The Teletubbies
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"Have you seen these things? This planet's amazing. Television in their stomachs. Now that is evolution."
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These four freaky alien-looking children live in an astroturf paradise, guarded by shower-head looking tannoy systems which rise from the ground, are surrounded by rabbits, and live with a sentient vacuum cleaner. Their only sustenance is toast and pink custard, and they all speak in baby talk. They have televisions in their stomachs, which receive signals from real children via their windmill transmitter when one of them picks up a broadcast via the antennae on their heads. And the sun is a baby's head.
Teletubbies originated on The BBC in 1997, but quickly became popular in the United States after being shown on PBS. The show ended in 2001 with 365 episodes.
The Teletubbies' provides examples of:
- Arcadia
- Aerith and Bob: Laa-laa's name is patterned after Nala from The Lion King.
- Ambiguously Gay: Tinky Winky.
- Bilingual Bonus: Po occasionally speaks Chinese. (To be specific, the Cantonese dialect of Chinese.)
- Catch Phrase: A lot.
- They say their own name.
- "Over the hills and far away, Teletubbies come to play."
- "Ehoh!"
- "Uhoh!"
- "Naughty Noo-noo!"
- "Time for Teletubbies." "Time for Tubby Bye-bye!"
- Crossover: The Teletubbies will or thus far may, appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2.
- Death Fic: Elementary-school kids love to kill these things off.
- The Face of the Sun
- Five-Man Band
- The Hero/The Big Guy - Tinky Winky
- The Lancer - Dipsy
- The Smart Girl - Po
- The Chick - Lala
- Team Pet - The vacuum cleaner
- Free-Range Children: They're supposed to be babies (just like the Target Demographic), yet they live on their own with no parental care or supervision. May be justified, as they seem to be some kind of aliens; whatever species they are apparently has very precocious offspring (and a lot of help from technology), and therefore little to no need for parental involvement.
- Fleeting Demographic Rule: Variant. Only 365 episodes were made with no defined Pilot and Grand Finale; this means that either children will outgrow the show before they notice reruns between 1997 and 2001, or because the vignettes made kids shit themselves. Especially the Bear and Lion. (Though merchandise is still around.)
- Gag Dub: The Bear and the Lion - the Slovak Lion is a chatterbox, the Finnish Lion is a crazy lunatic, the Finnish bear is Carribean, the Flemish Bear is a nerd, the Flemish Lion has a sore throat, and the Polish bear is an old woman.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: In Spain, Tinky Winky is SpongeBob, Dipsy is Bart Simpson, while Laa-Laa and Po are Wanda and Timmy, respectively.
- In England, the Lion is Uncle Dick.
- In Italy, Tinky Winky is Stewie and Dipsy is Owen.
- In Brazil, Laa-Laa is Frankie Foster.
- In Sweden, Tinky is Ash Ketchum, while Po is Sailor Moon.
- Japan is interesting: Tinky Winky is Roy Mustang, while Dipsy Mitsuaki Madono is Cosmo.
- The Hyena: Everyone, even the Narrator and The Face of the Sun.
- Iconic Item: Tinky-Winky has his infamous purse, Dipsy has a cow-print hat, Laa-Laa has a big orange ball, and Po has her scooter.
- The Kiddie Ride: There's one fashioned after the Tubbytronic Superdome, and another after Noo-Noo.
- Meaningful Name: They all have TVs on their stomachs, hence the "tele". As for "tubbies", well they are pretty fat (and the stomach thing again).
- Narrator: Very important, since the Teletubbies themselves can't talk comprehensibly.
- Never Mass With Granny: The Polish bear and the Funny Lady.
- No Fourth Wall: The Teletubbies often times greet the audience and interact with the narrator, sometimes refusing to do what the Narrator tells them to do. During one episode, the narrator said, "One day, in Teletubby Land, La-La uses the watering can." La-La giggled, and then said the exact same thing, including the "One day" part.
- Parrot Exposition: This is all the Teletubbies are capable of in terms of exposition.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: The Uncanny Valley Bear and Lion.
- She's a Man In Japan: Thought the Bear was a male? Well, in the Italian, Slovak, Swedish, Chinese and Korean dubs, she is.
- Shout-Out: On the Teletubbies television transmissions, there are TVs inside the kids' houses that show other TV shows, films, and even CARTOONS.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: There's so much to list.
- Sugar Bowl
- Title Theme Tune/Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: Honestly, what else can they sing?
- Token Minority: Word of God is that Dipsy is Black and Po is Chinese.
- It was a stunt actor allusion as well: Dipsy and Po's actors are Black and Chinese in Real Life as well.
- The Unintelligible: All four of them.
- ~What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made on Drugs?~: Their target demographic: children 1 to 3, looking for surrealism.
- The same company went on to make Boohbah (2003) and In the Night Garden... (2007-). If you think Teletubbies was made on drugs...!