571 titles.
You can have your child watch shows on Nick, and Disney Channel. The type of shows that are released as soon as possible because making money off of parents liek you are the first priority, where entertainment and product endorsement are in place for you to spend your money.
If you knew Ribert and Robert was actually made my a tiny independant animation studio with only intentions to help a child make the right decisions, without the budget or power of the big players you might even smile knowing the dancing frog was derived from someone with his heart in the right place.
Just insulting a show and it’s actors with no valid points puts creeps in MY chest.
You don’t have to watch the show, but consider the alternative, video games, cartoons with violence or no leraning tool whats so ever. Or perhaps you have a better idea for a show, I’d like to hear it sometime…