The Big Comfy Couch

Let me start by saying that I used to watch this show as a child, and recently stumbled across it on YouTube Kids while browsing through old shows with my husband & 6 year old. While I had a vague memory of any specific details, I remember being obsessed with the couch! The main character, Loonette would randomly pull oversize objects from inside the couch, items that couldn't possibly fit without "magic"! Sounds like a dream for the imaginative child, right? I hit play on the first episode that came up and was utterly floored by the content. The scene opened with Loonette and her puppet doll, Molly, under her blanket, making "funny noises". Hmmm. Loonette popped her head out and said (paraphrasing) "Oh Hi! We're playing under our blanket, making funny noises!" She covers her head again and continues making blowing noises with her tongue (fart sounds) and reappears to assure the audience that "it's OK, we're only making silly noises". Loonette then removes the blanket completely, showing Molly, bent over with her bum in the air. My husband and I looked at each other in horror, mouthing Loonette's last phrase to each other, while our son giggled at the fart noise. The scene continued with a word rhyming game where Molly had to guess a word that rhymed with Loonette's. Molly, who doesn't speak, expresses herself with thought bubbles containing pictures of what she is thinking. Molly rhymed the word "bum" with a thought picture of a cartoon baby in a diaper, bent over as she previously was, showing the top of the bum. Granted, adults see things differently than kids. My husband and I viewed this scene with the knowledge of bad things in the world...and maybe we are over thinking it. However, we immediately exited the show and went back to the YouTube search results only to see titles like, "Give a Pinch, Grow an Inch", "Bubble Bath For Molly" and "I Feel Good". After further research on my own, I found an array of sexual references in nearly every episode of the show, making it clear that this odd display was not an isolated creepy incident. Simply put, parents are responsible for teaching their child(ren) about appropriate and inappropriate contact with people. This keeps our children safe from possible predatory behavior of others. Simultaneously, we struggle to find tactful ways of explaining such uncomfortable things and this show almost "normalizes" behavior that parents would certainly not want directed at their child. Subliminal messages are very real in media and data shows that such messages can and will effect the way children approach certain situations and subsequently react to them there after. I strongly encourage parents to watch this program before allowing their kids to watch it.