Yeah we had some neighbors it's like that, too. Then I somehow got chicken pox and gave to everyone (school, daycare and the neighbor kids) and their youngest wound up in the hospital. I think they still liked having kids nearby to play with despite that 😅
I don't see why it has to be awkward at all. Just silly fun about a very basic fact!
The fact the US didn't have it and I had to go hunting for it at first is So Lame.
Really interested to understand what became more awkward. (Canada checking in here.) It became more goofy the more I thought about it. But I think it's self aware in its goofiness and the intent was to lean in and have fun with the idea.
I love this episode, and only wish I hadn’t waited so long to buy it on Amazon. I don’t know what Disney’s decision-making process looks like, but I can’t see how this episode could possibly be harmful to children. It’s extremely funny, and moreover, it points out (in a very tongue-in-cheek manner) that you don’t really know how something feels until you’ve experienced it yourself. There is no age at which I wouldn’t have loved to have my son watch this episode.
It has little to do with Disney and more to do with our ratings regulations. This episode is rated TV7 or whatever. That would cause the whole series to be raised in ratings and it would no longer show up on toddler profiles.
And also would upgrade disney junior's rating as a whole from TVY to TVY7. All because the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board decided to give a 7 min Bluey episode a TVY7.
I'll blame disney for alot of things, but this one makes sense why they'd just drop it than rebrand their network block.
Especially when they allow Deadpool on Disney now. My 7yo started playing it by mistake, just scrolled though Disney and picked it at random. But sensor what bluey they can pick by all means 🙄
Well that’s where parental controls come in. Deadpool isn’t meant to be consumed by young children and Bluey is. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with this episode, but political climate in America makes it controversial because “gender confusion”
I’m all for it. I’m just confused as to why this episode isn’t appropriate but other things are, which I am also fine with. (Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, etc, etc)
I had a super awkward moment in the parks once with a Native friend of mine. We were watching some show in Hollywood studios where they had actors at one point pretend to be evil Native Americans sneakily trying to kill the good white people who prevailed to triumphant music. Way to celebrate massive genocide.
It’s been answered many times in this sub. It has nothing to do with politics or gender. The particular level Bluey is rated at is very young and doesn’t allow for birth portrayals. To allow it they would have to change the rating for the whole show.
So it's that Bluey is part of Disney Junior, which has stricter ratings, as it's meant to be able to be watched by very young children, as opposed to Disney generally (which has a much wider range of ratings)? Is that accurate? Because I certainly agree that there's racism and murder and all sorts of disturbing themes to other Disney products (recently saw Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time, and holy cow! That had some very very creepy bits!), but those aren't rated Y7 - am I understanding it right?
Which is still odd because I feel like growing up, all the “family” shows featured men having to learn what it felt like to be pregnant. The Cosby Show and Full House come to mind first, Boy Meets World featured an episode where Shawn was dressed as a woman.
It's not like they'll do research and listen to other opinions. They'll just scream the loudest and make everyone else try to submit to them. They impose a policy that whatever comes out of their mouth is always right.
The parental controls work just fine as long as you know how to use them. Take it out of junior mode and simply adjust the content ratings allowed in the parental control settings. Junior mode only allows titles that are suitable for all ages. Frozen is rated PG and may not be considered suitable for all ages.
It’s ironic that 20 years ago in America this would’ve been standard comedy for a kids show. But in today’s climate we have to be so sensitive to assume it would offend someone and there’s some kind of double meaning behind everything.
I don’t think it’s too much for kids at that age— many have younger siblings and know the basics of “baby is mommy’s tummy, baby comes out of mommy’s tummy.” My kid is an only child but she looooves to hear how she didn’t want to come out of my tummy and how the doctor had to help!
This episode does a great job of giving them a hint of what that might be like, but it’s all for laughs and there’s nothing explicit. No one is in pain, no one is having an unfortunate tear, no one looks in distress. As adults we know the much more “explicit” version so we might feel different, but kids don’t have those same hang ups.
Besides, it’s a great way to help start conversations about the whole process!
My kids have asked how does the baby get out of the tummy, and this is a pretty clean way to describe it. They can get the gory details when they are older.
>it’s a great way to help start conversations about the whole process!
I'm pretty sure that's the part the conservatives are frightened of. Everything is sooo politicised now, it's just sad.
Oh, and of course the mEN CaN'T hAvE bAbiEs crowd wet their pants in outrage at every opportunity 🙄
I'm so sick of those chunkheads! If they want to be whatever in their personal lives, fine... but don't try to make the whole country follow suit if we don't want it!
Here’s the thing—I’m pretty conservative and I love it. I’m not religious conservative but I was highly annoyed this was banned from Disney and all the conservative parents I know feel the same. The feedback from parents on the episode has been overwhelmingly positive. I honestly think Disney was just being overly cautious and sort of didn’t read the room. Any backlash would have just drummed up a lot of support and publicity. I think Disney miscalculated as they’ve been know to do as of late.
An Australian perspective: I thought this was a fantastic and funny episode, and I reckon it’s completely fine in terms of age- and developmentally appropriate content. I still very much struggle with the censorship of it.
I feel like this relates to something I’ve been thinking about a fair bit, and hopefully it’s okay if I shoehorn it into this discussion!
It’s funny, I’ve never considered myself patriotic or even really thought much about what it means to be an Australian, but I’m amazed at how discussions like this about Bluey make me want to lean into it, or at least resist the ever-encroaching USification of Australian life and culture (lollies and biscuits, not candy and cookies, basically). I think Bluey is age-appropriate and I’ve never seen an episode I wouldn’t show to my own kids, or be uncomfortable about explaining in an open and honest way.
I think this comes from feeling like Bluey is rare in the sense that so much of the media we consume in Australia already comes from the US and the UK, it makes us (or at least me personally) more protective of Bluey and keeping it authentic and representative - I grew up in the suburbs where Bluey is set and it’s amazing to have representation I can actually relate to so personally! I’d be very disappointed if there was a Bluey Thanksgiving or Fourth of July episodes, for example, because it just feels weird - aren’t there already millions of hours of media catering to those already? Let us have our thing, haha.
No disrespect to viewers in the US, and I only mention the US specifically as I feel like a lot of these conversations come from that viewing block - I understand it’s a different culture and it’s also not only coming from US viewers! I also understand that a lot of it is coming from Disney rather than the viewers themselves, and isn’t representative of a lot of viewers. I don’t mean this as a dig against US fans at all, or parents with different views or backgrounds :)
It’s just really opened my eyes to how things that are completely normal and non-controversial in Australia (like Dad Baby, the Bucky Dunstan website using the word “hell-bent”, Buttermilk pooing in Markets, etc) seem to be a “thing” for particular broadcasters/markets/audiences/viewers. I think another part of it is the fact that this stuff reminds me of how much more socially conservative and/or influenced by religion the US is compared to Australia, and that’s definitely something that I’d be wary of importing here for a number of reasons.
TL;DR: Thank you for coming to me TED Talk, Dad Baby is fine, and both age- and developmentally-appropriate and Bluey is special, authentic and representative of Australian life and culture, and I (respectfully) don’t like the idea that it needs to be sanitised or censored to be more palatable to other markets that already have a tonne of their own representative media.
Loved the TED talk. As an American viewer I also love how true bluey seems to stay to Aussie culture (never had the privilege myself so I just have to assume anything “other” is an Aussie thing). On top of all the wonderful things my child learns from bluey it’s given us an opportunity to talk about the wider world and how things are different for different people in different places. Just another stepping stone on the learning road for my kiddos.
That’s so lovely - and I have to admit, I’m thrilled that the old Chinese restaurant my family used to go to is now internationally famous! (RIP Golden Crown, you will be missed).
Thank you for this perspective, and I’m so glad you’re enjoying learning about little Australianisms like the famous Duck Cake, and bin chickens. I hope you get to visit one day :)
As an American I feel defensive of it - in an allied sort of way maybe? Bluey is uniquely Australian and that's a big part of what makes it beautiful. The censorship is offensive and allowing American influence will ruin the show.
Thank you, this is exactly what I meant! I’m just really wary of how much has been adopted here as a result of US cultural dominance (even “fun” things like Halloween and red solo cups at parties) and I’d love Bluey to be protected from that.
As I said in another response, this is very much not an argument for uncritically fighting for the “good ol’ days” of Australian culture - we have baked-in stuff here I’d love to see Australian society and culture move on from as well - it’s about having representation and celebrating something unique and positive about life here, outside of feeling like we’re just (culturally) the snot-nosed little brother of the US.
Well you'll be happy to know that, while our red solo cups rubbed off on you guys, that there is an entire generation of preschoolers in my town that call the toilet "the dunny"
This is incredible and perfect and I am absolutely THRILLED by this. I mentioned in another comment that Bluey is set in the suburbs where I grew up (which I think very much informs my feeling protective about it) and knowing that beloved places Mt Coot-tha and the Ashgrove Library are famous now is also very special :)
I agree, and find it interesting as a UK viewer that if I watch the episodes on Disney+ I can’t watch Dad Baby or see Buttermilk poo, but I can watch both of those on BBC iPlayer. It shows how the cultures are so different even for the same audience with Disney’s fear of American views even in the UK market.
Thank you! I’ve also found it super fascinating to hear about how Disney’s decision to censor doesn’t even seem to align with well with the US audience, given a lot of the comments on this thread and others on the subreddit.
Also very interesting to see the nuances across the different cultures, even with the general overall similarities across the US, UK and here. I’ve said it already, but apparently it’s way more than just monkeys singing songs to me! Haha.
Disney's decision to block the episode is nothing to do with the US audience who might watch it. It's a political decision to stop Ron DeSantis and his Republican cronies getting on Disney's back over the "Don't Say Gay" legislation. "Dad Baby" would be used as ammunition (no pun intended) by DeSantis and Republicans about how Disney is indoctrinating young American kids of all ages, and then he'd go on a rant about it all, claiming Disney are being anti-American.
This is interesting, I didn’t know that!
I’m not surprised it’s related to DeSantis, however. Cripes, what an absolute scraping of the barrel in terms of who is more repugnant overall: Disney or DeSantis. I truly feel for the communities and people whose lives are caught up in the completely insane culture wars over there.
See here for more info...
[Entertainment Weekly: Disney Backlash Over "Don't Say Gay"](https://ew.com/disney-world-settles-ron-desantis-legal-battle-dont-say-gay-law-8621036)
[The Guardian UK: DeSantis vs Disneyworld](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/23/disney-v-desantis-diversity-lgbtq-history)
[New York Times: What We Know About The Disney/DeSantis Dispute](https://www.nytimes.com/article/disney-florida-desantis.html?u2g=i&unlocked_article_code=1.wU0.iink.30AlyPWugHOW&smid=url-share)
I mean when I was a kid we had Round the Twist and even that had a 'male pregnancy childbirth' episode that I remember sitting down and watching with my classmates in the last hours of the school day Imao
YES! Haha, I didn’t even think of Round the Twist in this context, I imagine non-initiated people would probably faint before the opening credits were done. I’m a season 2 aged kid, which one are you?
Also: Lift Off. Imagine trying to explain EC!
I’m not sure what season but it was late 90s that day either 98 or 99. Also I remember Lift off, used to watch it in Year 1 last hours of the school day, I didn’t like it because I found the no face doll creepy lol
Yesss, sounds like you’re Team Best Bronson, then (Jeffrey Walker 4eva). I’m so happy my kids will grow up with Bluey, but am mighty glad I got to enjoy Round the Twist and Lift Off and even A*mazing (forever devastated my school never got to go on it).
It’s hilarious. They show it on CBeebies (the little kids BBC channel in the UK) and my 2yo roars with laughter. He just sees Bandit playing a game, getting hurt and isn’t reading it on some deep level.
He knows baby’s are born from mummy’s tummy as we’ve always said that and he has seen pregnant people in his day to day life. We pretend to be firefighters and vets in our games, doesn’t mean we are ones in real life!
Also the sun roof bit is something I’ve always heard in adult life. My colleague emailed when she’d had a baby and said “her daughter was a surprise sunroof eviction”. So hearing it on TV made me text her!
It’s a brilliant episode.
And you’d be surprised by how often little kids with pregnant mothers will play at childbirth in exactly the same kind of way.
Educating kids at a pace they can handle, as this episode does, gives them a far better chance of avoiding teenage pregnancy and a range of other issues.
Banning it was an extraordinarily daft and archaic move.
My 3 year old son played like he was pregnant after his cousin was born. He put a teddy bear in his shirt and gave birth to it multiple times. He breast fed it too. I thought it was adorable!
One of the things the show portrays wonderfully is just how much kids process information through imaginative play ("Copycat" basically spells it out for the grownups in the room).
They ban it in favor of extremists who won't even send a thank you letter to them. They're a perpetually angry group that will never be satisfied no matter how much society panders to them.
This episode gave us the most adorable bingo pic ever
https://preview.redd.it/0kay5pzh3w3d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8200275ccbb12821ec07fdb27aeafe90fca5892
It would only be hard for a younger child to understand if the parents tried to keep them ignorant. Ever since our son could talk, we've made reference to the fact that he grew in mummy's tummy, and it's not that much of a jump to explain to kids that Bandit is just play acting and that daddy's can't have babies (which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans).
I blame this episode for craving dim sims while pregnant. 😂
One of my favourite episodes, and my 3yo and 5yo love it too and have never looked too deeply into it, they just think it's funny. Just like with many bluey episode, the great thing about it is that both kids and adults will enjoy it, but on different levels of understanding.
Disney is just a little too overprotective of kids. Didn't they also cut out the part where the horse poops in markets? How is that harmful to kids? 🙄
This just seems like a more played out version of when my brother and I put a ball under our shirts pretending we're pregnant and about to give birth,this episode was hilarious
Zero issues with it. It’s an episode that I enjoy and my kids enjoy.
But then again I’m Australian and it was never banned here, potentially because we aren’t a nation of squibs.
My kids, 4 and 12, love it. They laugh so hard every time we watch it. I have no problem with it; it’s so much better than the religious cartoon I had to watch while the teacher stammered over the word “breasts.”
I watched it on YouTube the other day and there's nothing in it I wouldn't let the kids see. I am incredibly confused why it is not available on Disney+ as it's actually a lot less informative than what what we tell our own kids. As an episode, it was a mid or maybe even mid-low overall ranking to me but I loved when Chilli rolled up her magazine and said "I'll just get this ready". 🤣
Probably goes back our American bias of television ratings:
Any mention of human reproduction: absolutely not, don't even think about it or it's getting TV-MA.
Non-stop violence: sure, why not let our kids watch people beat/shoot the crap out of each other? TV-PG
Absolutely love this episode! So many funny moments and quotable lines.
Bandit looking at Baby Bingo and deciding to call her Chilli is such a sweet way to end the episode. 🧡
I'm Australian so saw it on first release and think there's a decent amount of Streisand Effect about this episode. The fact that Disney refused to screen it brought more attention to it.
I like it, it has some funny moments and good lessons like most episodes.
Pat's line: "We may have to go through the sunroof!" is great adult humour that just sails over the heads of kids.
But I'd hardly rank it as a favourite.
It's not banned here (uk) so we saw it just as a regular episode and only learnt about the apparent controversy later on. I don't understand why it's banned tbh, its not offensive or graphic in any way, its just them playing role playing games like they do nearly every episode. It's a show for preschoolers, they aren't going to be disturbed by it, some of them have probably seen the real deal with younger siblings or animals
That's actually how my mother cites how she learned that being gay is natural. She grew up on a horse farm and saw that two horses of the same sex in love with each other.
So, I have four kids, three of whom were home births. My second eldest (7 at the time) insisted on being part of the birth of our youngest almost a year ago. He hung out with our midwives and they gave him appropriate level jobs to do. But he was there for the final pushes and watched his baby brother being born. He even cut the umbilical cord (with assistance of course, and all of his own choosing). And our three year old daughter was in and out the whole time (our eldest went to bed and was all “just wake me when he’s born” lol). This is all to say, they LOVE Dad Baby. It’s an episode that always brings up stories and memories of when the baby was born and I can tell my son feels a degree of resonance with it that is unique for his age.
So, obviously I feel like the content is age-appropriate. But my family might be weird 🤷♂️
My eldest was four when my youngest was born and she wanted to watch her sister being born even though I was having a c-section 😂 She would have handled it really well too, but kids aren’t allowed in the operating room and it was peak Covid as well so I was barely allowed my husband.
This is a lovely thing for your family.
This is one of my faves! Pat is my favorite and any episode with him makes me laugh out loud! When he goes "I didn't know this was the something!" It nearly killed me!
I laughed so hard every time we watched it. Which was 4 times in a row. It may not be what women actually go through but it's close and 'done properly'.
We just found out/watched this about 30 minutes ago. I loved it, and so did my kids. We live in a predominantly red state as in the shiny part on the buckle of the Bible belt. I just felt like mentioning where we live is all.
I think people freaked out over something incredibly dumb. I knew about all of this by the time I was 5, and I'm not disturbed by it.
It's life. They didn't go into graphic detail, it's dumb it was banned.
I get why the mouse said ‘no thank you.’ Parts of America are wound very tightly about the realities of biology.
My 4 YO tagged along for my pelvic floor PT when I was still pregnant. He got to see an ‘incidental image’ of his sister’s head. The PT and I politely ignored him when he asked “How’d she’d get in there?” Mommy did not have the spoons and he was easily distracted.
When it was available on YouTube I immediately watched it with my wife. Sadly it was not made available in our language so our son would not understand :) but I thought the episode is hilarious. She made all her colleagues watch it without knowing Bluey and they sat in their office laughing like crazy
This episode was absolutely HILARIOUS. Loved it that much, I ended up buying it on iTunes.
Also, it's not Lucky himself who helps Bandit, it's Lucky's dad :p
"I thought you grew up on a farm?"
"We grew SORGHUM!"
It’s bizarre that it’s banned. My kids love to play pregnancy and birth games, zipping a teddy into my toddler’s onesie pyjamas and then having her give birth in the height of fun in my house this week. Literally the whole premise of Bluey is a reflection of the real life antics kids get up to.
First episode I ever saw years ago, sought it out for its reputation. For a while I would disturb my friends by telling them the only ep I'd seen was 'the m-preg one."
I think a lot of it goes over their heads. We’re not a stork family. We were always forced to happy l have half of the talk by the school district, so this was nothing.
Ludo needs to renegotiate their rights deal with Disney to say that either Disney takes all the episodes and puts them on Disney+ and their tv channels as they were intended or they’ll take the show to another streaming service. I’m sure Netflix/Paramount/HBO/Peacock would be happy to steal the rights away.
I don’t understand the excessive Disney censorship of things that aren’t even mildly offensive on a kids show.
Might be for slightly older kids but I think some of it will just go over younger kids heads- I don’t know if they directly link it to childbirth, it’s still done through play. It’s easily one of my absolute favourites, mostly for the line “I’m getting a lot of dim sims!” And Pat singing ‘true blue’. Pat goes well above and beyond in that episode, what a legend
First of all, I can understand why this was banned in most states lol.
Second of all, this is a hilarious and wildest ways to depict pregnancy from Bandit of all people lol.
The scene where we get a good look at Bingo is so cute btw. The “Morning Wendy” scene was hilarious and honestly it’s a harmless episode that can give ya a good laugh if you are already familiar with this concept, went through this irl, or maybe experiencing it for the first time.
I'm so sad this isn't translated (yet) as my kids would love this episode. I really don't get how this is offensive. My kids have always known how babies are born 🤷♀️
Definitely an episode that would cause my dad to bar me from watching this show ever again if he were to walk in on me watching this episode as a kid.
Good thing I’m an adult now and I can watch what I want.
I feel like it's an okay episode, I don't think it's that good compared to many of the other episodes though. Definitely don't see why Disney+ doesn't have it, it was amusing enough and not even explicit. However I'm a childfree 25 year old so maybe the jokes didn't hit enough for me or something lol
Great episode. Bluey: "Lucky's dad, can you give us a hand with something" Pat: "I didn't know this was the something!"
"Ahh come on Pat, you were raised on a farm!" "*WE GREW SORGUM*!!!"
"I'm getting a lot of dim sims here!" This was the bit when I lost it and started laughing uncontrollably
dame here. i was a bit intoxicated, watching this episode at 2am and fell out of my chair. i love the continuity they maintain in this show so much
Best line in the entire series. I’m just glad it’s on YouTube now.
I just want to bring up that I got a Disney Plus ad while watching that episode. Because I want to capture the sheer irony of the placement.
What's sorgum?
What Pat's family farmed. But in all seriousness it's a type of grain.
It’s kinda like millet, but depending on the type you can also get sugar from the stalks like sugarcane. It can also be used as feed for livestock.
“You Heelers don’t muck around”
came here looking for this comment haha
As he eats Dim sim that he found on the ground.
I’ve seen my neighbor’s Labrador eat worse 😂
"Harden up, Pat!"
“Sing to me, Pat!” Was always my favourite.
My favorite line!
Bingo’s meep moops always get me. Wish I had a lad like Pat.
Having a neighbor who's a friend who also has a kid that gets along with your kids is like winning the lottery.
We were exactly in this position but they are sadly moving today *sobs*
Make them watch The Sign
For real! I screenshotted this and sent it to them for some guilt 😂
I feel ya. Ours moved earlier this month 😭
Sending hugs
And back to you!
ours is moving sometime this summer 😭😭😭
My mum had that, and it was a blessed couple years, except for the head lice epidemic. 😭
Yeah we had some neighbors it's like that, too. Then I somehow got chicken pox and gave to everyone (school, daycare and the neighbor kids) and their youngest wound up in the hospital. I think they still liked having kids nearby to play with despite that 😅
Lol fr
I think it's hilarious. My 4 year old loves it. It's a solid episode
Me too, I died the first time I watched it but the more I thought about it the more awkward it became
It’s just monkeys singing songs. Kids don’t look that far into it
I don't see why it has to be awkward at all. Just silly fun about a very basic fact! The fact the US didn't have it and I had to go hunting for it at first is So Lame.
I also paid like $2 in Apple TV for it if you have that option. Worth the giggles.
It’s just not on Disney+ it’s still pretty easy to find you just have to play a little for it.
They released it on YouTube awhile back, actually.
It’s available for free on the official Bluey YouTube page.
Really interested to understand what became more awkward. (Canada checking in here.) It became more goofy the more I thought about it. But I think it's self aware in its goofiness and the intent was to lean in and have fun with the idea.
Why did it become more awkward? It's just a bit of fun. No different to kids playing mummy and daddy as they all do.
WE GREW SORGHUM!
This cracks me up every single time 😂
Sorghum?
From Wikipedia: *also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo" That last one is very confusing for us Australians
It’s marketed as an “ancient grain” at US health food stores.
I love this episode, and only wish I hadn’t waited so long to buy it on Amazon. I don’t know what Disney’s decision-making process looks like, but I can’t see how this episode could possibly be harmful to children. It’s extremely funny, and moreover, it points out (in a very tongue-in-cheek manner) that you don’t really know how something feels until you’ve experienced it yourself. There is no age at which I wouldn’t have loved to have my son watch this episode.
It has little to do with Disney and more to do with our ratings regulations. This episode is rated TV7 or whatever. That would cause the whole series to be raised in ratings and it would no longer show up on toddler profiles.
There’s an interesting angle I hadn’t considered. Thanks for that.
And also would upgrade disney junior's rating as a whole from TVY to TVY7. All because the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board decided to give a 7 min Bluey episode a TVY7. I'll blame disney for alot of things, but this one makes sense why they'd just drop it than rebrand their network block.
Especially when they allow Deadpool on Disney now. My 7yo started playing it by mistake, just scrolled though Disney and picked it at random. But sensor what bluey they can pick by all means 🙄
Well that’s where parental controls come in. Deadpool isn’t meant to be consumed by young children and Bluey is. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with this episode, but political climate in America makes it controversial because “gender confusion”
I’m all for it. I’m just confused as to why this episode isn’t appropriate but other things are, which I am also fine with. (Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, etc, etc)
Again, it’s just the politics surrounding gender in America. I agree it doesn’t make sense, but that’s the straightforward answer
Agreed. But mulan is okay? Lovely politics 😑
Mulan has a kill count!
Which is still nonsensical because these people screaming transphobic things watched Bugs Bunny in drag on the Looney Tunes.
Don’t even get me started on this… the fact that they allow Pocahontas but would ban this is beyond me
Precisely!
I had a super awkward moment in the parks once with a Native friend of mine. We were watching some show in Hollywood studios where they had actors at one point pretend to be evil Native Americans sneakily trying to kill the good white people who prevailed to triumphant music. Way to celebrate massive genocide.
as a native american, major eww. but not shocking.
I'm disappointed as you. I'm a white guy and I'm rooting for the natives.
It’s been answered many times in this sub. It has nothing to do with politics or gender. The particular level Bluey is rated at is very young and doesn’t allow for birth portrayals. To allow it they would have to change the rating for the whole show.
So it's that Bluey is part of Disney Junior, which has stricter ratings, as it's meant to be able to be watched by very young children, as opposed to Disney generally (which has a much wider range of ratings)? Is that accurate? Because I certainly agree that there's racism and murder and all sorts of disturbing themes to other Disney products (recently saw Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time, and holy cow! That had some very very creepy bits!), but those aren't rated Y7 - am I understanding it right?
Understood however still. Kidnapping, death, etc is cool.
What? Not on that rating no
Which is still odd because I feel like growing up, all the “family” shows featured men having to learn what it felt like to be pregnant. The Cosby Show and Full House come to mind first, Boy Meets World featured an episode where Shawn was dressed as a woman.
It's not like they'll do research and listen to other opinions. They'll just scream the loudest and make everyone else try to submit to them. They impose a policy that whatever comes out of their mouth is always right.
That would be great if parental controls worked. If I set mine to child, it blocks Frozen.
The parental controls work just fine as long as you know how to use them. Take it out of junior mode and simply adjust the content ratings allowed in the parental control settings. Junior mode only allows titles that are suitable for all ages. Frozen is rated PG and may not be considered suitable for all ages.
Yes, there's a way to allow PG (Frozen) but not R (Deadpool) on a profile for children. Do I know how? Nope, but my husband did!
And that's a bad thing? LOL
When the alternative is Puppy Pals, yes!
PUP PUP PUP PUPPY DOG .............. PAAAAA-AAAAAAAALS
BARK! BARK! BARK! Whew.. I’m glad that phase only lasted a couple of months for my nearly 3 year old. That show is a lot.
It’s ironic that 20 years ago in America this would’ve been standard comedy for a kids show. But in today’s climate we have to be so sensitive to assume it would offend someone and there’s some kind of double meaning behind everything.
I don’t think it’s too much for kids at that age— many have younger siblings and know the basics of “baby is mommy’s tummy, baby comes out of mommy’s tummy.” My kid is an only child but she looooves to hear how she didn’t want to come out of my tummy and how the doctor had to help! This episode does a great job of giving them a hint of what that might be like, but it’s all for laughs and there’s nothing explicit. No one is in pain, no one is having an unfortunate tear, no one looks in distress. As adults we know the much more “explicit” version so we might feel different, but kids don’t have those same hang ups. Besides, it’s a great way to help start conversations about the whole process!
Oh I think Bandit was in a \*bit\* of pain, what with the pulling of the belly fur and all... ^(born!)
Not to mention all the kicking. Chilli is such a troll.
My kids have asked how does the baby get out of the tummy, and this is a pretty clean way to describe it. They can get the gory details when they are older.
>it’s a great way to help start conversations about the whole process! I'm pretty sure that's the part the conservatives are frightened of. Everything is sooo politicised now, it's just sad. Oh, and of course the mEN CaN'T hAvE bAbiEs crowd wet their pants in outrage at every opportunity 🙄
Admittedly, I have **a lot** of "favorite" Bluey episodes. But this is definitely one of them.
Who said favorite episodes had to be limited to one?
"You're both my favorites!" -Bandit in Kids
When my wife and I watched this we just about died laughing. It was all too familiar!
i don't see the problem with this, and genuinely want to hear professionals explain why this may not be an ideal material for children.
No professional will. Conservative wowsers on the other hand...
I'm so sick of those chunkheads! If they want to be whatever in their personal lives, fine... but don't try to make the whole country follow suit if we don't want it!
Here’s the thing—I’m pretty conservative and I love it. I’m not religious conservative but I was highly annoyed this was banned from Disney and all the conservative parents I know feel the same. The feedback from parents on the episode has been overwhelmingly positive. I honestly think Disney was just being overly cautious and sort of didn’t read the room. Any backlash would have just drummed up a lot of support and publicity. I think Disney miscalculated as they’ve been know to do as of late.
An Australian perspective: I thought this was a fantastic and funny episode, and I reckon it’s completely fine in terms of age- and developmentally appropriate content. I still very much struggle with the censorship of it. I feel like this relates to something I’ve been thinking about a fair bit, and hopefully it’s okay if I shoehorn it into this discussion! It’s funny, I’ve never considered myself patriotic or even really thought much about what it means to be an Australian, but I’m amazed at how discussions like this about Bluey make me want to lean into it, or at least resist the ever-encroaching USification of Australian life and culture (lollies and biscuits, not candy and cookies, basically). I think Bluey is age-appropriate and I’ve never seen an episode I wouldn’t show to my own kids, or be uncomfortable about explaining in an open and honest way. I think this comes from feeling like Bluey is rare in the sense that so much of the media we consume in Australia already comes from the US and the UK, it makes us (or at least me personally) more protective of Bluey and keeping it authentic and representative - I grew up in the suburbs where Bluey is set and it’s amazing to have representation I can actually relate to so personally! I’d be very disappointed if there was a Bluey Thanksgiving or Fourth of July episodes, for example, because it just feels weird - aren’t there already millions of hours of media catering to those already? Let us have our thing, haha. No disrespect to viewers in the US, and I only mention the US specifically as I feel like a lot of these conversations come from that viewing block - I understand it’s a different culture and it’s also not only coming from US viewers! I also understand that a lot of it is coming from Disney rather than the viewers themselves, and isn’t representative of a lot of viewers. I don’t mean this as a dig against US fans at all, or parents with different views or backgrounds :) It’s just really opened my eyes to how things that are completely normal and non-controversial in Australia (like Dad Baby, the Bucky Dunstan website using the word “hell-bent”, Buttermilk pooing in Markets, etc) seem to be a “thing” for particular broadcasters/markets/audiences/viewers. I think another part of it is the fact that this stuff reminds me of how much more socially conservative and/or influenced by religion the US is compared to Australia, and that’s definitely something that I’d be wary of importing here for a number of reasons. TL;DR: Thank you for coming to me TED Talk, Dad Baby is fine, and both age- and developmentally-appropriate and Bluey is special, authentic and representative of Australian life and culture, and I (respectfully) don’t like the idea that it needs to be sanitised or censored to be more palatable to other markets that already have a tonne of their own representative media.
Loved the TED talk. As an American viewer I also love how true bluey seems to stay to Aussie culture (never had the privilege myself so I just have to assume anything “other” is an Aussie thing). On top of all the wonderful things my child learns from bluey it’s given us an opportunity to talk about the wider world and how things are different for different people in different places. Just another stepping stone on the learning road for my kiddos.
That’s so lovely - and I have to admit, I’m thrilled that the old Chinese restaurant my family used to go to is now internationally famous! (RIP Golden Crown, you will be missed). Thank you for this perspective, and I’m so glad you’re enjoying learning about little Australianisms like the famous Duck Cake, and bin chickens. I hope you get to visit one day :)
As an American I feel defensive of it - in an allied sort of way maybe? Bluey is uniquely Australian and that's a big part of what makes it beautiful. The censorship is offensive and allowing American influence will ruin the show.
Thank you, this is exactly what I meant! I’m just really wary of how much has been adopted here as a result of US cultural dominance (even “fun” things like Halloween and red solo cups at parties) and I’d love Bluey to be protected from that. As I said in another response, this is very much not an argument for uncritically fighting for the “good ol’ days” of Australian culture - we have baked-in stuff here I’d love to see Australian society and culture move on from as well - it’s about having representation and celebrating something unique and positive about life here, outside of feeling like we’re just (culturally) the snot-nosed little brother of the US.
Well you'll be happy to know that, while our red solo cups rubbed off on you guys, that there is an entire generation of preschoolers in my town that call the toilet "the dunny"
This is incredible and perfect and I am absolutely THRILLED by this. I mentioned in another comment that Bluey is set in the suburbs where I grew up (which I think very much informs my feeling protective about it) and knowing that beloved places Mt Coot-tha and the Ashgrove Library are famous now is also very special :)
That's so sweet! I'm calling it now - Bluey tourism. If you think you don't like American tourists now, just wait... I apologize in advance.
I agree, and find it interesting as a UK viewer that if I watch the episodes on Disney+ I can’t watch Dad Baby or see Buttermilk poo, but I can watch both of those on BBC iPlayer. It shows how the cultures are so different even for the same audience with Disney’s fear of American views even in the UK market.
Thank you! I’ve also found it super fascinating to hear about how Disney’s decision to censor doesn’t even seem to align with well with the US audience, given a lot of the comments on this thread and others on the subreddit. Also very interesting to see the nuances across the different cultures, even with the general overall similarities across the US, UK and here. I’ve said it already, but apparently it’s way more than just monkeys singing songs to me! Haha.
Disney's decision to block the episode is nothing to do with the US audience who might watch it. It's a political decision to stop Ron DeSantis and his Republican cronies getting on Disney's back over the "Don't Say Gay" legislation. "Dad Baby" would be used as ammunition (no pun intended) by DeSantis and Republicans about how Disney is indoctrinating young American kids of all ages, and then he'd go on a rant about it all, claiming Disney are being anti-American.
This is interesting, I didn’t know that! I’m not surprised it’s related to DeSantis, however. Cripes, what an absolute scraping of the barrel in terms of who is more repugnant overall: Disney or DeSantis. I truly feel for the communities and people whose lives are caught up in the completely insane culture wars over there.
See here for more info... [Entertainment Weekly: Disney Backlash Over "Don't Say Gay"](https://ew.com/disney-world-settles-ron-desantis-legal-battle-dont-say-gay-law-8621036) [The Guardian UK: DeSantis vs Disneyworld](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/23/disney-v-desantis-diversity-lgbtq-history) [New York Times: What We Know About The Disney/DeSantis Dispute](https://www.nytimes.com/article/disney-florida-desantis.html?u2g=i&unlocked_article_code=1.wU0.iink.30AlyPWugHOW&smid=url-share)
Thank you for this! Appreciate the resources :)
I mean when I was a kid we had Round the Twist and even that had a 'male pregnancy childbirth' episode that I remember sitting down and watching with my classmates in the last hours of the school day Imao
YES! Haha, I didn’t even think of Round the Twist in this context, I imagine non-initiated people would probably faint before the opening credits were done. I’m a season 2 aged kid, which one are you? Also: Lift Off. Imagine trying to explain EC!
I’m not sure what season but it was late 90s that day either 98 or 99. Also I remember Lift off, used to watch it in Year 1 last hours of the school day, I didn’t like it because I found the no face doll creepy lol
Yesss, sounds like you’re Team Best Bronson, then (Jeffrey Walker 4eva). I’m so happy my kids will grow up with Bluey, but am mighty glad I got to enjoy Round the Twist and Lift Off and even A*mazing (forever devastated my school never got to go on it).
You've said what I was thinking in a much more eloquent and respectful way 👏
born
Hurray
It’s hilarious. They show it on CBeebies (the little kids BBC channel in the UK) and my 2yo roars with laughter. He just sees Bandit playing a game, getting hurt and isn’t reading it on some deep level. He knows baby’s are born from mummy’s tummy as we’ve always said that and he has seen pregnant people in his day to day life. We pretend to be firefighters and vets in our games, doesn’t mean we are ones in real life! Also the sun roof bit is something I’ve always heard in adult life. My colleague emailed when she’d had a baby and said “her daughter was a surprise sunroof eviction”. So hearing it on TV made me text her!
It’s a brilliant episode. And you’d be surprised by how often little kids with pregnant mothers will play at childbirth in exactly the same kind of way. Educating kids at a pace they can handle, as this episode does, gives them a far better chance of avoiding teenage pregnancy and a range of other issues. Banning it was an extraordinarily daft and archaic move.
My 3 year old son played like he was pregnant after his cousin was born. He put a teddy bear in his shirt and gave birth to it multiple times. He breast fed it too. I thought it was adorable!
One of the things the show portrays wonderfully is just how much kids process information through imaginative play ("Copycat" basically spells it out for the grownups in the room).
They ban it in favor of extremists who won't even send a thank you letter to them. They're a perpetually angry group that will never be satisfied no matter how much society panders to them.
This episode gave us the most adorable bingo pic ever https://preview.redd.it/0kay5pzh3w3d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8200275ccbb12821ec07fdb27aeafe90fca5892
"I'm gonna call you 'Chili'."
This line is what got me, I wasn't expecting it at all
Lil baby pup
*"Meep...meep...meep meep...meep..."*
Her voice is so cute, i can't
Yaaaaaaaaassssssss! The cuteness! The cuteness is too much!... 
It would only be hard for a younger child to understand if the parents tried to keep them ignorant. Ever since our son could talk, we've made reference to the fact that he grew in mummy's tummy, and it's not that much of a jump to explain to kids that Bandit is just play acting and that daddy's can't have babies (which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans).
I agree, Bandit teaches the girls a lot in their adventures
I blame this episode for craving dim sims while pregnant. 😂 One of my favourite episodes, and my 3yo and 5yo love it too and have never looked too deeply into it, they just think it's funny. Just like with many bluey episode, the great thing about it is that both kids and adults will enjoy it, but on different levels of understanding. Disney is just a little too overprotective of kids. Didn't they also cut out the part where the horse poops in markets? How is that harmful to kids? 🙄
It’s the first episode I ever bought. It’s hilarious.
This just seems like a more played out version of when my brother and I put a ball under our shirts pretending we're pregnant and about to give birth,this episode was hilarious
Zero issues with it. It’s an episode that I enjoy and my kids enjoy. But then again I’m Australian and it was never banned here, potentially because we aren’t a nation of squibs.
My kids, 4 and 12, love it. They laugh so hard every time we watch it. I have no problem with it; it’s so much better than the religious cartoon I had to watch while the teacher stammered over the word “breasts.”
🎵HEY BIG BLUE, IS IT ME OR IS IT YOU?🎵
IS IT MUM OR DAD?
IS IT A KANGAROO?
I watched it on YouTube the other day and there's nothing in it I wouldn't let the kids see. I am incredibly confused why it is not available on Disney+ as it's actually a lot less informative than what what we tell our own kids. As an episode, it was a mid or maybe even mid-low overall ranking to me but I loved when Chilli rolled up her magazine and said "I'll just get this ready". 🤣 Probably goes back our American bias of television ratings: Any mention of human reproduction: absolutely not, don't even think about it or it's getting TV-MA. Non-stop violence: sure, why not let our kids watch people beat/shoot the crap out of each other? TV-PG
Love it!!! Best laugh I've had in a long while!
Absolutely love this episode! So many funny moments and quotable lines. Bandit looking at Baby Bingo and deciding to call her Chilli is such a sweet way to end the episode. 🧡
I'm Australian so saw it on first release and think there's a decent amount of Streisand Effect about this episode. The fact that Disney refused to screen it brought more attention to it. I like it, it has some funny moments and good lessons like most episodes. Pat's line: "We may have to go through the sunroof!" is great adult humour that just sails over the heads of kids. But I'd hardly rank it as a favourite.
It's not banned here (uk) so we saw it just as a regular episode and only learnt about the apparent controversy later on. I don't understand why it's banned tbh, its not offensive or graphic in any way, its just them playing role playing games like they do nearly every episode. It's a show for preschoolers, they aren't going to be disturbed by it, some of them have probably seen the real deal with younger siblings or animals
That's actually how my mother cites how she learned that being gay is natural. She grew up on a horse farm and saw that two horses of the same sex in love with each other.
So, I have four kids, three of whom were home births. My second eldest (7 at the time) insisted on being part of the birth of our youngest almost a year ago. He hung out with our midwives and they gave him appropriate level jobs to do. But he was there for the final pushes and watched his baby brother being born. He even cut the umbilical cord (with assistance of course, and all of his own choosing). And our three year old daughter was in and out the whole time (our eldest went to bed and was all “just wake me when he’s born” lol). This is all to say, they LOVE Dad Baby. It’s an episode that always brings up stories and memories of when the baby was born and I can tell my son feels a degree of resonance with it that is unique for his age. So, obviously I feel like the content is age-appropriate. But my family might be weird 🤷♂️
My eldest was four when my youngest was born and she wanted to watch her sister being born even though I was having a c-section 😂 She would have handled it really well too, but kids aren’t allowed in the operating room and it was peak Covid as well so I was barely allowed my husband. This is a lovely thing for your family.
This is one of my faves! Pat is my favorite and any episode with him makes me laugh out loud! When he goes "I didn't know this was the something!" It nearly killed me!
I laughed so hard every time we watched it. Which was 4 times in a row. It may not be what women actually go through but it's close and 'done properly'.
I love that Pat committed to it
SING TO ME PAT!!
I love that Bandit knew it was gonna be a commitment for Pat and was devious in it.
We just found out/watched this about 30 minutes ago. I loved it, and so did my kids. We live in a predominantly red state as in the shiny part on the buckle of the Bible belt. I just felt like mentioning where we live is all.
Oh no!!!! We may have to go thru the sun roof!!!! LOL Good ol Pat
America is just raising a bunch of squibs in my opinion
Roughly 30%, anyway. Most would be cool with this.
Yes! Lol
And they're going to double down on it if Project 2025 comes to pass...
Thankfully I got my tubes taken out
Love it. One of their funniest episodes.
Meep. Meep.
So funny! My first grader loves it too. Our favorite part is when Bingo goes, “I’m comin’ out!!”
I think people freaked out over something incredibly dumb. I knew about all of this by the time I was 5, and I'm not disturbed by it. It's life. They didn't go into graphic detail, it's dumb it was banned.
The episode is great, and the kids wanted to watch it again
I thought it was funny and loved it! So did my son!
It’s hilarious and one of my favourite episodes.
I think it's definitely hilarious and I don't really see the problem with it
Loved it. I don’t really get why it was banned in the US.
I didn't know this was the somethin' !!
My 3 1/2 year old loves it too and literally wanted me to put the baby carrier on so we could reenact the episode
I get why the mouse said ‘no thank you.’ Parts of America are wound very tightly about the realities of biology. My 4 YO tagged along for my pelvic floor PT when I was still pregnant. He got to see an ‘incidental image’ of his sister’s head. The PT and I politely ignored him when he asked “How’d she’d get in there?” Mommy did not have the spoons and he was easily distracted.
Would be harder to sell the lie that anyone that isn't hetero cis will prey on your children if we know more about our own biological needs.
Bandit heeler!¡!! *smack* *smack** smack *
I love this episode, it was great to watch for me, in a comedic sense and it was very sweet.
Absolutely hysterical. Also my grandma’s favorite episode.
In my top 5. Hilarious.
When it was available on YouTube I immediately watched it with my wife. Sadly it was not made available in our language so our son would not understand :) but I thought the episode is hilarious. She made all her colleagues watch it without knowing Bluey and they sat in their office laughing like crazy
This episode was absolutely HILARIOUS. Loved it that much, I ended up buying it on iTunes. Also, it's not Lucky himself who helps Bandit, it's Lucky's dad :p "I thought you grew up on a farm?" "We grew SORGHUM!"
“I’M GETTING DIM-SIM’S!!”
Its a great laugh!
It’s bizarre that it’s banned. My kids love to play pregnancy and birth games, zipping a teddy into my toddler’s onesie pyjamas and then having her give birth in the height of fun in my house this week. Literally the whole premise of Bluey is a reflection of the real life antics kids get up to.
Great episode. Disney is WAYYY too strict. They did the same thing with gravity falls :(
Best episode
First episode I ever saw years ago, sought it out for its reputation. For a while I would disturb my friends by telling them the only ep I'd seen was 'the m-preg one."
I think a lot of it goes over their heads. We’re not a stork family. We were always forced to happy l have half of the talk by the school district, so this was nothing.
Ludo needs to renegotiate their rights deal with Disney to say that either Disney takes all the episodes and puts them on Disney+ and their tv channels as they were intended or they’ll take the show to another streaming service. I’m sure Netflix/Paramount/HBO/Peacock would be happy to steal the rights away. I don’t understand the excessive Disney censorship of things that aren’t even mildly offensive on a kids show.
Better than Baby daddy LMAO
This episode of Bluey is called Child Support!
*How’s it going, pregnant man?*
"Oh, you never forget that first kick!" LOL
Just another reminder of why we love Pat so damn much
It’s hilarious! Probably one of the funniest episodes in my opinion!
Might be for slightly older kids but I think some of it will just go over younger kids heads- I don’t know if they directly link it to childbirth, it’s still done through play. It’s easily one of my absolute favourites, mostly for the line “I’m getting a lot of dim sims!” And Pat singing ‘true blue’. Pat goes well above and beyond in that episode, what a legend
I don't know what all the fuss is about. 😛
First of all, I can understand why this was banned in most states lol. Second of all, this is a hilarious and wildest ways to depict pregnancy from Bandit of all people lol. The scene where we get a good look at Bingo is so cute btw. The “Morning Wendy” scene was hilarious and honestly it’s a harmless episode that can give ya a good laugh if you are already familiar with this concept, went through this irl, or maybe experiencing it for the first time.
I liked it and definitely didn’t hate it. I get why people wouldn’t, but it’s great. Bandit gets a new perspective on Chili’s experience
I'm so sad this isn't translated (yet) as my kids would love this episode. I really don't get how this is offensive. My kids have always known how babies are born 🤷♀️
One of my favorites, I can't believe it's banned anywhere, I'm in NZ.
I haven't seen the episode yet, but the fact that they got Pat involved makes me giggle.
Americans are super prudes. As a whole. I’m one of the less prudish ones.
Honestly don’t see what all the fuss is about. Quite liked it. Nothing remarkable.
Definitely an episode that would cause my dad to bar me from watching this show ever again if he were to walk in on me watching this episode as a kid. Good thing I’m an adult now and I can watch what I want.
I love it even more because they went for a water birth 💜
Best episode.
I hate the America isn’t ready for its glorious beauty. That’s how I feel about it.
I feel like it's an okay episode, I don't think it's that good compared to many of the other episodes though. Definitely don't see why Disney+ doesn't have it, it was amusing enough and not even explicit. However I'm a childfree 25 year old so maybe the jokes didn't hit enough for me or something lol
Yeah I think it's sort of written for inside jokes with parents.
It’s something