Anti-Barney humor facts for kids
Anti-Barney humor is a type of jokes and funny content that makes fun of Barney the Dinosaur, the main character from the children's TV show Barney & Friends. People often make fun of the show because they think it is too sweet, boring, or annoying.
Even though other popular kids' characters like Thomas the Tank Engine or Peppa Pig also get parodied by adults, the humor aimed at Barney is often much stronger and more critical. Only the character Caillou seems to get a similar amount of strong dislike from audiences.
Contents
Funny Examples of Anti-Barney Humor
Sports Stars and Cartoons Make Fun
Basketball Star Charles Barkley vs. Barney
In 1993, famous basketball player Charles Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live. He did a funny skit where he faced off against Barney in a one-on-one game, like his old Godzilla-themed commercials.
Animaniacs Parodies Barney
The cartoon series Animaniacs made an episode called "Baloney and Kids." In it, the Warner siblings meet "Baloney," an orange dinosaur who is a clear parody of Barney. The whole episode makes fun of the show and even the TV station that aired it. The Warners try many ways to get rid of Baloney, like dropping anvils on his head!
Dinosaurs TV Show Makes a Parody
The sitcom Dinosaurs also had a funny episode featuring "Georgie," another Barney-like character who was an orange hippo. Baby Sinclair loves Georgie, but his dad, Earl Sinclair, finds Georgie very annoying. Earl even gets into trouble trying to stop Georgie from tricking people and making money unfairly.
Songs and Videos About Barney
Funny Songs and Music Videos
One of the first well-known anti-Barney songs was Tony Mason's "Barney's on Fire." Even though "Weird Al" Yankovic didn't write it, he did mention Barney in his song "Jurassic Park." The music video for "Jurassic Park" even shows a Tyrannosaurus biting off Barney's head!
There was also an online video that mixed clips from Barney and Friends with a 2Pac song called "Hit 'Em Up." The humor came from how different the kids' show was from the grown-up music, which had strong language.
Comics and Books Make Jokes
Comic Books and Magazines
In 1994, a comic book called Kill Barny was released. It was a collection of short stories and comics showing the purple dinosaur's "death." Later, another issue came out called Kill Barny Again!.
Mad Magazine once had a fold-in that, when folded, showed a "dead" Barney with the word "extinct" on it, and the caption read "Death to Barney."
A 1994 FoxTrot comic strip showed a character named Jason writing to PBS, joking that Barney should eat the kids after watching "Jurassic Park." His friend Marcus said he'd watch the show if that happened.
The science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research even published a funny article in 1995 called The Taxonomy of Barney, which included fake X-rays of Barney's skeleton.
Online Stories and Videos
Fictional Stories Online
Some short stories online have shown Barney as a powerful, evil force that heroes must defeat. For example, Brian Bull wrote a series of stories like the Day of The Barney trilogy, where children fight the purple dinosaur to free other kids from his control. He also wrote "Batman versus Barney."
Another online video showed Elmo getting very annoyed with Barney's singing. In the video, Elmo makes Barney disappear.
The "Barney = 666" Joke
A popular anti-Barney joke appeared in the 2001 book Science Askew. It claimed that if you take the phrase "cute purple dinosaur" and change it using old Latin alphabet rules (where 'V' was used for 'U'), you get "cvte pvrple dinosavr." If you then only keep the letters that are also Roman numerals (C, V, L, D, I), and add up their values (C=100, V=5, L=50, D=500, I=1), the total is 666. This number is sometimes called the "Number of the Beast." The joke also works with "lovable purple dinosaur."
Computer Games with Barney Parodies
- The game Wolfenstein 3D was changed by fans so that the main bad guys were replaced with Barney.
- A computer game for Macintosh called Barney Carnage was released.
- In the game Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia, one of the bosses is a huge Barney parody named Mr. Huggles. He attacks by singing and trying to hug people.
- Fans have made weak Barney characters for the fighting game M.U.G.E.N so players can easily defeat him with other characters like Godzilla.
- John Dondzila created a game for the ColecoVision in 1996 called Purple Dinosaur Massacre, where the goal was to defeat Barney.
- The Animaniacs spoof character, Baloney, was in the PC game Animaniacs Game Pack. One game, "Baloney's Balloon Bop," was like the game Breakout, where you pop balloons and can drop anvils on Baloney to stun him.
Legal Challenges Over Barney Parodies
The company that owns the rights to Barney & Friends, Lyons Partnership, has sometimes said that some Barney parodies were breaking trademark and copyright infringement laws. They would ask websites to remove the content. However, in American law, making a parody is often protected as "fair use," meaning it's allowed even if it uses copyrighted material in a funny way.
Barney vs. The San Diego Chicken
In 1994, The San Diego Chicken, a famous mascot, started doing comedy skits where he would "beat up" a dinosaur character during sports events. Lyons Partnership sent letters to the Chicken's performer, Ted Giannoulas, telling him to stop.
But the mock battles continued. In 1997, Lyons sued Giannoulas, saying he was breaking their copyright and trademark and that it would confuse children. Giannoulas argued that his performances were a parody and that Barney was a symbol of "insipid and corny" things. The court agreed with Giannoulas in 1998, saying the skits were a parody and did not break any laws. Lyons appealed, but lost again in 1999.
Barney vs. Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization that defends digital rights, hosted online archives with Barney parody material. In 2001, Lyons Partnership's lawyers sent a threat letter to EFF. EFF strongly defended itself, saying that parody is protected by the First Amendment in the United States. The EFF successfully defended an anti-Barney website from a lawsuit.
Barney vs. CyberCheeze
Around 2001, a comedy website called CyberCheeze posted something titled "150 Ways to Kill the Purple Dinosaur." Lyons threatened legal action. CyberCheeze responded on their site, saying the threat was "worthless" and a "scare tactic."
See also
In Spanish: Humor anti Barney para niños
