Gabba Gabba Hey? No?

(l-r) pink monster, robot, DJ Lance, orange monster, green monster, wolf

Upon the suggestion of a friend of ours who has a kid, I decided to check out Yo Gabba Gabba on demand. She described it as a children's show for hipster babies where all the music sounds like Band of Horses. It was definitely entertaining and reminded me of a throwback to older programming from my youth.

Parts HR Puff n Stuff and Sesame Street, from what I gather there's a guy named DJ Lance who has a bunch of friends (I honestly don't remember their names, so I'll just refer to them as how they look) there's a tall orange monster with one eye (he's appearing in a car commercial with toys going on a roadtrip), a pink monster with a flower as hair, a green monster with long arms, a wolf, and a robot. Each show has a theme that they all since, dance, and talk about. Then in between these segments are kids either dancing, or being the characters in 8-bit video games. A very spastic and trippy 23 minutes.

What we liked the best was the drawing corner with Mark Mothersbaugh, where he draws animals that animate off the page all while dressed in a bright shirt and possibly a Devo jumpsuit, and the dance/music corner. Biz Markie also seems to make an appearance to teach kids beats... as only Biz Markie can.

For the dance/music corner segment, we saw both Mya and Leslie Hall teach dances. Very simple, but then they free style and get down. I caught Supernova playing a song on Yo Gabba Gabba about jumping, and through the magic of Youtube, we found The Shins, Mates of State, Ladytron, The Roots, and so on. We knew it was a hip show, but were also amazed that bands of that caliber and variety appeared.

I don't see myself becoming an avid fan, but I'll probably check every now and again to see what bands are on there. I can see how it's entertaining for kids and adults, given it's bright colors and spastic nature.


Here's The Shins on Yo Gabba Gabba. I joked to Ricky that this is pretty much what they looked like when I saw them in concert last year.