"I Hate You, You Hate Me": Children's Responses to Barney the Dinosaur
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Abstract
Since the spring of 1992, public television has given American viewers regular glimpses of a large purple dinosaur named Barney who teaches preschoolers how to brush their teeth, recognize colors, and make new friends. Although Barney seems at first glance to be thoroughly bland and harmless, he has become the focal point of a raging controversy between lovers and haters of his TV persona. Schoolchildren have given Barney a violent death in song parodies and mock-beatings; adolescents and adults have created their own song parodies, written humorous articles, and spread rumors about Barney's evil intentions on the Internet. While there is a strong thematic unity between children's and adults' attacks on Barney, I will not try to cover the whole range of expressive behavior here. Children's Barney songs and mock-beatings constitute an important body of folklore in themselves, reflecting a larger cultural phenomenon in which fear of coercion, rebellion against authority, and anger toward blandness are dominant issues.
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