Depraved Kids' Show Host: Difference between revisions

This is especially popular in [[Real Life]] [[Urban Legends]], the insinuations of which can ruin someone's career. For some reason, people just can't believe that a right-thinking adult would want to spend his life teaching kids manners and helping them grow as people. Fred Rogers would respectfully disagree; this is generally ''not'' [[Truth in Television]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* This is the backstory for the modern incarnation of the ''[[Superman]]'' villain [[wikipedia:Prankster (DC Comics)#Modern Age version|The Prankster]].

* ''[[Sandman]]'': "Hey kids, Dino the Dinosaur is trying to tell me something. Gee, Dino! I didn't know it was Terry Pteranodon's birthday today. Should we bake him a cake? And you want to tell me something else, do you Dino? We're all going to die. Dino says we're all going to die. Dino told me. He says we should slash our wrists now, and remember to slash down the wrist, boys and girls, not across the wrist." PLEASE STAND BY, [[We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties]].

** Another ''[[Batman]]'' story featured a kids' show presenter who was trapped in Gotham during ''[[Batman: No Man's Land|No Man's Land]]''. Becoming slightly unhinged, he developed a version of his show that was tailored to suit the borderline-apocalyptic ruins of the city. Not only was it totally unsuitable for the supposed target audience, but he was [[I Reject Your Reality|broadcasting to a society that mostly didn't have electricity]].

* ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' did a typical kiddie show parody starring one Uncle Nutzy, physically based on rude stand-up comic Jack E. Leonard, running a show featuring mindlessly violent cartoons and boot-licking sponsor worship. At show's end he's on the phone with his wife, angrily admonishing her for letting their kids watch his show.

* ''[[Viz]]'' has the character of "Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly," a foul-mouthed alcoholic and perverted TV presenter who in several strips lands a job on kids' TV and inevitably reverts to type in front of the horrified audience.

* Clown from the ''[[Hellraiser]]'' comic series was originally a Saturday morning show host named Winky Dink who wound up becoming a Pseudo-Cenobite, charged with keeping the children who wind up in The Labyrinth occupied so they don't run amok, causing chaos. He does so through pretty disgusting ways (not entirely by choice though, since Leviathan punishes him if he does anything remotely pleasant). A later story reveals he'd been upgraded to a complete, overly-sadistic Cenobite at some point, having finally gotten his "routine" right.

 

* There is an excellent (if [[Nightmare Fuel|extremely]] [[Paranoia Fuel|scary]]) [http://de.jihad.net/lib/bull-dotb.txt fanfic] wherein Barney the dinosaur was some incarnation of a demonic being that reappeared every few centuries to wreak havoc. At the start of the fanfic, he held a special broadcast to persuade his young viewers to murder their parents and any other adults around, then inducted them into a cult. When any of them reached 13, he killed them (or worse). Gah.

** Flashbacks also show that he helped the Black Plague spread, and also saved Adolf Hitler during [[WW 1]] and set him on his path.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Death to Smoochy]]'' every host is deranged, and the whole industry is backed by the mob. When pushed, even Smoochy reveals some anger management issues.

* Floop from the first ''[[Spy Kids]]'' film was villainous, but really [[Harmless Villain|harmless]]. He's mostly a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] getting played by the [[Big Bad]], and turns on the [[Big Bad]] when asked nicely.

** Even before he turns, he clearly cares more about the quality of the show than about the plans of world domination. {{spoiler|When he turns a spy into one of the creatures on his show, the first thing he comments on is how the new "character" will be a holiday rush favorite.}}

* There were plans for a sequel for William Lustig's ''[[Maniac (film)|Maniac]]'', which was supposed to follow such a character but it was scrapped due to its main star's untimely death. It sounded like a remake of ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070572/ The Psychopath]''.

 

== Literature ==

* Somewhat meta example: Uncle Jingle, host of an insanely popular 'Net kids show in [[Tad Williams]]' [[Cyberpunk]] novel ''[[Otherland]]'', is more or less a nice fellow, if heavily [[Merchandise-Driven]]. (In fact, he's actually played by actors working in shifts, since the show is on 24/7.) However, the character itself was inspired by the [[Monster Clown]] figure Mr. Jingo who haunts the [[Big Bad]]'s nightmares.

* ''[[Shel Silverstein|Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book]]''

* In ''High Society'' by [[Ben Elton]], Tommy mentions that almost every children's TV presenter he has met was a heavy drug user, which he imagines is because it drives them insane to constantly have to act perky and cheerful for their audience.

 

* The demonic puppet hosts of "Smile Time" from ''[[Angel]]''.

* In the ''[[Frasier]]'' episode "Juvenilia", Frasier is railroaded into a harsh interrogation from the three hosts of "Teen Scene".

* ''[[Laugh In]]'' often featured the demented "Uncle Al, the Kiddie's Pal!" who was usually hungover and kept cracking bad double-entendre jokes and running around like a maniac.

* ''[[SCTV]]'' had ''Muley's Roundhouse'', featuring ol' Muley, who sulks and mopes throughout his program, in addition to critically ignoring the trains on his watch. This includes his criticism of the children's artwork sent to him: "These are the worst ones yet! You probably send the good ones to people you like!"

* ''[[Little Britain]]'' has the character of Des Kaye, the disgraced former host of a children's show called "Fun Bus." It's eventually revealed that he was fired because a child [[Eye Scream|lost an eye]] while appearing on his show, and the ''Little Britain'' live stage show hints that Des's "Hide the Sausage'' audience participation game might also have had something to do with it ...

* Back in [[The Eighties]], an episode of ''Les Dennis's Laughter Show'' featured Les parodying then-[[CBBC]] host Phillip Schofield. Dennis's version of Schofield gets steadily more drunk, attempts to murder [[Non-Human Sidekick]] Gordon T. Gopher, and eventually has a prostitute/groupie in the studio who he tries to pass off as "Gordon's mum"! Bizarrely, Schofield himself, long after his CBBC career, was interviewed for [[Channel 4]]'s ''Zippy & George's Puppet Legends'', where he claimed that ''Gordon'' had a drink problem.

 

== Radio ==

{{quote|"HELLO CHILDREN, EVERYVHERE! Und today, der first record ist der request from Norman und Edith Carruthers, for their little son Villie! Vally Vhyton, mit der disken kiddiewinks: DER RUNAWAY TRAIN! Unfortunately, ve haf some bad news for you! Der BBC Record Library cannot manage der aktual recording by Vally Vhyton! So! Inshtead, ve haf decided... TO INVADE POLAND!"}}

 

== Urban Legends ==

* Urban legends adore this. Quick, think of a kids' show host! Got one? At some point, you've probably heard the rumour that he's a convicted child molester who's on the show as part of his community service,<ref>Of course, no law enforcement agency in the world would let pedophiles work with children, let alone ''force'' them to, but this is the world of Urban Legends -- the more outrageous, the better.</ref> some sort of deranged murderer, or a drug addict. Some notable examples of this trope (courtesy of Snopes):

** [[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood|Fred Rogers]] was a [http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/mrrogers.asp heavily tattooed, cold-blooded sniper (or possibly a child molester)].

 

== Video Games ==

* Played for laughs in ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'' with the final Diez Gentleman. A rare female example.

* Captain Cutlass from ''[[Critical Depth]]'' was a nautically-themed kids-show host turned actual [[Pirate]].

* In ''[[Ace Attorney]]'', Matt Engarde is a children's show actor (specifically, the protagonist of in-universe [[Tokusatsu]] ''The Nickel Samurai'') who goes to great lengths to preserve his "fresh as a spring breeze" image. Of course, like every defendant he carries a tragic secret. {{spoiler|He's a [[Complete Monster|complete sociopath]] who drove his ex-girlfriend to suicide just to piss off his rival Juan Corrida, and later hired an assassin to murder Corrida while he videotaped it with a secret camera. And he was entirely willing to frame his agent, Adrian Andrews, to get away scot-free}}.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[The Simpsons (animation)|Krusty the Clown]]: When the cameras are rolling, he's the zany clown kids love! In his off hours, he's lewd, rude, addicted to pretty much everything, treats his biggest fan (Bart) like crap (despite the numerous things Bart did for Krusty—i.e., clear him of a robbery charge, reunite Krusty with his rabbi father, and save his show from cancellation with a celebrity-packed comeback special), and is more of a [[Jerkass]] than post-season 9 Homer Simpson.

** And ''still'' manages to be one of the good guys in comparison to his sidekick, Sideshow Bob, although he's [[Wicked Cultured]] and has a decent side.

 

== Real Life ==

* Now for the often-cited [[Real Life]] example: In 1991, Pee-Wee Herman's actor, Paul Reubens, was arrested for [[Caught with Your Pants Down|"lewd conduct"]] in a porn theatre, which effectively ruined his career as a kids' show host (although at that point ''[[Pee-wee's Playhouse]]'' had been over for more than a year). Later, in 2002, he was charged with possession of pornography (just regular pornography, not child pornography as is often reported), though the charges were later (more or less) dropped. This is slightly subverted in that the character of Pee-Wee Herman was created for an adult audience and co-opted for children's television.

* On at least one occasion, IIRC, the mascots at Disneyland have behaved badly.