10 unintentionally terrifying kids' TV shows
By TheFix|1:31am Oct 26, 2011
Apparently creating a kids' TV show is a lot harder than it seems — how else do you explain the number of characters who wind up traumatising generations of youngsters with their grotesque features and obscene behaviour?
Read on for some of the worst kids' TV characters who shouldn't have scared us — but did. (TVFIX accepts no responsibility for any permanent emotional scarring this slideshow may cause.)
Nightmare fuel
In the first episode of this '90s Australian TV series, a gang of little kids discovered a living rag doll in the trash and were strangely unbothered by its lack of face or speech. Named E.C. — which stood for Every Child — the doll went on to destroy the childrens' minds with godless visions of the terrifying wastes of the universe.
Lift Off
Every episode of this Australian series, which ran from the late '80s to the early '90s, was introduced by a blue face hanging horrifyingly in a void and uttering nightmare-inducing incantations. (Hey, maybe it was E.C.'s face? That'd explain a lot.)
Mulligrubs
The Teletubbies themselves are a pretty disturbing lot — all that baby-talk and furriness and doe-eyes that must be concealing murderous thoughts. The creepiest thing about this wildly popular series, though, was the baby's face in the sun that hung over the Teletubbies' suspiciously perfect paradise. There's something so wrong about that...
The Teletubbies had nothing on their infinitely more creepy cousins, the Boohbahs: basically fat hairy dollops who float and jitter around in space, their large black eyes swivelling unceasingly in their skulls. If H.P. Lovecraft had created a children's television series, it would be Boohbah.
Boohbah
Anyone whose best friends include a horse and an amorphous blob named "Goo" is someone you need to keep an eye on. But it was Gumby's trippy early adventures that were truly disturbing — back in the days when he had beady red pupils that stared at you through the screen.
Yo Gabba Gabba is a pretty, er, "trippy" show at the best of times — it's reportedly very popular among adult stoners. Among its line-up is "Gooble", an eternally weeping character who no one else likes very much. It's not hard to see why.
Yo Gabba Gabba!
This '70s/'80's TV series revolved around a super-ugly, weird-talking scarecrow who stalked... befriended children and could detach his own head at will. Seriously — why does anyone think this sort of thing is a good idea?
Worzel Gummidge
Oh, sure — the Wiggles might be worldwide favourites, but they revealed their terrifying puppet alter egos in a clip for their song 'Point Your Fingers' (which, if played backwards on the night of a full moon, will raise dark spirits from the dead) (Probably).
Another TV classic who is ghastly and wildly inappropriate for human beings of any age. That pencil nose! That Krusty-the-Klown hair! The wide, blinking eyes! The spindly neck and limbs! And don't even get us started on his sinister collection of comrades, who included a blackboard, a snail and a steam shovel.
Mr Squiggle
This Smiths Chips mascot didn't have his own TV show, but his gargoyle face and short, squat body nevertheless terrorised Australian televisions for years. His signature cry — a shrill "Chippee!" — can sometimes be heard echoing across dark, deserted moors in the dead of night...
The Goobledok