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Tinky-Winky says Bye Bye!

simonsheltonbarnes

Simon Shelton Barnes died last night on the streets of Liverpool. Police say he collapsed and later died of hypothermia. He was 52.

I know this one: he was coming home from the pubs with a snootful, I’m guessing, slipped and fell on the pavement and froze to death. I’ve lost more ancestors that way…

Barnes was the second Tinky Winky. The first, Dave Thompson, left the show after he and the director disagreed on his character development. I shitteth thee not.

I’m a huge fan of the series. I have all their albums. Teletubby fever was just catching hold in Britain when I made my first trip here in 1997. I thought it was the weirdest effing thing I’d ever seen. Weirder even than the food.

I’m no fan of Falwell, but he totally spoke the truth about Tinky Winky being ‘the gay character’ (there was the gay one, the black one, the Asian one and the Chinese one, duh). I don’t know if the triangle on his head was a coincidence, but he always carried a red patent leather handbag and occasionally wore a tutu.

If he wasn’t supposed to be gay (“Oh my god, these are children…how can you monsters sexualize children?”) he was certainly supposed to normalize the gender bend. For children. Spare me the pearl clutching, BBC.

Simon Shelton Barnes, on the other hand, was apparently not gay.

Crank your headphones for Tinky Winky Jumps for Fun!

Comments


Comment from Nina
Time: January 23, 2018, 9:00 pm

Thank God my children missed that show. There’s a lot of bad TV out there for kids, and this was one of it.

Too young to die, though.


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: January 24, 2018, 1:35 am

He wore Desmond Tutu?

Damned glasses, I would swear that’s what I read at first.

Oh, and gender bending young children is all the rage now.
Kids who can’t even decide what they want for supper are supposed to be able to decide they want to be yellow dragon-kin, fine examples of architecture and even several butcher’s aprons.

Maybe a Russian takeover wouldn’t be so bad after all.


Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: January 24, 2018, 1:44 am

As goofy as Falwell is most of the time, he didn’t make up the “Tinky Winky is Gay!” claim. That would have been the actual gays, themselves. Apparently on both sides of the pond it was accepted as a matter of course.

As for myself, I thought the whole idea of TV targeting toddlers was creepy enough, never mind adding sex (gay or straight) to the mix.

Now excuse me, I have to chase those damn kids off my lawn again.


Comment from peacelovewoodstock
Time: January 24, 2018, 3:00 am

I used to watch Teletubbies with my son when he was an infant. It reminded me of the effects of Sandoz blotter.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: January 24, 2018, 5:17 am

It’s not that cold in Liverpool, it it? Sounds fishy. I’m always reading that Liverpool is a terrible place these days due to the lefties.


Comment from Mr. Dave
Time: January 24, 2018, 11:43 am

There is no way in hell I’m touching that link. I have things to do today and that ain’t the soundtrack. Quick! Crank some Hendrix!


Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: January 24, 2018, 2:53 pm

Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: January 24, 2018, 1:35 am
. . .
Oh, and gender bending young children is all the rage now.
Kids who can’t even decide what they want for supper are supposed to be able to decide they want to be yellow dragon-kin, fine examples of architecture and even several butcher’s aprons. . . .

*
*
I know. One of my local library branches is having, I kid you not, “Drag Queen Story Time” for the littler sproglets. The agenda isn’t even hidden anymore; they don’t call it anything but what it is.

If something like that had been announced at my library when I was a kid, the cops would have raided the joint.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: January 24, 2018, 4:16 pm

It’s not that cold in Liverpool, it it? Sounds fishy.

Ric- you have to remember that everything is relative, and that the beer was warm.

As for whether Tinky Winky was gay, let’s just agree he will wink his tinky no more and be happy for that.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: January 24, 2018, 11:01 pm

WHO KILLED TINKY WINKY?
~~ A Weasel Mystery


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: January 25, 2018, 12:47 pm

I don’t suppose anyone had Tinky Wink in the dead pool.

So we can rule Carl out as a suspect.
I’m betting it was General Guinness, in the pub, with a pint glass.


Comment from Formerly known as Skeptic
Time: January 27, 2018, 1:49 pm

Never could get past the Giant Flaming Baby Head! they used for the sun. Too creepy!

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