Is "The Backyardigans" the reason I lurv music?

By: Emma Sikes

Artwork by: Morgan Epps

Your backyard friends (sing it with me now), the Backyardigans, we’ve got the whole wide world in our yard to explore. This show has everything; catchy songs, adorable animals in lil’ costumes, and absurdly entertaining plotlines. Did you know that each episode’s music is written in a specific genre? Mind-blowing for me TBH. Not only is the show educating kids on the importance of friendship and different cultures, they’re diversifying their music taste at the same time. Also, the singing is just fucking impressive. These kids were producing Grammy level performances in every episode and don’t even get me started on the dancing (Abby Lee Miller could never). I’m convinced most of the budget was allocated to choreography and music production. Ok, so I’m gonna take this time to gush about the one episode EVERYONE remembers; International Super Spy. First of all, spy themed anything got me GOING as a kid, specialized technology, chic outfits, and the villain’s Hinchman (comedic relief ASF). This episode's genre is jazz, obviously, and Uniqua plays the villain (Lady in Pink). She has to repeatedly remind Hinchman Tyrone “Don’t call me boss, call me Lady.”, and he forgets EVERY TIME (comedy gold). Pablo shines in this episode, giving you his money note over and over in the episode's title song. Another discovery I made (I re-watched for research purposes) was that they literally invented Just Dance. No, yeah, you read that right, instead of violence the spy’s were tasked with dancing. Just for reference, the episode came out in 2007 and Just Dance was first released in 2009. Another fun fact that blew (high) re-watching me’s mind was that not every episode has all 5 of the baes. I like to think that one of the Backyardigans was in time out, and their mom was currently beating their ass for inviting four hungry, dirty, singing and dancing animal children into her newly cleaned house. I highly recommend a re-watch; high or not, it’s just good tv, but make your roommate use her account so you don’t get a text from your concerned mother about your mental status.