Cable television is, all too often, the home of all things weird. Tv interruptions, unsettling live TV moments, and much more. You saw a lot of this especially if you grew up during the era of the 80’s to the early 2000’s.
There was a point in history in which TV channels didn’t have the resources to make visually appealing content, especially for lower-budget children’s TV. As things currently are it’s significantly easier to make actually nice looking things, and with the fall of cable television this has been somewhat sped up. We now have advanced CGI and better means of making things look like actually decent puppets.
However, for that small period of a few decades following the rise, and predating the fall, of cable TV children’s TV saw some really, really, weird shows that were at times hard to watch. Many people who grew up during that time now reflect on that weird era that blurred the lines between what was a normal kids’ show and what was downright creepy.
Here are six of modern history’s creepiest kids shows.
6: The Teletubbies
Most of us grew up watching the Teletubbies as one of our favorite shows as kids.
Something about the bright colors, funny baby-speech, and fun music must have really gotten our attention as children. Now however, something about it feels… off.
There’s just something uncanny about large-eyed, toothless baby people sitting in the middle of nowhere under a baby-face sun.
5: Boohbah
I remember watching this show when I was little, thinking it was hilarious. Fat, fuzzy blobs floating around in space and making funny noises? Sign me up!
That is until I grew older and realized just how unsettling the baby-headed, dopey-eyed, overweight cartoonish suits were, and it becomes much weirder when you realize there are grown adults wearing those suits…
4: Peppermint Park
What do you get when you cross old kids shows with creepy puppets? You get Peppermint Park, one of the weirdest shows I have ever seen. Every single puppet used on this show looks uncanny in every way imaginable. It’s as if the shows’ directors sat down and told their designer to do everything except make child-friendly puppets.
But seriously what the heck is even going on here?
3: Mr. Squiggle
It’s like they were trying to purposefully make children uncomfortable with the pencil-nosed, skinny-limbed puppet named Mr. Squiggle. His huge, moving eyelids mixed with the bizarre shapes that make up his body are like an unsettling kid’s drawing coming to life.
2: Ratafak Plachta From Slniecko
Ratafak was the host of Czech children’s show Slniecko, a show reminiscent of Sesame Street. But what the heck even is this thing?
It’s bulging, weird eyes combined with it’s deformed head and yellow buckteeth make it genuine nightmare fuel. The puppet sat at around 7 feet tall and had four legs, due to the 2 puppeteers under it’s red and blue blanket body.
Those human-like hands… that weirdly long neck… everything about this character screams “run.”
1: Noseybonk
Ratafak Plachta was horrifying enough, but it doesn’t even compare to this next one.
BBC’s Noseybonk was definitely designed by a psychopath. It’s like they were trying to horrify children with his huge, lifeless eyes and massive creepy smile. But the worst part is that horrifying, Squidward-level nose, obviously where he gets his name from. The character aired throughout the seventies and eighties and his main job was solving puzzles on the channel’s popular kids show, get this, called Jigsaw.
