What delighted children can make adults shudder

As soon as I saw the headline included the phrase “slightly terrifying puppet,” I knew I had to read more. This is the magic of news content, which conquered the concept of clickbait two centuries before the internet was invented. Like a hungry bird, I pecked at the story until it gave me the nourishment I needed.

For the very few readers who don’t read every word published by The Courier, here’s the gist: a condor chick at Oregon zoo was abandoned by its parents, so keepers have been feeding it using a hand puppet.

And that puppet looks like somebody captured a nightmare in a swamp at midnight, shaved it and added red eyes. It’s brilliant.

One of the best opportunities for weird humour lies in contradiction.

Build in an unexpected conflict of ideas and a nervous laugh is never far away. Perhaps the best example of that is to point out the inherent horror of things designed to entertain children, like clowns, dolls and, yes, puppets.

There’s the intentional horror, like all those video nasties that now populate cheap TV apps (did you know there were seven Child’s Play movies?) or, perhaps gentler, things like the work of Jim Henson on Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal.

But the unintentional stuff is the best. Don’t tell me you can look at Zippy from Rainbow nowadays without wondering what they were smoking back then. Why does he look like that? He must go to bed weeping and wake up screaming.

Then there’s poor, moronic Thomas the Tank Engine, who makes so many basic mistakes that he really shouldn’t be allowed out on his own.

Tell me you can look at Muffin the Mule or the Flowerpot Men now without shuddering and I will doubt your word. The Clangers weren’t aliens – they were mutants. The Moomins were disturbing and Emu was disturbingly violent. And don’t get me started on the Teletubbies.

I know these aren’t all puppets but the point stands. One child’s delight is another one’s horror, especially if you span generations or, in this case, species. There is no guarantee that anything will remain objectively wholesome.

Except Pingu, who is the best ever. We can all agree on that.

One child’s delight is another one’s horror