Excited Kids' Show Host: Difference between revisions

There seems to be an unwritten rule that all kids show hosts, except for [[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood|Mr. Rogers]] who is an archetype unto himself, must act excitable and zany, if not downright bonkers. Kids do seem to genuinely enjoy this sort of thing, but it can seem irritating to many adults. There actually seem to be different approaches to this:

 

 

For his disturbing jerk of a cousin, see [[Depraved Kids' Show Host]].

{{examples}}

* ''Mr Maker'' and most other Cbeebies Hosts.

* ''[[Blue's Clues|Blues Clues]]'', although Steve doesn't actually come across as condescending - more like he's phenomenally slow and really needs the kids' help.

* The [[Imagination Movers]].

 

* ''[[Bill Nye the Science Guy]]'' Although it should be noted that he is a favorite of science class students all the way to at least high school AP classes, and probably in college as well. He probably falls between Type 1 and Type 2 actually.

** Bill Nye is excellent at taking complex scientific concepts, and making it so a 10-year-old can understand them. It comes with the territory.

* [[Ant and Dec]] on SM:TV.

 

* Current day Bill Nye, now a regular on the Discovery Channel.

* ''[[Newsround]]'' "Text in and tell us whether you think David Cameron should be prime minister!" has type 3s.

* Linda Ellerby of [[Nick News]]

 

* Highlighted in [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s movie ''[[UHF]]'' when they hired crazyman Michael Richards to host the kids show... and the ratings immediately exploded.

** As well as when Weird Al attempts to be a Type 2 earlier in the film, and fails miserably.

* ''[[Death to Smoochy]]''.

 

* Mike Nelson parodies this in one of the skits of the ''Parts: The [[Clonus]] Horror'' episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.

** The presenter(s) of [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] come across as presenting a kids show for adults/stoners. Clean living and polite human host? Check. Puppet supporting cast? Check. Bits and pieces between the film/actual content? Check. Mild villains? Check.

* ''[[Dead Ringers (TV series)|Dead Ringers]]'' parodies this in one early episode where they replace ''[[Dick and Dom in da Bungalow]]'' with (art critic and well known snob) ''Brian Sewell in the Stately Home'' and he retains some of the Zaniness but with fine art references and caviar. "Brian Sewell" used caviar in the same way Dick and Dom used [[Covered in Gunge|Creamy Muck Muck]] although he used only finest silver teaspoons to fling it at people.

 

* Parodied mercilessly in ''[[Garfield]]'' with Binky the Clown. Unlike Krusty, Binky seemed to simply, like most things in Garfield's world, genuinely ''enjoy'' being annoying and grating to anyone - especially Garfield, when the two of them had reason to interact.

** The Buddy Bears - not only being a vicious [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]] spoof tends to talk down to other characters like a Type 1 host.

 

* One of [[Andy Kaufman]]'s stage personas was Type 1, in which he treated his adult audience as if they were children ("offstage", he was revealed to [[Hate the Job Love The Limelight]]). Andy hosted a children's show in Boston while he was in college, so he had that experience to build upon.

* "The Uncle Freddie Show", on Bob Newhart's ''Behind the Button-Down Mind'' album.

* [[George Carlin]] and Jack Burns parodied '60s style kiddie shows (which were mostly Type 1) with the "hip" kiddie show, Cap'n Jack and Jolly George.

 

* Hilariously parodied in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHNrQDmP2_Y#movie_player this] "educational" Barats and Bereta video.

{{quote|''"Let's barrage ourselves with colors until someone passes out!"''}}

* Uncle Jay of the aptly-named political podcast [[Uncle Jay Explains The News]] appears to've based his entire shtick off of 90s children's [[Edutainment]] shows while aiming the podcast at teenagers. While he usually acts like a Type Two, the teasing consists mainly of teenager-aimed jabs that would likely fly over the heads of children.

 

* This was the exact reason they promoted Bart to co-anchor of "[[Xtreme Kool Letterz|Kidz Newz]]" to Lisa's chagrin on that episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]''—he had "zazz" (exact wording, too).

** Likewise Krusty the Clown is one of these in his TV persona but his real personality is that of a drinking, gambling, money grubber who seems to actually find most kids annoying.

** Let's not forget that he [[Determinator|remained upbeat]] WHILE BEING REPEATEDLY ANVIL'D. It got to the point in that episode where the Warners themselves got incredibly creeped out.

 

* Mr. Rogers from ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]''. Of course, he was going for "kindly guy on the block who reminds me of my uncle" rather than "cool random person who reminds me of my older cousin."

* Raven from ''[[Raven]]'' wouldn't be described as zany...overly intense perhaps, but not zany.