When we’re young, so many mysterious, adult things enter our lives and we, oblivious in our innocence, never recognize them for what they truly are.
Thank God.
Then, one day Jackie Paper decides he has better things to do and turns his back on the world of childhood, perhaps forever. He turns the key in the lock and opens the door to adulthood.
Welcome to the machine, kid.
From the (disad-)vantage point of the grown up world, things look a little different. As there’s a subtle yet crucial difference in perspective from a grassy knoll to, say, a Book Depository window, so too adulthood’s viewpoint casts a different light and different shadows on old, familiar scenes.
Like the psychadelic magic mushroom land of HR Pufnstuf.
Pufnstuf was based upon the acid-induced dreams of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who claimed to have had the drug injected into him by his arch-nemesis, Antonio Salieri. During his hallucinogen-induced trip, Mozart completed all of his most widely-acclaimed works, including The Magic Flute, an opera about a magic flute.
Cooke took the concept of the magic flute and placed it loosely into the hands of a swinging, happy-go-lucky teenager named “Jack…”
The BBC recently announced plans to produce a new “reality” television series based on H.R. Pufnstuf, entitled H.R. Pufnstuff Idol. In the new show, contestants will be set afloat on a foam-rubber island ruled by the foam-rubber dragon. One team will try and protect a magic flute, while the other team tries to steal it. The team that fails to execute “Jimmy” will lose the immunity challenge, and it must select the weakest link who gets “Witchy Poo’d” upon.
The winner of each episode will win a position on the Dancing on Ice judging panel, a new washer and dryer, and all the Marmite they can eat. The second place winner wins a date with classic British beauty gone horribly bad, Jayne Torvill.
It will be a ratings monster.
No, I’m not sorry I said it.
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
raincoaster 
Now there’s a reality tv show I’d actually watch.
Question: would you need to get stoned, or do you think the show itself would be enough? I’m thinking the latter.
Yep. Agreed. In fact, getting stoned might end up being a liability.
It might impair your ability to understand why Jimmy was obssessed with his “fwoot”.
Indeed. Or why Witchiepoo is uncannily like the Hamburgler…
Oh, and I have to make a confession. Whilst perusing this post, contemplating psychedelia and musing on your Sidebar, I was persuaded to pinch your Roulette idea.
Feel free to pinch anything from my place.
Thank you. Indeed, I always feel empowered for theft.
The roulette thing is a GREAT way to discover which of your old YouTubes have been busted and taken down.
Really? Is that true? Was that in the movie? Did Salieri inject Mozart with drugs? Those pesky jealous I Talians. Wow they were pulling mob type shit even back in the day!
Yep, it accounts for many things. Those Borgias have a lot to answer for, opera included.
You have no idea how horrified I am of H.R. Puffnstuff.
I’ve heard once that the “puffnstuff” was a token toking reference (goddamn that’s fun to say).
I vividly recall an episode where “witchy poo” sprinkles “angel dust” all over the mushroom land….and they basically all wig out on acid.
Good heavens! Surely you are reading too much into an innocent tale of the love of a boy for his flute.
LOL “It’s a story about a boy and his magic dragon, Greg.”
Never heard it called that before!
I have a tendency to quote “meet the parents” at random from time to time. I was trying to link the uncomfortable situation where Ben Stiller insists to DeNiro that Puff the Magic Dragon is a counterculture reference to our discussion of H.R. Puffnstuff.
Thanks for posting- I loved this show as a kid- which may shed some light on my life’s path. I was already a fan of Jack Wild who had previously played “the Artful Dodger” in “Oliver!”. Growing up in the ’60’s under the magic spell of these cultural influences certainly shaped my life..!
Jack Wild was awesome; very sad, what happened to him later. Child stars rarely turn out well, eh?
Wonder what happened to that kid from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters?