Izzy-whizzy, let's get bizzy!

[Jusenkyo no Pikachu]

As all you Brits and Aussies on this board might have guessed, this is a tread about a little yellow bear, his doggie pal and panda girlfriend.

In other words, I might just have gone completely batty.

Since Americans seem to miss out on all these really good shows, I'll help clue you guys in: the little yellow bear is Sooty, a character who almost singlehandedly beats Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po for the title of coolest character ever on a British preschooler show. How's that for a silent hand puppet? My sister prefers the doggie pal Sweep (who sounded like a kazoo), and admittedly some of the jokes can be repetitive in staged format.

Sooty has been the star of his own show, The Sooty Show, since 1955. I'm unaware if the show is still on in Britain but it's not been on here for well over a decade. In fact, aside from some videos seen online, I hadn't seen anything of the series during my time at school and only rediscovered it two days ago at my aunt and uncles--they have the 1982 video show.

The video itself is a taped live performance of Sooty where every effort is made to hide the fact that Sooty is really attached to the arm of presenter/token human Matthew Corbett. This requires him being behind a large block for most of the show (although, in a clever move, Sooty is at one point visible with both Sweep and Soo). Unfortunately, the fact is not too well hidden--at one point Matthew brings out a box with Sooty. He turns around, and it's quite clear that his hand is what operates Sooty. The show itself though is quite clever, and Matthew does get sprayed with water several times. And of course we get to see Sooty do some magic (the words used make up the subject line of the thread). Heck, we even get to see Sweep make magic. Oh, and they make little more than a passing reference to Sooty and Soo's relationship. Heck, even my sister laughed at this--and she usually criticizes my watching stuff like this. Although she was mainly laughing at Sweep trying to perform rock (I think the song was "Barbara Ann").

Overall...I think I have gone batty.