For those who hate Caillou

[ErinExpat]

LOL

www.howtobeadad.com/2012/10864/caillou-french-shut link

[ErinExpat]

“Caillou” is French for SHUT UP

Posted by CHARLIE on May 31st, 2012, under NOTEBOOK

I am a lover of many genres and styles of cartoons. My love affair with them began immediately after my womb eviction and while perhaps not as diverse in selection as I’d liked them to be, the absorption of all those years of animated shows has made me into the man I am today.
And so, it is with a heavy heart and timid voice, that I must tell you…
OH, WHO AM I KIDDING?
I LOATHE CAILLOU.

Caillou seemed familiar to me. The Bay Harbor Butcher, perhaps?
For those who don’t have a permanent black mark on their souls from watching Caillou, it’s a cartoon show centered around an insipid four-year old Canadian kid with a sister named Rosie, two parents without any recognizable personality traits and a cat named Gilbert. No relation to “Gilbert” from Revenge of the Nerds or What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
We follow this pseudo-Charlie-Brown as he whines, kvetches, barks orders at people, hurts himself, throws tantrums, causes trouble and generally shares his self-centered, pathetic, purposeless outlook on life to thousands of kids all over the world.

But let’s take a step back and leave the central character alone for the moment.
What is with the permanent acid-trip vignettes? I’ve never watched Yo Gabba Gabba but I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the monsters from that show is dealing LSD to the creators of Caillou. Are we just permanently in a dream? Does the narrator have cataracts? Are we just seeing things this way because he’s passed on and this is a replay of his life?

Caillou is purported to mean “pebble” or “bald head” in French and they apparently made him that way because HE REPRESENTS ALL CHILDREN. Do you know tons of 4-year olds without hair? I find it to be the first thing people talk about. And it’s not that I find his appearance abhorrent, I know plenty of bald-headed kids that are just adorable as hell, but with his constant psycho-giggles and the petulant behavior, I can’t have Finn watch it. Honestly, I think this whine-monkey needs a to be taught that sulking his way through his pockmarked existence (I can hear him screeching now, “GILLLLLLLBBBBBBERRRRRTTT”) is unacceptable.

Full disclosure, we watched it with Finn in the early days, unaware to his “charms” but after a few episodes we got the picture pretty quickly. Avara and I decided we weren’t going to show it to him anymore and found other great educational programming to supplant Whineus McShutface. We told Finn that the TV was broken when he asked about him more recently, but his grandma decided to play a little bit of it for him over Memorial Day this past weekend. I was taking a shower. I came into the room and my eyes went wide. I somehow managed to use the jaws of life (AKA a train set that we’d set up in the garage) to pry him away.

Anyway, consider this a Public Service Announcement about Caillou’s bad influence. Don’t let your kids watch Caillou unless you want a whiney, entitled, clingy little person to lay waste to your household

[BaliHai]

Yes to all of this. I babysat my nephew for a year and a half, and he was obsessed with this wretched show. I am going to do my best to make sure DD never discovers it!

[badtzmaru22]

DD loves it. I don't think it's that bad yet, but it's easy for me to tune it out and finish making dinner or whatever.

I think the dad is stoned all the time. That's my only real observation.

[JLV]

I tried so, so hard to stop DS from watching this show. I hate that whiny brat. I never thought I could hate a cartoon so much.

My mom lets him watch him and he's hooked. He doesn't love it as much as he loves The Wiggles but he will watch it if it's on. I try to tell him Calliou is a bad role model but he doesn't understand haha.

[karmasabiotch]

My best day was when J decided Caillou was for babies and he wasn't going to watch it anymore. I know all the episodes word for word.

[8675309]

Thank God, I got my kids to stop watching this terrible show. I seriously could only watch it when my H was around. His commentary killed me. When the mom would walk in, he say things like "I bet she has a nice set of tits on her." Or for the dad "Dude's totally drunk, right?"

Good stuff.

[iamgrace]

::whispers::

I kind of like Caillou.

[livinitup]

We only let DD watch it in French. She moved on.

[thebreakfastclub]

I watched an episode this weekend. Caillou's friend fell on him while playing. He would not STFU about it and it was terrible.

I like Peppa Pig the best. I have watched it with no child present.

[Overthemoon]

There is a same-day relationship between my 3 y.o. Watching Caillou and how whiney she is. I don't let her watch it anymore because it's so annoying.

[cabbage10]

Another vote for Peppa pig here. However I did watch the Caillou Christmas special and it wasn't the worst thing I've watched.

[peachdragon]

Anna always asks to watch calliou. I always tell her he's sick right now, so we can't watch him.

[peachdragon]

Apr 21, 2014 19:19:58 GMT -5 thebreakfastclub said:

I watched an episode this weekend. Caillou's friend fell on him while playing. He would not STFU about it and it was terrible.

I like Peppa Pig the best. I have watched it with no child present.

I'll check this out. I'm getting really tired of Daniel Tiger. 

[eaky77]

I have my kid trained to bring me the remote when that little twit comes on. He shakes his head and says "noooooo momma!" Then I quickly change it to a dvr'ed episode of Sesame Street. I love me some Bert and Ernie.

[bugandbibs]

MH loves Caillou and always chooses it to put on first. Our kids love it too.

Thank God for GBCN.

[DotAndBuzz]

Apr 21, 2014 18:04:38 GMT -5 iamgrace said:

::whispers::

I kind of like Caillou.