The tee-hee-ing about Joyner seems to serve no purpose except to include a couple mentions of sex, just so that there are a couple mentions of sex. In a series that closes with a kind of "love your fellow human being" lesson, these digressions into some pretty rote and cheap exploitation are awfully jarring.īut also, regrettably, the documentary also wants to grab onto a couple of sensational-sounding stories that don't really have much of anything to do with the pop-cultural Barney story, including the difficult life of Leach's son and the fact that David Joyner, who wore the Barney costume for years, now does "tantric energy healing." Neither Leach nor her son participated, and attempts to relate their personal lives to the cultural history of Barney get pretty tenuous. Anyone who is against inclusion and kindness, says former Barney voice actor Bob West, may "need a hug." (Reactions to that will be personal mine was: "Hmm.") The documentary tries to do several things: document the creation of a phenomenon, document the creation of a cultural backlash, and try to tie those things to a larger conversation about not only internet negativity but also maybe racism and homophobia and political violence. She originally sold VHS tapes of the big guy, until he was picked up by public television and became an enormous hit as well as, of course, an enormous punching bag. I watched both hour-long installments of the Peacock documentary I Love You, You Hate Me, and I'm still not sure whether two hours is way too much time to spend talking about Barney the dinosaur or not nearly enough.īarney was created by Sheryl Leach in the late 1980s as entertainment for her son, Patrick. But it's spoiled by sensational side trips and settles on the idea that haters just need a hug. I Love You, You Hate Me examines what makes people (men especially) so hostile to a children's dinosaur.
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