A New Docuseries Is Exploring The Dark Societal Impact Of “Barney & Friends”
1992 was a much simpler time: windbreakers with swishy pants, Crystal Pepsi, and relaxing with a thick slice of classy Viennetta while watching Beauty and the Beast on VHS on a Friday night–all enjoyed without the urge to turn it into a thirst trap somehow to post on Al Gore’s internet. It was also the year that the smash hit children’s show, Barney & Friends, came out, giving parents everywhere 28 solid minutes to silently cry in the pantry until the “I love youuuu, you love meeee” song gave them a definitive two-minute warning to pull their shit together and get back out there. Barney seemed educational and innocent enough, but a new Peacock documentary dramatically called I Love You, You Hate Me, examines how the thicc purple dinosaur ignited society’s now pervasive attitude of “loving to hate.”
Collider says that even though the creator of Barney aimed to impart “love, optimism, compassion, and other positive virtues” upon viewers, the show later became a study in success breeding fervent haters.
Barney the Dinosaur has enjoyed decades of popularity among little kids, who are the exact target market for the 1992 children’s television program, Barney & Friends. The educational values it imparts and the way the dancing and singing dinosaur stands for love, optimism, compassion, and other positive virtues have made the series a fan favorite.
Despite the fact that Barney the Dinosaur promotes love, the television series I Love You, You Hate Me will explore how humans may also love to hate.
The official synopsis reads: “I Love You, You Hate Me is a limited doc series chronicling the rise and fall of Barney the Dinosaur’s furious backlash — and what it says about the human need to hate. From Barney-bashing to frat parties to homicidal video games, something in American society broke into a million pieces, and it’s never been put together again… or is this just who we were all along?”
The director of the docuseries, Tommy Avallone, says that Barney came out when he was a kid and even he caught the bug to scream “WORLDSTAR” (even though it didn’t exist yet) and fight Barney back then. But now that he has kids of his own, he understands the pure intentions behind the show.
“Barney came out on television when I was just 10 years old, and I admittedly didn’t understand him. As a teenager, for one of my birthdays I asked my aunt to make me a Barney costume, so my friends and I could beat him up on camera,” Avallone said in a statement, adding: “Several years later, creating this docuseries, it feels good to be on the other side and no longer a Barney hater. Now having children of my own, I understand all the love that went into making the purple dinosaur.”
Barney had become such an inescapable part of life by 1997 that the wind even hated Barney’s toothy fuckface enough to beat his ass:
@shaneredhat #barney #balloon #fail #funny #HorrorTok #children #newyork #tragic #macys #thanksgiving #parade #vintage #history #destruction
Here’s the trailer for I Love You, You Hate Me:
Barney seemed pretty chill in my book but Baby Bop? Never trusted her. Perhaps Daniel Kaluuya’s live-action Barney film will delve into the dark side of hate and reveal that Barney detractors were just clairvoyants attempting to warn us that Barney & Friends cast member, a young Demi Lovato, would grow up to continue Barney’s hate-fuel legacy by shitting on sugar-free cookies and assaulting our ears with scream-belting.
Pic: YouTube