10 years ago I remember the same argument within the UK. There was moral outrage at Tinky Winky's handbag and I believe the actor who played Tiny Winky was fired.

I also remember seeing complaints from parents that, as the actress who played Po was Chinese, their children might develop a strong Chinese accent!

Or Stinky Winky?

I have young children of both genders. The boy is in the Teletubbie demographic being three. He has Mr Incredible, knight and policeman dressing up outfits. He invariably walks round the house dressed as snow white while breast feeding his baby (Baby Po) and I spend most of my time returning purses and handbags to his siblings bedroom. When the testosterone hits his brain in a few months, I expect the pushchair to be disassembled and made into a Kalashnikov rifle and his hand to enter the front of his trousers, not to reappear until he gets his first girlfriend. For now, I enjoy the peace and quiet.

So this is where the right wing american christian bigots got to.. They're exceedingly active in africa too.

But surely homosexuality is already promoted in this country? When I was in Warsaw, I swear I saw a lot of Pole-smoking going on, and if what I hear on the internet about that activity is true....

Please, won't somebody think of the Dzieci ??

Lets be honest, he does prefer the company of other males, he couldn’t of been any more of a fan of "tubbies" even if he'd tried. But then given that Po seemed frighteningly under age, Lala seemed intoxicated on the special toast/custard all too often and Dipsy was blatantly a pimp I don’t understand how his unexplored sexual preference could offend anyone. Unless he spent some quality time with that Hoover.. But then that would suggest he's a giver, yet the handbag a taker. Hmmmmm. The mind boggles,

The red teletubby does, after all, come from Po-land.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that title...

When Robin was introduced into the Batman comics there was an intimation that there was a homosexual relationship involved. Nowadays, it's SpongeBob and Patrick. It is a shame that people have to infer that any innocent friendship between guys must necessarily be gay. As boys, we just hung around each other and had nothing to do with girls -- the whole "cootie" thing, you know.

It seems to me that I had heard the "Village Voice" was the publication that had actually "outed" poor Tinky.

I can't believe none of you are taking this issue seriously!!

*snickers...

Laa Laa and Tinky Winky were leaning on the railings one day, smoking their Tubby Tabs. Along came Dipsy. He was all upset.

"Why are you crying, Dipsy?" asked Laa Laa.

"Because I'm too young to smoke Tubby Tabs," said Dipsy. "If I smoked, I would look really grown-up like you!"

"Don't worry," said Tinky Winky. "In a couple of weeks it will be your birthday and then you'll be old enough to smoke Tubby Tabs."

And indeed, in a couple of weeks, Laa Laa, Tinky Winky and Po all baked Dipsy a special birthday cake. It was in the shape of Dipsy's hat and it said on it "Happy Birthday Dispy" (because Po did the writing and she was not a very good speller. Well, that's what she said. Laa Laa thought it might be because she didn't like Dipsy very much). But there were no candles on this cake -- although they still needed some matches.

For Dipsy's cake was covered in ..... Tubby Tabs!

Yes, parents, it's true! Only TeleTubbies brand Tubby Tabs contain just *half* the tar and nicotine of normal cigarettes, so they're safe for children as young as eight! Set your little ones in good stead from an early age. Smoke Tubby Tabs! Once they've tried them, they'll never want anything else. Available from all good tobacconists. Smoking causes all sorts of nasty diseases, but let's face it -- they only happen to other people and only when they get old. There's plenty of time for you to pack in later. And besides, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow.

Won't somebody please think of the children !!!!!!

Noone has mentioned that the name "Tinky Winky" is clearly derived from "Twink", ie a young gay man ...

Was this Polish education minister the same fellow who was promoting intelligent design a couple years ago?

http://www.newsfromme.com/images2/jla1.jpg

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/136/

Nope, no gay innuendo in Batman at all... I agree with what you're saying when it applies to real world friendships, but a /lot/ of those "innocent friendships" in popular TV shows are peppered with intentional innunendo.

I saw an interview with (I think it was) the director of the teletubbies when this homosexual thing broke out in the U.S. It was priceless. The director said something like, "Are you KIDDING? The audience for teletubbies are two-year-olds. They are busy figuring out their arms and legs, and aren't even considering questions of sexuality yet. Tinky Winky carries a purse because it is colorful."

He unfortunately didn't go on to say that certain homophobic christian evangelicals are overly concerned about homosexuality "getting on them" because they are so terribly uncertain of their own gender identification. These people need to loosen up, stop masturbating, and come out of the closet themselves.

Here in the U.S., it was the shape of the antenna of one of the teletubbies that was supposed to be a "well-known homosexual sign". And the purse too. I guess I'm way too straight, since I didn't know "they" had a sign, like the christian fish symbol I guess.

People. You can't live with 'em and it's illegal to hunt them...except in Texas.

Gareth:

Hah! It certainly shows how the meaning of certain words and phrases changes over time, e.g., "Having a gay time .. wish you were here!"

Yes, I wondered about the "innocent friendship" angle in the Sponge Bob episode when he and Patrick adopt a baby clam and become "Daddy" Patrick and "Mommy" Sponge Bob. I begin to think Dr. Wertham was right when he wrote "Seduction of the Innocent" :)

I mean, George the pink camp hippo thing, all of them in bed together, and as for the 3-some thing going on with Rod, Jane and Freddie...!

of course there's the famous Christmas Tape which confirms it all ;-)

... pathetic.

What is it they say, that "There's a little bit of gay in everyone"?

..."sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".

But Freud never met Bill Clinton.

>"When Robin was introduced into the Batman comics there was an

> intimation that there was a homosexual relationship involved.

> Nowadays, it's SpongeBob and Patrick."

And before that it was Sherlock Holmes and Watson....etc.

Captain Pugwash along with his crew of;

Master Bates, Roger the cabin boy, Seaman Stanes etc

or the Magic round about with:

I forget them all now but you had the same issues of "doublentendre"

Let the teletubbies be gay if they want to be, it's not as if they are humans! And as Kurt Guntheroth quoted, the kids are two year olds and not worrying about sexual inclanations. Further if I remember rightly the Teletubbies weren't even supposed to have genders....

Your's exasperated in the decline of social standards.

Tim

Is father of crimes far greater than homosexuality (which isn't even a crime)

Much as it makes me laugh, I'm amazed that the above myth still persists. The fallacy of its truth I mean not the joke itself.

The following links debunk the myth. Most notable is the public retraction by a well-known UK newspaper which published the myth as truth.

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/pugwash.htm

http://www.redflag.co.uk/pugwash.htm

I always thought that it originated from a spoof on the Kenny Everett Show but a (pathetically brief) search didn't turn up anything to back me up. Others have been been given credited or claimed it is theirs.

Just think back to the Magic Roundabout and the ravings of Mary Whitehouse and her gang of perverts objecting about Florence continually being told that Zebedee thought its "time for bed". Honi soit qui maly pense.

I've just done an image search on Google and it confirms without any real shadow of a doubt that the Teletubbies are genderless, how they came into existence was never raised on the show but I'm guessing they get to a certain age and then split like amoebas, I may have put too much thought into this though :P