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[vivaspitfire]

I have a poet's soul and a swiss cheese brain.

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Heinz Doofenshmirtz🤝 Wade Wilson:

annoying someone by telling them their real name is Francis

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i suffer from 'men are hotter banged up' disease. unfortunately there is no cure.

Bloody and bruised >

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It's still kinda wild how Phineas and Ferb managed to completely hijack an idiom. Now whenever someone hears a sentence leading with "If I had a nickel for everytime [...]", odds are their brain auto fills with "I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice," rather than "I'd be rich," or "I could [action that requires purchasing something requiring an obscene amount of money]". Y'know, what the idiom originally was

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This podcast is giving me LIFE

a serious podcast.

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Every day I feel more and more like this wet paper bag of a man

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I've come to realize I'm more married to this team than I ever was to three ex-wives

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i watch criminal minds for the plot.

the plot:

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when Frank is in charge of getting Matt's birthday cake

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LOOK AT MY BABY. 😭 SHE'S SO ADORABLE.

Mystery on Mistletoe Lane - November 9th on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

New to town, Heidi Wicks and her kids discover a Christmas mystery in their historic home. Local handyman and historian David helps along the way, finding his own surprising connection. Starring Erica Cerra and Victor Webster.

[vivaspitfire]

How is a show for babies and toddlers so popular with people that are much older?

Gonna take this question in good faith and answer in good faith.

My instinctual answer is because the show is made with the parents who are minding the children in mind.  A lot of children’s shows do exactly what’s on the tin and no more:  show children how to begin to integrate into a world that is much bigger than themselves.  Share, act kindly, think about what you want to say, be good, sometimes rules are there for a reason, etc, etc.  However, Bluey has stuff that’s just for the adults that goes a little beyond crude humor (which, this isn’t a dig.  It’s just that it’s been done so much that I think a lot of people either expect it as a given or are tired of it).

People will point to episodes like Sleepytime, and Cricket is becoming a fan favorite, but I personally enjoy Chest and Stickbird.  Those resonate with me.

For kids, Chest is about Bandit being silly when it comes to trying to teach Bluey how to play chess.  It ends in a victory for the kids because they do not want to play chess, and they end up playing on the floor with their newfound pieces who are “not dead” because they’re in charge of the rules now.

For adults, Chest is about Bandit trying to teach Bluey--and by extension, Bingo--a game that should help them grow more intelligent as they grow older.  This action, which is taken by many fathers (including my own when he taught me how to navigate a computer and how to begin looking into code when I was 11 or so back in 2006?) is called out and analyzed by his wife, Chili.  Chili goes into a monologue about why Bandit wants to teach the girls chess, how he’s doing it because he is actually a good father who wants his children to be able to take care of themselves once he can’t do it anymore, and about how it’s not necessary when Bluey and Bingo are 6 and 4 respectively.  “Work on their heads later.  For now, just hearts.”

Chest is a sneaky rule-bending fun time for the kids, and it’s a lesson in parenting for the adults.  There’s even something for young adults with the line “[I’m] a lousy chess player.” “And you turned out fine” between Chili and Bandit.  It’s a bit of a gentle reassurance that I think a lot of people need sometimes, and it made me feel a little better about myself.  It even helps me a little bit in my role as an instructor since I teach at a transitional part of my students’ lives and I have to remember that while the content I teach would be easy in isolation, I do have to also take care of what they consider important to them.  It’s important to me as a person given where I’m at in life.

Stickbird is different in that it gives the same lesson to children and adults alike because it’s timeless, and we adults tend to forget it as we grow up.

For kids, stickbird is a fun day at the beach where Bluey and Bingo learn to throw.  Chili, their mom, teaches them, and Bandit, their dad, is in a funk.  It’s not really important.  What’s important to kids is that Bingo, the youngest, wants to throw more sticks and so drags Bandit along with her.  Along the way, they find a Really Neat Stick and create a sand bird out of it.  Fun times!  Then they go get more sticks.  Then--uh oh!--some other kids at the beach take the stickbird’s head, which upsets Bingo.  Bingo spends some time upset and angry, which she states very firmly when Bluey succeeds in learning how to throw and is excited to show Bingo.  When Bluey learns that Bingo is upset--not really why, just that she is--she offers a trick shown to her by her friend.  Bluey, in true kid fashion, “gathers the upset and angry...from your neck...and your belly...and behind your ears” and then asks Bingo if she wants to keep it.  Bingo thinks about it, as all kids do, and says “no.”  There’s a funny back-and-forth about giving the angry and upset to either Bluey or Bandit, and neither of them want it, so Bingo asks what to do with it, and Bluey tells her to “throw it away...really far” using the lesson that Chili gave them both.  So, Bingo does, and she feels better, and there’s a hooray moment before the girls race each other on the beach, giggling.  And that’s where it ends for the kids.

For adults, our focus is immediately drawn by Bandit, the typically excitable and playful father who is in a serious funk.  Chili draws attention to it towards the beginning by saying “let it go, babe.  You’re missing it.”  Throughout the episode, while the kids are watching Bingo and her lack of emotional regulation, we’re watching Bandit and how he, an adult who has learned how to compartmentalize and regulate emotions, is dealing with his own upset.  He’s too quiet, and it’s honestly a bit unsettling if you know him as a character.  He stands off to the side and interacts a little bit while Bluey explains to Bingo how to deal with her “angry and upset,” and after the girls run off and the kids celebrate, the camera stays with Bandit.  He doesn’t say anything.  He just starts miming what his children just did, takes a deep breath, and throws the camera itself far into the ocean.  Before the perspective plops in the water (in a shot that is honestly gorgeous and made me beam with a joy only being thrown as a kid can elicit), we see a return of normal Bandit, loud and excitable and ready to play with his kids.

Stickbird is about handling life’s shit, and that’s a timeless lesson.  The lesson is outlined boldly for the kids, but there’s a reminder that we as adults sometimes need to throw the little problems away in order to live our best lives.

To me, it’s kind of like how Phineas and Ferb was jam-packed with so many good things despite each episode being 15 minutes.  PnF has 3 simultaneous storylines (the boys and their adventures, Candace and her adventures, and Perry and Doofenshmirtz), and Bluey has 2 (something kid-centric and something adult-centric) jam-packed into 7 minutes a pop.  Bluey also has a tendency of bringing back childlike wonder without being condescending or demeaning to the audience, which can be an unintended side effect for many children’s shows when they’re trying to explain big concepts to minds that want to absorb things but have a difficult time parsing fact from fiction.  (Seriously, it’s just a developmental stage that those shows are trying to cater to.)

So, yeah, I’m 27, childless, and enjoy Bluey.  There are so many teenagers who enjoy it as well.  And, of course, parents and their babies enjoy it, too.  Some like the healing aspect of it, some enjoy the silly games, and some just enjoy it for being what it is.  I can’t tell anyone to love it or anything.  All I can say is that it’s a good idea to give some of the episodes a chance and judge for yourself whether you, as a person, like it or not.  If you do, then welcome!  I hope you find an episode that you really, REALLY enjoy!  If you don’t, then I hope you enjoy the fandoms that you, as a person, enjoy while I do the same.

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me to my mutuals when i discover a new hyperfixation <3

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Me entering any museum: man I’m so excited to learn all the things

Also me: GIFT SHOP GIFT SHOP GIFT SHOP

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#3 seconds in and already a blind joke. I love this man

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doctor: you have twelve minutes to live

me: 

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