this isn't what I meant by "a new fandom"

[vaznetti]

In a moment of weakness, I looked up Thomas the Tank Engine videos on YouTube, because Spartacus has an unbelievable obsession with it; now he thinks that my laptop is another of his toys! All the time it's "Pictures of Thomas!" or "Pictures of Emily Train

Comments

[cschick]

Just wait until he discovers Dinosaur Train. The Henson Company project that must have emerged from a brainstorming session called "How to completely obsess the brains of little boys."

[vaznetti]

We may not get that here -- right now we don't have any of the "pay" children's channels, since we can watch CBeebies all the time. But it sounds dangerous!

[cschick]

Dinosaur Train is on PBS, so it may eventually follow Thomas over there.

It's actually a pretty good show, once you get beyond the basic WTF? of dinosaurs riding trains and time-traveling (the train is the method the dinosaurs use to visit different periods over those 120-odd million years they ruled the earth). Its scientific information about paleontology is quite decent.

And your 4-year-old being able to pronounce the tongue-tangling names of a whole collection of dinosaur types is always interesting.

[vaznetti]

Oh God, dinosaurs riding trains? Spartacus will be ALL OVER THAT. He can already say "dinosaur" and he isn't even two yet.

[adafrog]

You know you have children when.... lol

[vaznetti]

I now spend time thinking up unlikely children's show crossovers. Really.

[timesink]

I recall vividly the day I blundered into an XF/Teletubbies crossover. "Mulder even wore the tutu." OMG. I also recall entire threads on various mom listservs that would devolve into virtual breast-vs.-bottle intensity blows over which "Blue's Clues" host was better/hotter, Steve or Joe. (Steve. No question.)

[vaznetti]

I know who wrote that crossover!

This is why I stay away from Mumsnet. Pure terror.

[timesink]

I looked up the fic, because I couldn't remember who wrote it, and I recognized the name! And here I was remembering it as a one-off writer. She caught the rhythm of the show, that's for sure. {g}

[elliotsmelliot]

That's cute. I once read an academic article about how the show promotes facism via the station master.

[vaznetti]

Actually, I think the Fat Controller is supposed to be God. He manages to be everywhere at once, as far as I can tell.

[vaznetti]

The obsession is so bizarre! I mean, he really hasn't been exposed to a lot of TTE stuff, and yet he already seems to know everything about it!

I am so amused that your son has already understood the difference between the subway and the Tube, and wants to visit the Tube too. You can take him to Paris for the Metro as well!