Mr Men books and their sadistic lessons

[Borisisabanana]

I tried to post this in a different fashion but MN thought it was serious and deleted it - as an AIBU from the point of view of the villagers in “Mr Nosey”, who stage increasingly violent interventions on Mr Nosey until one villager is standing behind a fence, presumably to saw off his nose if he is nosey?! (It doesn’t come to that, thank god, because Mr Nosey had learnt his lesson, having had his nose hammered previously)

anyway the Mr Men books. My children are obsessed. Anyone care to discuss the most maniacal one they’ve encountered?

Beverage? It said generator before autocorrect intervened...

I used to be obsessed with Mr Men

I particularly liked Mr Rush which was basically about him trying to get a job but as a bus driver he was in too much of a rush to stop at stops, as a waiter he didn’t let people have time to eat their food….think he ended up as a delivery driver? A 1970s Amazon man

I also liked Mr Tall but no idea of the story now

Mr Sneeze was DC4's favourite a couple of years ago.

I wonder what would be made of him now!

In Mr Noisy they gaslight him and make him go home with no dinner to eat, rather than just asking him to speak quietly.

It was Henry. (He didn't want his paint to get spoilt by raindrops.) [Yes, I'm dad enough to have had to read it so many times that I can still remember it - DS2 is 22 ffs!!! 🤔

*old enough. Not "dad enough". Sigh

It's been years since I've read Mr Men books.

My favourite was Mr Bump.
But you're right @Borisisabanana !
Thinking about it now, surley someone should be concerened for Mr Bump.
If someone can't go outside without hurting themseoves some kind of medical intervention is required!

When Ds was 3 or 4 he invented his own language called “googoo language”. In googoo language you say nothing but “goo” and “gah”. A lot. It was surprisingly expressive (based on tone of voice) but got a little tiresome at times.

We started making up stories about “Mr Googoo”. In every single one no one could understand Mr Googoo (for example he met Mr Tickle - which went about as well as you can imagine) and things went wrong as a result.

We always ended the stories with “And so Mr Googoo decided to speak English after all….. Except on special occasions!”

Ds is 9 now and refuses to believe googoo language ever existed. I strangely miss it. And Mr Googoo.

My son's first pants out of pampers were Mr Man pants. Around 3 ish His favourite pair was Mr Tickle. Royal blue snuggies, a Mr Tickle with his long arms around the front and Mr Tickle written around the waistband like a logo.

Part of me was always ...... Mr Tickle? Really?

I see other pp mentioned Mr Messy.

Two men, after offering to work for him to tidy up and he says no and I don’t want things neat and tidy, decide to kidnap Mr Messy by bundling him into their van and taking him back to his house and bathing him, etc.

Then the story ends with: “… if you’re a messy sort of person you might have a visit from two people. And you know what they are called don’t you?”

Well that’s a bit terrifying!

Honestly, I loved the Mr Men books when I was a kid and dd does too.

I remember loving Me Men as a child so bought ds the set of original Mr Men

I didn’t realise how repetitive and long the stories are so would make them up. Then ds noticed the stories kept changing 😭

we both loves the series too (original and one on Milkshake about 12 years ago)

recently gave set away to my niece for her son made me feel a little sad but I know her ds loves them

My boys loved Mr Rude. 'Fatty! You're supposed to take the food out of the fridge, not eat the fridge as well!' Obviously it was - well, rude, and they knew it was an insult not to be repeated but they still loved it.

Both my dc loved these books when they were little. They did get repetitive

Mr Sad is a good depiction of a depressed person.
I used to love Mr Impossible.

Well quite. What if he had hearing loss?

Mr Rude is French in the animated one

Worse than that I think they give him a bath by force!

It's Mr Grumpy who I have most sympathy for. He's clearly clinically depressed and that's a really difficult situation to live with, but people telling you to cheer up , tickling you to force you into a facade of laughter, and being forced to pretend to be sunny and happy is the opposite of helpful. There's no acceptance or sympathy, just an assumption that someone else's opinion of how to live is automatically better and can be externally imposed.

Dd brought home a book from nursery about a girl and her cat (I forget the name now). In the story a 'red man' stole her cat and he had sharp teeth and was savage and the girl was worried he would eat her cat. The 'red man' character was a Native American! I did mention to dd's teacher that perhaps the book is outdated but she looked at me as if I was mad.

Slightly OT, I thought Henry getting bricked in a tunnel was based on what they actually did to obselete locomotives in the 1950s rather than pay for breakers. Could have been from many steam train documentaries I used to have to watch.

If we're talking about other books, has anyone mentioned Not Now Bernard yet?

Still traumatised by that one

Definitely. A very worrying book.

Yes but then Dyspraxic Mr Bump turns up to fuck with them as pay back.

Very concerning stuff indeed. By the end he is institutionalised though.

mr Greedy also ends up scared stiff into being slim and then he’s happy.

re other books I haven’t heard of “not now Bernard” but I always thing Mog going into the garden and having “dark thoughts” sounds very sinister 😆

Mr Forgetful was the favourite in our house. "There's a goose asleep in the rain" is a very funny line