The Teletubbies/YMMV


 * Darker and Edgier: The Lion and the Bear. It is the only thing in the show to have the music sound ominous and to have a scary scene. Particularly, the Scary Lion says the lines "I am the Scary Lion with Big Scary Teeth!", "I'm Scary on the top and I'm scary underneath!" (followed by a chuckle) and "I am the Scary Lion, as a matter of fact, I'm scary around the front and I'm scary around the back! (followed by a laugh and a growl as he wags his tail). It's implied that he's looking for The Bear for some scary reason. The bear pops out doing her joke, as The Scary Lion found The Bear and then he starts to chase her. The thing that The Scary Lion is chasing The Bear is that he is going to kill her! Very dark for a Magical Event.
 * Nightmare Fuel: And the winner is....... THE BEAR AND LION. The original version, from Penelope Keith and Eric Sykes has paranoia-inducing dialogue (although the bear drops it once she comes on screen, the lion maintains its sinister speech when on screen), an agressive delivery from Keith and Sykes, unnatural and scary-looking characters, a chase with very Unfortunate Implications, and had creepy background music. It was so scary that Ragdoll was forced to redub the segment with more cheery music and drop the sinister speech when the segment was finally cleared for a DVD re-release, which is just two friends mucking around.
 * Just think about where they live--or more importantly how they live. They have a schedule set out for them every day from when they wake up, to when they go to sleep. The sun is has the face of a baby overlooking them, watching everything they do. There's microphones popping up out of the ground giving "orders" every now and then, from giving them instructions on how to wash themselves, to saying good-bye at the end of the day, which implies they can't take care of themselves without being told what to do. Everything is set up for them, and it's all done in a perfect organized manner in a controlled environment. Try watching an episode with this knowledge, and see if your childhood doesn't feel a little bit violated.
 * With respect to the Bear and the Lion, the overlay from Animal Parade and Three Ships, the weird CGI from Dancing Bear, the senile old woman from Tea Party, the soap commercial dropouts from The Magic Tree and The Puppet In The House and the dolls from Little Bo Beep all attracted their fair share of controversy too.
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Some critics believe that the show tries to normalize tropes and icons associated with homosexuality, since the largest Teletubby is purple, carries a handbag and has a triangle on his head.
 * This toy doesn't help matters. It's a bicycle noise, I swear!
 * There's also a theory floating around that the antennae(?) of the Teletubbies carry occultic symbols...meant to somehow corrupt the Target Demographic (babies and toddlers) away from Christianty and towards "Satanic" (read: non-Christian) beliefs. (Most likely, those who sincerely believe that have never seen Teletubbies; religion isn't even dealt with, and the antennae shapes were most likely chosen because they're interesting from a design point of view. And even in the unlikely case that they are symbols of something-or-other, babies and toddlers (yes, even Christian ones) cannot grasp symbolic thinking just yet).
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Noo-noo, the vacuum cleaner.
 * Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Since there is hardly any plot or characterization, it's rather easy for viewers to just make stuff up.
 * Everyone Is Satan in Hell: Especially the Mondegreen-spewing Po doll.
 * Mondegreen: Because Po's The Unintelligible, the above periphery demographic as well as clueless parents thought the dolls say fucked it (correctly fi-dit, literally meaning faster) and momma man (correctly ma ma man, literally meaning whee whee whee!)!
 * actually, man meands "slow down" in Cantonese. Also, others have reported accidentally hearing the early talking toys say faggot (again, fi-dit) or worse, bite my butt (correctly yap-yee-sahm, literally one-two-three). If you're confused, this is Cantonese, the same language Lisa Silverman speaks.
 * And Tinky-Winky saying "Again again!", sounding like "I got a gun!"
 * Periphery Demographic: The show is very popular among the "Rave" culture crowd.
 * And for those who were kids in 1997, this show is the definition of "Nostalgia".
 * The Problem with Licensed Games: Play With The Teletubbies sucks. Honestly, what else could go wrong?
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: Expected from their diet of custard and toast.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: Po is often mistaken for a boy.
 * So is Laa-laa.
 * Of course, the winner is... THE BEAR!! The Bear is a woman (Penelope Keith), but in some languages, to save confusion, She's a Man In Japan.
 * What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Taken TO THE EXTREME, because it's for kids 1 to 3.