Baby Daddy 46: Word Party

It never occurred to me, but I have endless fodder for my Baby Daddy series. Recently, my son has started watching Word Party on Netflix. For those that don't know, it is a show about four baby animals, and they learn and interact and the "big kids" (our son) helps them to learn and do shit.

Now I have learned several things about these shows. The first is that it is remarkably easy for us to regress to being kids. I mean, I am watching the show, and they have a section where the babies are learning about shapes. And they ask, "What is that shape?" and I find myself yelling at the screen "TRIANGLE! It's a motherfucking TRIANGLE!". As it they can hear me, and they will learn faster, because I decided to yell.

I have also learned how easy it is for those shows to get stuck in parents' heads. My wife started the kiddo on that show because she needed to get some work done, it was educational, and he started dancing along with the babies in the show. Here's the thing. This is an animated show, with animal babies, that have advanced choreography. As I am writing this, I can visualize their choreography and it is creeping me the fuck out. They cannot struggle that much to walk, and then suddenly bust out into a chorus line.

Also, the songs are painfully easy to get stuck in your head. "We're going to the potty. We listen to our body...." I heard that song exactly one time. Technically only 50% of that one time. And guess what? I still know to listen to my body and go to the potty. There's another song that goes,

"Please, please, please,

 Please, please, please,

 Please, please, please,

 Won't you please say,

 Yes, Yes, Yes."

I have a terrible combination of rhyming skill and maturity. I keep expecting them to say, "Please, please, please, Won't you get on your knees, knees, knees." Now when I first heard the song, an dmy head automatically made the substitution, I thought, "Damn, that's vulgar." Then I started thinking of Thanos, from Avengers: Infinity War, and thought, "Maybe they are teaching global domination?" As it turns out, no. They are asking to go outside. And the "big kids" always fucking say yes. "Oh, you want to go play in a tornado? Sure, go for it. Have fun!"

(nobody in their right fucking mind would say, "Oh, it's bedtime and you want to stay up? Sure!")

The final part of the show that I am having issues with is the characters, themselves. There is a kangaroo that is clearly the charismatic leader. They have an elephant that is a big ol' baby and afraid of everything. They have a cheetah, who I think will eventually grow up to sleep with the kangaroo. And they have fucking Lulu - a bitch panda. And for everyone who's thinking, "wow, 'bitch' is a strong word", no! You are wrong! It is accurate! My wife was even the one to mention it!

Why do we hate Lulu? Because she is selfish and needy. She wants to play on the train, while others are napping? She wakes them all up. She wants a toy? She cries until they give her a toy. The elephant lost his apple, and Lulu kept trying to help him find it. Lulu didn't even know what an apple looks like! How the shit do you search for something, when you don't know what the fuck it is?! As it turns out, she fucking stole the apple and gave it to her toy giraffe! Lulu "made friends" with a butterfly, and then freaked the fuck out when it flew away. The entire episode is about her getting binoculars and stalking this butterfly to find it.

I also am trying to figure out if Lulu is racist. She speaks in incomplete sentences, like you would expect from a younger baby. At the same time, the sentence structure is very similar to what I have experienced from ESL students - particularly those from Asia. That's right, I am trying to figure out if the baby panda is a very young baby, or a racist depiction of an Asian baby.

Circling back around, my comments about the Cheetah are well founded. She's the only predator in the show, and she reminds me of Daphne from Scooby Doo. If the kangaroo is Fred, then the cheetah and the kangaroo are going to have hybrid babies in 18 years.

Moral of the Story: Word Party is a great show for kids, and reveals a lot about the parents that watch it. Oh, and Lulu needs to stop being so goddamned selfish.