Sunday 2 November 2008

Just a Question

I have a question.
I was watching Barney and Friends with my kids the other day. No doubt you know of the show—it’s probably syndicated in, I don’t know, Iran, expedition scientists in Antarctica can probably get it on public TV channel 1—but if you’ve never watched it, the big purple dinodrone has little dino friends (much smaller dino friends—midgets?) who come over to play with the kids. And I was noticing, they all have attribute-specific names.
For example, there’s a little green dinosaur, and aside from her ear-splittingly squeaky voice and naff yellow security blanket, she also wears bright pink ballet shoes and has a tendency to break into spontaneous bouts of arrhythmic dancing. Her name is Baby Bop. Get it? And her cousin, Riff, an annoying orange fellow with a voice like sandpaper, is an apparent musical genius; he’s forever putting on impromptu concerts and writing gay songs and strumming solos on his neon plastic guitar.
I get why the creators of the show have done that. I even think it’s kind of cute, and I bet the children who watch the show think it’s thrillingly clever when they finally get it. But my question, and I think it’s a valid one, pertains to Baby Bop’s older brother. This little dinosaur doesn’t seem particularly keen on any one activity, isn’t really a singer or a dancer or an artist or anything, and has no obvious talents above and beyond being irritating.
His name is BJ.
I just have to wonder—what’s HIS special skill?

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