A Fuzzy Memory

In the 90s, puppets essentially became the overlords of educational television. Sure, Jim Henson really solidified this back with the creation of Sesame Street, but it wasn't, in my opinion, until the 90s that it really took hold. Suddenly, there was an influx of edutainment that was bursting at the brim with puppets. Whether it was something like Mr. Rogers, where the puppets were more of side characters, or something like Lambchop, who was the star, puppets teaching kids became as normal as 80 year old women with bad hairdos teaching kids. But none stick out in my mind as such a fever dream as Timmy The Tooth. I can't remember who it was who originally gave me the Timmy The Tooth VHS I had, it may have been my mother, it may have been my grandmother, that knowledge is forever lost to me, but I can say that whoever was responsible for it shouldn't have been involved in childcare, because Timmy The Tooth is simultaneously completely fine and absolutely horrific. Looking bac...

    For as long as I've been alive, everyone around me has scrambled to mute the television as soon as an ad comes on. In fact, it isn't even just on television. Ads on Spotify, Youtube, advertising in general is considered a nuisance of the highest degree. So why do I have such a particularly fond feeling for it? I suppose a part of it could be nostalgia, certainly, because a lot of the ads that I recall happily are ads from when I was younger and that takes me back to a...well, I won't say a better time, but, you know what I mean. Either way, advertising to me has always been a source of comfort in one way or another. Hell, sometimes, late at night, I'll even channel surf until I discover a paid programming block and just let my television relay that back at me for the next few hours uninterrupted. There's just something safe inside of the advertising world. Something familiar in a world so teeming with blatant lies and corporatism. I just don't know what that...