It’s time once again for another installment of our Children’s Television Survival Guide. This time, we’re talking about an oldie but goodie: Zoboomafoo, which features everybody’s favorite children’s television siblings, the Kratt Brothers. And by everybody, I mean every straight woman and gay man in America.
Because, let’s face it, during their Zoboomafoo days, those Kratt Brothers were kinda sexy. Are they goofy? Sure, but it just makes them more endearing that they don’t take themselves too seriousy, doesn’t it? Plus they’re kind to animals, and then there are the episodes where they’re running through the African Savannah in their little shorts. Or when they fall into some mud and I like to imagine it’s chocolate that someone might lick off their face for them…oh wow, I’m sorry, Kratt Brothers, I totally just objectified you, that is wicked uncool of me. My bad, moving on…
Zoboomafoo himself is a hoot and a half–he’s a real lemur who turns into a puppet lemur when you feed him a snack. I feel like him and the Kratt Brothers are totally aware that this show is being seen by kids AND their parents, so when they talk, it’s not like watching Dora where everyone is just screaming at the kids in the room all the damn time. They use the proper names for animals and their anatomy and habitat and behavior. I just feel like I’m not being spoken down to all the time.
My favorite part of the show is when Zoboomofoo starts telling us a story from Zoboo Land. Which is a claymation world of bizarre looking creatures who do strange things. None of Zoboomafoo’s Zoboo Land stories make any sense, but I always have the feeling that if I could just get my hands on some acid, suddenly all the wonders of the Zoboo universe would become clear to me. Also then I might understand the weird claymation clock thing on the wall in Animal Junction.
Of course, the Kratt Brothers got too old to be rolling around in the chocolate, I mean, the mud with Zoboomafoo and a tiger cub and some turtles or whatever. So, now they have that cartoon show instead, so they can stay young and handsome forever. Which is OK and all, I mean, The Boy likes it and they have a hell of a game on the PBS Kids we site. But like most sequels, it just doesn’t live up to the original. I miss Zoboomafoo and his drug-induced Zoboo land.
Post Script: When researching this post, I discovered that someone has actually started a Zoboomofoo Wiki. No lie. God, I love the Internet!
I used to feel this way about Jeff Corwin when he was on the Disney Channel. My daughter loved his show, Going Wild, and I just thought he was hawt.
Zoboomafoo isn’t the original. The original aired on PBS, not PBS Kids Sprout, and it was called Kratt’s Kreatures. They were even younger and cuter, there was no ridiculous puppet, nor claymation Zaboo Land, only the real lemur. I loved it. Kratt’s Kreatures was my son’s, while Zoboomafoo was my daughter’s. This is the same for the original Shining Time Station on PBS, which later became Thomas the Tank Engine. How can you beat a kids’ show with George Carlin as a tiny, magic Mr. Conductor? Awesome.
Yes! Shining Time Station was the bomb! My brother (now 25) used to watch that show all the time when we were kids. That show was my introduction to George Carlin, and I’ve pretty much loved him ever since (even more so now that I’m an adult).
When I first saw this, I thought “there’s no way this can be a diss … I mean, the Kratt brothers. They’re awesome. And so … Knowledgable.” (Ahem)
I may or may not have said that I’d like to roll around in some mud with them. I might have turned that show on even when the kids weren’t watching.
I love Zoboomafoo. And, to this day, when my kids (now 14 and 12) see a lemur, they call it Zaboo. 馃檪
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