‘Buddy’ Review: In Casper Kelly’s Fairy-Tale Spoof of ‘Barney,’ the Cuddly Kids’ Mascot Is a Mad Slasher
Variety | 25.01.2026 03:28
“Barney & Friends,” the perennially beloved children’s TV program, made its first appearance on PBS in 1992, and from virtually the moment it arrived it was the kiddie show that launched a thousand misanthropic sick jokes. At the center of every joke was the same idea: that Barney, the big fuzzy purple dinosaur with the doofy voice and the message of love, was a character worthy of your contempt. He was too cuddly, too wholesome, too saccharine, too hideously adorable. He was such an insufferable mascot of synthetic affection that, in line with the jokes, he deserved a fate worse than death.
