Insanity Wrap: Barney the Dinosaur Is Getting Rebooted… With an Excruciating Twist
Barney the Dinosaur is coming back but, like a zombie, worse than before and with a hunger for brains. That’s the big crazy on today’s Insanity Wrap — an entire week’s worth of lefty nuttiness wrapped up in one easy-to-swallow medicated news capsule.
Barney the Dinosaur Gets Relaunch From Mattel
If you were a single twentysomething like me when Barney the Dinosaur launched in the ’90s, the very mention of his name was cringe-inducing.
And that song… that song. Even now, as a mellowed fiftysomething with kids… that song still brings the cringe.
But you know what? Barney wasn’t all that bad. Yes, the costumes were goofy and the acting and scripts were not exactly Oscar-worthy. In the end, though, there was a friendly guy in a child-friendly costume, giving out hugs and unconditional love.
Was Barney really so bad?
Sure, it was cringe to me at the time, but I wasn’t the target audience. Small kids who could happily suspend their disbelief over a guy in a goofy suit were the target audience. And even smaller kids, so innocent they didn’t yet have any disbelief to suspend. What an age to be, right?
Barney catered to those kids and catered to them so well that the show ran for 18 years — and endlessly in reruns and on home video.
Mattel is bringing him back next year as an animated character with “a range of consumer products aimed at the under-6 set.”
Out with the charmingly goofy guy wearing a purple dinosaur suit, in with the South Korean animation farm. Viewers will no longer be treated to real kids giving and getting hugs. Instead — and this is the kicker — Barney is getting “updated” to address modern issues.
Mattel Television’s Fred Soulie said, “In creating the new series, it was important to us that we properly reflect the world that kids today live in so that the series can deliver meaningful lessons about navigating it.”
I’ve been writing about woke stuff for years, and I know the code. Whenever you read language like “properly reflect the world that kids today live in,” what they really mean is this: “We’ll peddle the latest propaganda directly into your kids’ brains while you’re busy in the other room, trusting us not to do exactly what we’re doing.”
Brings an all-new meaning to the phrase “target audience,” doesn’t it?
Maybe I’m wrong about the new Barney. I hope I’m wrong.
But you know I’m right.
