We're a Yo Gabba Gabba! Household Now
I've only ever heard good things about the Nick Jr. children’s television program Yo Gabba Gabba! During its heyday, the buzz for Yo Gabba Gabba was deafening. It was heralded as the hip show for the five and under set, a music-filled, surrealistic wonderland of magic, friendship and imagination.
The show’s hipster credentials are impeccable. Mark Mothersbaugh, the geek god behind Devo and, to a lesser extent, Devo 2.0 popped up regularly to show children how to draw simple pictures that would then come alive through the magic of animation. Biz Markie was another regular: his “Biz's Beat of the Day" taught children the basics of beat-boxing.
Yes, I heard nothing but good things about Yo Gabba Gabba! But I did not watch it because I did not have children. What kind of an emotionally stunted adult watches television programs designed for small children?
It turns out that I am exactly the kind of emotionally stunted adult who watches television shows designed for children. I enjoy television shows created for babies and toddlers and small children more than I do most shows for adults. Heck, I enjoy television shows created for babies and toddlers and small children considerably more than the sixteen month old toddler and five year old small child I watch them with.
This is true of Sesame Street. It’s true of the 1980s incarnation of Muppet Babies and it is true of Yo Gabba Gabba! as well.
Some people love true crime. Other curious souls love reality shows about horrible people being horrible to one another for fun and profit. Other folks dig doctor shows or procedurals or mini-series about cult leaders and con artists. My television genre of choice appears to be brightly colored, music-filled shows where friendly monsters and exceedingly agreeable anthropomorphic talking animals learn important lessons about basic decency and how the world works.
So Yo Gabba Gabba! is extremely my shit. When I was younger I prized edge and darkness and subversion in entertainment. I gravitated towards movies and books and television shows that antagonized as well as entertained audiences.
Now that I am a grown-ass adult with the mind and maturity of a child I like shows that are nice. I like shows where everyone is friendly and life is kind and cuteness abounds. What kind of incredible darkness have I experienced in my own life to make me pine so desperately for the dewy childhood innocence of Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba? Brother, you do not want to know, but if you do there are several books that can fill you in, specifically my memoirs The Big Rewind and You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me.
Yo Gabba Gabba! may be hip but one of the many things I love about it is that it is entirely devoid of irony. Host DJ Lance Rock is not an ironic, tongue-in-cheek version of a sunny, charismatic kid’s show host: he's the real thing.
Like Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba! is a masterpiece of bold, unabashed sincerity, a heartwarmingly earnest tribute to friendship, kindness and being a good person filled with lovable characters, breathtaking production design, clever and sometimes lyrical animation and songs so sadistically, infernally catchy that you find yourself singing them whether you like them or not.
Yes, it’s awesome that Yo Gabba Gabba! Is the kind of children’s show where The Flaming Lips are a fairly typical musical guest and when Jack Black guest-stars his appearance is a clever meta riff on the obscure cult pilot Heat Vision & Jack but these adult, hipster flourishes are the maraschino cherry placed gingerly atop a triple scoop sundae of awesomeness, not the show’s raison d’être.
Sometimes we’ll be watching the Yo Gabba Gabba! live show on YouTube, which is, perplexingly, the only place you seem to be able to watch Yo Gabba Gabba! legally these days and my five year old son Declan will ask if we can go see Yo Gabba Gabba! when they come to our home town of Atlanta. I tell him that if that happens we’ll definitely go.
The last episode of Yo Gabba Gabba! Aired on January 10th, 2015, over four and a half years ago so the prospect of the gang touring any time soon, alas, is slim to none.
That said, if I could will a television reboot into happening through sheer force of will Yo Gabba Gabba! would be my pick, although the fact that Yo Gabba Gabba! only produced 66 episodes in the eight year span between its debut in 2007 and its finale in 2015 speaks to just how much work and care and effort went into every element of the show.
I would love to figure out what happened with Yo Gabba Gabba! so, if by some strange chance you happen to be one of its creators and want me to write a book this fascinating and essential pop culture treasure I would be overjoyed to do so.
Curiosity and enthusiasm are the engines that drive my career, along with soul-consuming anxiety and desperation, and I could not be more curious or excited about Yo Gabba Gabba! even if I’m several decades older than the age of its target demographic.
If a reboot does not happen I am not above pulling a Brigsby Bear and making new episodes of it myself out of a poignantly child-like inability to say goodbye to something that makes me happy and gives me pleasure, and I think we can all agree that would be creepy as fuck.
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And of course y’all can still pre-order my book about the complete discography of Yo Gabba Gabba! Guest star “Weird Al” Yankovic over at https://make-the-weird-accordion-to-al-book-a-ridiculous-r.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders#