The Teletubbies

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Say no to drugs.
"Have you seen these things? This planet's amazing. Television in their stomachs. Now that is evolution."
—The Master, Doctor Who

These four freaky alien-looking children live in an astroturf paradise, guarded by shower-head looking tannoy systems which rise from the ground, are surrounded by rabbits, and live with a sentient vacuum cleaner. Their only sustenance is toast and pink custard, and they all speak in baby talk. They have televisions in their stomachs, which receive signals from real children via their windmill transmitter when one of them picks up a broadcast via the antennae on their heads. And the sun is a baby's head.

Teletubbies originated on The BBC in 1997, but quickly became popular in the United States after being shown on PBS. The show ended in 2001 with 365 episodes.

Tropes used in The Teletubbies include:
  • Arcadia
  • Aerith and Bob: Laa-Laa's name is patterned after Nala from The Lion King.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Tinky Winky. (At least according to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.)
  • Baby Talk: The teletubbies.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The ending does this throughout the part where the teletubbies have to say "Bye-Bye" to the viewers.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Po occasionally speaks Chinese. (To be specific, the Cantonese dialect of Chinese.)
  • Catch Phrase: A lot.
    • The teletubbies say their own name.
    • "Over the hills and far away, Teletubbies come to play." for the additional voice. (The narrator in the US.)
    • "Eh-oh!": The teletubbies when encountering.
    • "Uh oh!": The teletubbies when having an accident and looking at the Magic Windmill when it's time for the TV Event or the Magical Event. (In the original sketch of The Lion and the Bear, the teletubbies say it when the music tone gets creepy all of a sudden.)
    • "Naughty Noo-Noo!": The teletubbies when say see Noo-Noo doing naughty things.
    • "Time for Teletubbies.": The Voice Trumpets in the intro.
    • "Time for Tubby Bye-bye!": The Voice Trumpet in the ending.
    • "Bye-Bye": The teletubbies when leaving, especially in the ending along with the narrator
  • Crossover: The Teletubbies may appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 2.
  • Death Fic: Elementary-school kids love to kill these things off.
  • The Face of the Sun
  • Five-Man Band
  • Free-Range Children: They're supposed to be babies (just like the Target Demographic), yet they live on their own with no parental care or supervision. May be justified, as they seem to be some kind of aliens; whatever species they are apparently has very precocious offspring (and a lot of help from technology), and therefore little to no need for parental involvement.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: Variant. Only 365 episodes were made with no defined Pilot and Grand Finale; this means that either children will outgrow the show before they notice reruns between 1997 and 2001, or because the vignettes made kids shit themselves. Especially the Bear and the Lion. (Though merchandise is still around.)
  • Gag Dub: The Bear and the Lion - the Slovak Lion is a chatterbox, the Finnish Lion is a crazy lunatic, the Finnish bear is Caribbean, the Flemish Bear is a nerd, the Flemish Lion has a sore throat, and the Polish bear is an old woman.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: In Spain, Tinky Winky is SpongeBob, Dipsy is Bart Simpson, while Laa-Laa and Po are Wanda and Timmy, respectively.
  • The Hyena: Everyone, even the Narrator and The Face of the Sun.
  • Iconic Item: Tinky Winky has a red purse, Dipsy has a cow-print hat, Laa-Laa has a big orange ball, and Po has a pink and blue scooter.
  • The Kiddie Ride: There's one fashioned after the Tubbytronic Superdome, and another after Noo-Noo.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Po and Tinky Winky
  • Meaningful Name: They all have TVs on their stomachs, hence the "tele". As for "tubbies", well they are pretty fat (and the stomach thing again).
  • Narrator: Very important, since the Teletubbies themselves can't talk comprehensibly.
  • Never Mess with Granny: The Bear in the Polish dub and the Funny Lady.
  • No Fourth Wall: The Teletubbies often times greet the audience and interact with the narrator, sometimes refusing to do what the Narrator tells them to do. During one episode, the narrator said, "One day, in Teletubby Land, La-La uses the watering can." La-La giggled, and then said the exact same thing, including the "One day" part.
  • Parrot Exposition: This is all the Teletubbies are capable of in terms of exposition.
  • Roger Rabbit Effect: The Magical Events Animal Parade, The Tap Dancing Bear, The Magic Tree and Little Bo Peep.
    • The Little Lamb and his friend count as well.
  • She's a Man In Japan: Thought the Bear was a male? Well, in the Italian, Slovak, Swedish, Chinese and Korean dubs, she is.
  • Shout-Out: On the Teletubbies television transmissions, there are TVs inside the kids' houses that show other TV shows, films, and even CARTOONS.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: There's so much to list.
  • Sugar Bowl
  • Title Theme Tune/Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: Honestly, what else can they sing?
  • Token Minority: Word of God is that Dipsy is African American and Po is Chinese.
    • It was a stunt actor allusion as well: Dipsy and Po's actors are African American and Chinese in Real Life as well.
  • The Unintelligible: All four of them.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Their target demographic: children 1 to 3, looking for surrealism.
    • The same company went on to make Boohbah (2003) and In the Night Garden... (2007-). If you think Teletubbies was made on drugs...!

Time for Tubby Bye-bye

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