Lori Duff Writes

I’m convinced that we’ve reached a point in American society where the goal is to out-nasty everyone else.  In between updates on my friends lives and videos of dogs making friends with ducks, on social media there is a never-ending stream of name calling (we don’t just disagree, you’re an idiot or mentally ill) and generalized nastiness.

So when I was flipping through my streaming services on television, trying to find some mind candy to shield my brain from the onslaught of meanness, I stumbled upon “Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles”.  Naturally, I watched it.

For those of you who have not had children in the past thirty years, let me introduce you to the Wiggles.  They are, ostensibly, a boy band for the toddler set.  They had a television show—maybe they still do, I don’t know, my kids are in their twenties.  And they did arena tours.  Their music didn’t suck, which is saying something huge for toddler-directed music.  Still, every time I see a big red car, in my head I hear “Toot toot chugga chugga big red car, we’ll travel near and we’ll travel faaaaaaar.”  Sometimes I even sing it out loud.[1]

My son loved the Wiggles, and I encouraged it, as their music was not annoying, something I couldn’t say about Barney.  He’s now a grad student in music performance[2] but the first music performance he ever attended was a Wiggles concert.

I don’t know what I expected from this documentary.  Maybe a little nostalgia—moving your kid into his grad school apartment a thousand miles away from you can take a toll on a mamma’s heart—and maybe just a little background noise to let my mind wander.  But I found myself fascinated. 

The Wiggles, as it turned out, formed while in college for early childhood education.  They actually used thoughtful educational and psychological principles in deciding what to do.  The thought that went behind the goofy pirate Captain Feathersword was stunning.  Kids love pirates for some reason.  But pirates in real life are ready to cut a b***h with their swords.  So how about we make his sword a feather and his favorite method of attack is tickling?  Yay!  Pirates without the violence, looting, and plundering!

On top of all that, they were four men with actual real man’s lives.  They lived a rockstar life, touring and with tiny little groupies, and tried to manage their own personal lives and families at the same time.  They had serious business decisions to make.  There were life and death issues going on behind the scenes.  And—this is true—they are the number one earning Australian music performer, outearning even AC/DC.  Talk about being Back in (the) Black.

In the end, though, what I think I liked most about it was that even though there were internal disagreements and some serious personal drama behind the scenes, the whole thing was just as it seemed: positive and wholesome and seriously geared towards making the lives of children happy and healthy.

They’ve been around long enough now that the early Wiggles fans are old enough to participate in public discourse.  I hope that those children use what they learned in those formative years to beat their swords into feathers.   Make someone laugh while making your point.  I guarantee it will more likely be heard. 

[1] Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car! – The Wiggles 🚗 Kids Songs & Nursery Rhymes 🎶#OGWiggles (youtube.com)  Tell me that doesn’t get stuck in your head.

[2] At Yale: mom flex

If you enjoyed this and want to read more like it, visit Lori on Twitter or on Facebook or read her award winning books.  You can order her novella, “Broken Things”, by clicking here.  The audiobook can be found on Audible or iTunes.  You can pre-order her novel “Devil’s Defense” coming in November 2024.

Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.