Bandit Heeler – lovable larrikin, or just a bad dad?
June 10, 2022 6:21 PM Subscribe
Bandit Heeler is a hero. The cartoon father of Bluey and her younger sister Bingo, Bandit is the much-loved dad dog at the heart of Australia’s favourite four-legged family. He balances the drudgery of housework with the creative escapades of his daughters, repurposing everyday objects and actions for imaginative play and engagement.
But there is a darker side to this lovable character.
Bandit never strays far from the reductive stereotype of the Australian larrikin: the likeable roguish male stuck between childhood and adulthood whose disrespect of authority and rough-and-ready masculinity reflects Australia’s emotional attachment to the working-class underdog.
But there is a darker side to this lovable character.
Bandit never strays far from the reductive stereotype of the Australian larrikin: the likeable roguish male stuck between childhood and adulthood whose disrespect of authority and rough-and-ready masculinity reflects Australia’s emotional attachment to the working-class underdog.
Bandit responsibly contributes at least equally to all aspects of parenting and partnering. Being playful isn’t being childish you wet blanket dweebs.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:55 PM on June 10, 2022 [26 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 6:55 PM on June 10, 2022 [26 favorites]
That said, he sets unrealistically high expectations for parents, “I really need to go to work, I can’t spend all day on Rug Island.”
posted by leotrotsky at 6:56 PM on June 10, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 6:56 PM on June 10, 2022 [11 favorites]
Bandit rules. If he sucks I’m a fuckin MONSTER
posted by BlunderingArtist at 7:33 PM on June 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by BlunderingArtist at 7:33 PM on June 10, 2022 [8 favorites]
Bandit represents what I aspire to be as a father. But god damn, it’s fucking exhausting. I can only sustain that level for so long. Unlike Tiny Croft who can go all day and well into the night, endlessly demanding, “Play with me!”
posted by Naberius at 7:56 PM on June 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 7:56 PM on June 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
Yes my only complaint against Bluey's parents is that they set the bar way too fuckin' high.
posted by emjaybee at 8:34 PM on June 10, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 8:34 PM on June 10, 2022 [10 favorites]
Do you need a crazy peelow?
posted by tristeza at 10:35 PM on June 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by tristeza at 10:35 PM on June 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
What the hecking heck???? He's got a job, he's shown taking care of the children while his wife has personal hobby time, he supports wonderfully creative children, and somehow... He bad? What?
That ain't no toxic masculinity there, buddies. I'm baffled.
posted by Jacen at 10:36 PM on June 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
That ain't no toxic masculinity there, buddies. I'm baffled.
posted by Jacen at 10:36 PM on June 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
“I really need to go to work, I can’t spend all day on Rug Island.”
We spotted what must have been an in-joke about the fact that the parents are basically never shown at or even going to their jobs yesterday -
Bluey (bambi eyed, on the verge of fake tears, getting Bandit to play a game instead of work): "We never see you! You're always at work!"
Bandit: "I'm NEVER at work!"
posted by ominous_paws at 11:16 PM on June 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
We spotted what must have been an in-joke about the fact that the parents are basically never shown at or even going to their jobs yesterday -
Bluey (bambi eyed, on the verge of fake tears, getting Bandit to play a game instead of work): "We never see you! You're always at work!"
Bandit: "I'm NEVER at work!"
posted by ominous_paws at 11:16 PM on June 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Bandit's worst crime is seeking the path of least resistance a lot of the time - like, TELL WENDY TO LEAVE YOUR HAIR ALONE, BANDY! IT'S FINE! - and he's regularly seen doing 'feminine' coded chores like washing clothes, bathing the kids and packing lunches. He does Bingo's duck cake, for fuck's sake! He got full marks at Mum School!
His occasionally patch of 'larrikinism' is mostly taking the piss at Chili, who I gotta say friends, needs to get some therapy. I feel like she's got some cultural cringe at times and is trying to 'improve' herself, despite the fact there's nothing at all wrong with being a bitch from the bush. The entire episode of Dunny is a good case in point - she spends the whole time fretting about using 'nice' words. It's a bushy word, and she's trying to be 'better' than the bush.
posted by Jilder at 12:10 AM on June 11, 2022 [4 favorites]
His occasionally patch of 'larrikinism' is mostly taking the piss at Chili, who I gotta say friends, needs to get some therapy. I feel like she's got some cultural cringe at times and is trying to 'improve' herself, despite the fact there's nothing at all wrong with being a bitch from the bush. The entire episode of Dunny is a good case in point - she spends the whole time fretting about using 'nice' words. It's a bushy word, and she's trying to be 'better' than the bush.
posted by Jilder at 12:10 AM on June 11, 2022 [4 favorites]
Bandit is a complex character, sure. But that's good, and part of what makes him a valuable role model. I want to see somebody who's flawed but who works hard to be a better parent because that's both aspirational and relatable, and Bandit fits the bill!
posted by avapoet at 12:23 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by avapoet at 12:23 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
I feel like, judging from the first season, Chilli is shown going to work significantly more than Bandit
posted by Jacen at 12:57 AM on June 11, 2022
posted by Jacen at 12:57 AM on June 11, 2022
That was a really perceptive article. I’ve watched a lot of Bluey with my kids, and we’ve picked up ideas for our own games to play, but the different portrayals of Chilli and Bandit have started to grate on me a bit. While the latter is very clearly in a comic mode, cartoonish in a positive sense, Chilli’s character has notes of realism. The result of that disparity is that the difficulties of modern life are only her problems, not his. It’s not a big issue, but it’s there.
posted by Kattullus at 2:19 AM on June 11, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Kattullus at 2:19 AM on June 11, 2022 [4 favorites]
There is a long read this morning in The Guardian which also has a go at analysing Bandit:
"Bluey lives in a big house in suburban Brisbane with her four-year-old sister Bingo, her mother Chilli and her father Bandit. This family are all dogs, by the way. Bingo and Chilli are orange dogs and Bluey and Bandit are blue. Chilli drives a 4WD to work at the local airport and Bandit, the dad, is nominally an archaeologist. In fact, Bandit seems to spend much of his time at home, and much of that time immersed in the imaginary worlds of one or both of his daughters.
At which point we can go no further in this precis without pausing to say: fucking Bandit. Bluey’s dad seems to exist to give parents another reason to lose sleep. Bandit always plays the games right. Bandit invests in his daughters’ dreamed-up scenarios without stinting or sighing or checking the time. Bandit has neat, apt truisms and he’s ready to offer them at a moment’s notice. He’s funny. He’s creative. Bandit is heaven to his own kids and so, in the eyes of many parents I know, he is hell. “He makes DIY look sort of transcendent,” a friend texted, after watching a Bluey episode about flat-packed garden furniture..."
and
"Returning to his home town of Brisbane in 2009, Brumm set up a small animation studio and started to toy with the idea of making an Australian Peppa Pig. There would be sensibility tweaks, Brumm decided, better to match his own deadpan humour. The characters in his Peppa knockoff would have biographies closer to those of his own family. Instead of pigs, he wanted dogs. Lastly, something would have to be done about the dad.
Peppa Pig’s dad is hopeless. He belongs in the lineage of Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson, archetypes that Brumm has called “the dicks in the room”, positioned in their animated worlds to precipitate laughter or narrative action by being too vain, too thick, too status-obsessed to remember to perform the duties of a parent as well. If we ever see the Fred/Homer figure hunkered down to play with his kids on the carpet, it tends to come at a moment of episode-ending resolution. Perhaps he’s grown a bit into his domestic role because of some other adventure. In Bluey, Brumm decided, the hunkering down and the playing would be the adventure..."
posted by Wordshore at 4:53 AM on June 11, 2022 [11 favorites]
"Bluey lives in a big house in suburban Brisbane with her four-year-old sister Bingo, her mother Chilli and her father Bandit. This family are all dogs, by the way. Bingo and Chilli are orange dogs and Bluey and Bandit are blue. Chilli drives a 4WD to work at the local airport and Bandit, the dad, is nominally an archaeologist. In fact, Bandit seems to spend much of his time at home, and much of that time immersed in the imaginary worlds of one or both of his daughters.
At which point we can go no further in this precis without pausing to say: fucking Bandit. Bluey’s dad seems to exist to give parents another reason to lose sleep. Bandit always plays the games right. Bandit invests in his daughters’ dreamed-up scenarios without stinting or sighing or checking the time. Bandit has neat, apt truisms and he’s ready to offer them at a moment’s notice. He’s funny. He’s creative. Bandit is heaven to his own kids and so, in the eyes of many parents I know, he is hell. “He makes DIY look sort of transcendent,” a friend texted, after watching a Bluey episode about flat-packed garden furniture..."
and
"Returning to his home town of Brisbane in 2009, Brumm set up a small animation studio and started to toy with the idea of making an Australian Peppa Pig. There would be sensibility tweaks, Brumm decided, better to match his own deadpan humour. The characters in his Peppa knockoff would have biographies closer to those of his own family. Instead of pigs, he wanted dogs. Lastly, something would have to be done about the dad.
Peppa Pig’s dad is hopeless. He belongs in the lineage of Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson, archetypes that Brumm has called “the dicks in the room”, positioned in their animated worlds to precipitate laughter or narrative action by being too vain, too thick, too status-obsessed to remember to perform the duties of a parent as well. If we ever see the Fred/Homer figure hunkered down to play with his kids on the carpet, it tends to come at a moment of episode-ending resolution. Perhaps he’s grown a bit into his domestic role because of some other adventure. In Bluey, Brumm decided, the hunkering down and the playing would be the adventure..."
posted by Wordshore at 4:53 AM on June 11, 2022 [11 favorites]
I love Bluey, and also find the backlash to Bandit mildly hilarious. After untold decades of unrealistic standards of perfect motherhood in media, I think this might be the only time I've ever seen a male parent described as too good at parenting?
posted by heyforfour at 5:45 AM on June 11, 2022 [21 favorites]
posted by heyforfour at 5:45 AM on June 11, 2022 [21 favorites]
Brumm is an alumni of the uni I work (and have studied) at and considered one of our success stories. Recently there was an opinion piece in one of our online papers that parents from the USA were baffled by their children using Aussie idioms and accents. I had much trouble getting my kids to say zed instead of zee, garbage instead of trash, boot instead of trunk, so all I have to say about this is: PAYBACK, finally.
posted by b33j at 5:52 AM on June 11, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by b33j at 5:52 AM on June 11, 2022 [13 favorites]
Bandit might be the fatherhood ideal, but he's certainly a wholly realized person, with his own faults. He is very competitive. In the episode where he plays against his brother he could be a bit less of a dick about the game, but when he finally does lose he's a good looser! His kids need to see how to lose graciously modeled by their dad just as much as they need to learn when to scale it back a bit on the competitive BS. Nobody's perfect, neither is Bandit. I feel that he and his wife do a really good job covering each other's weaknesses and building up each other's strengths.
In short: Bluey is great and everyone should watch it, kids or no.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 6:04 AM on June 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
In short: Bluey is great and everyone should watch it, kids or no.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 6:04 AM on June 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
My then-three-year-old granddaughter introduced me to Bluey, and I immediately loved the show. It’s actually pretty brilliant. For me, the real strength of the show is it’s short-episode format. Nice, easily-enjoyed snippets of life. The art is also a huge plus. There are so many little things in the background that, as an adult, are very entertaining/funny.
Bluey is one of the very few cartoons I don’t roll my eyes and begrudgingly watch with my granddaughter. Bubbleguppies is another (Though, that one is pretty obviously written in a way to put gags in for the adults watching, which makes it a bit less endearing. Still a good one, though.)
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 AM on June 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
Bluey is one of the very few cartoons I don’t roll my eyes and begrudgingly watch with my granddaughter. Bubbleguppies is another (Though, that one is pretty obviously written in a way to put gags in for the adults watching, which makes it a bit less endearing. Still a good one, though.)
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 AM on June 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
When my then 2.5 year old first started watching it my wife was upset because it set the standards for parenting far too high! She’s come around since (the second season really does a better job identifying some of the bigger challenges in parenting) but I do think one of the big issues of the modern era is the incredible amount of time parents are expected to play with and supervise their kids. I still love it and it remains one of the only shows my two kiddos are allowed to watch. We even potty trained my son by teaching him how to have a “bush wee” and now he asks any time he is outside!
posted by ghostpony at 6:53 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ghostpony at 6:53 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Peppa Pig’s dad is hopeless.
This is not true at all. Daddy Pig is fabulous, cuddly, accomplished, committed and self-deprecating. Mummy Pig on the other hand undermines him all the time, a habit his children copy, the rotters. Not least of Daddy Pigs virtues is that he takes it in good humour.
posted by glasseyes at 7:28 AM on June 11, 2022 [10 favorites]
This is not true at all. Daddy Pig is fabulous, cuddly, accomplished, committed and self-deprecating. Mummy Pig on the other hand undermines him all the time, a habit his children copy, the rotters. Not least of Daddy Pigs virtues is that he takes it in good humour.
posted by glasseyes at 7:28 AM on June 11, 2022 [10 favorites]
Having now had to watch a lot of Peppa Pig, I agree with glasseyes - I remember a lot of noise being made way back about how hopeless Daddy Pig was and how SEXIST this was to MEN, mainly by the Fathers4Justice crew, in a sort of proto-gamergate move. Having actually watched the show I think it's not really borne out by the text and that complaints were just some bullshit.
posted by ominous_paws at 7:48 AM on June 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by ominous_paws at 7:48 AM on June 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yes my only complaint against Bluey's parents is that they set the bar way too fuckin' high.
Literally came in here to say the exact same thing
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:05 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Literally came in here to say the exact same thing
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:05 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Peppa Pig’s dad is hopeless. He belongs in the lineage of Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson, archetypes that Brumm has called “the dicks in the room”
To be fair, he's also an exercise in edginess: just how close can an animator get to drawing a canonical dick and balls on every frame and still have it broadcast on mainstream kids' TV?
posted by flabdablet at 9:16 AM on June 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
To be fair, he's also an exercise in edginess: just how close can an animator get to drawing a canonical dick and balls on every frame and still have it broadcast on mainstream kids' TV?
posted by flabdablet at 9:16 AM on June 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Fuckers should try watching Wolfoo.
I take that back. No one should watch Wolfoo.
posted by Naberius at 12:23 PM on June 11, 2022
I take that back. No one should watch Wolfoo.
posted by Naberius at 12:23 PM on June 11, 2022
Look - Bandit and Chili put us all to shame. The takeout episode where they are waiting for takeaway to be ready….my kids would have been in timeout at least sixteen times in that episode.
Bandit is an amazing father. Always.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 12:42 PM on June 11, 2022 [4 favorites]
Bandit is an amazing father. Always.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 12:42 PM on June 11, 2022 [4 favorites]
Fuckers should try watching Wolfoo.
oh my god what IS this horror????
posted by kdar at 9:38 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
oh my god what IS this horror????
posted by kdar at 9:38 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Honestly flabdablet if you're going to look at it that way anyone with stubble and a nose ought not to get their picture taken
Specially if they have more than one chin
posted by glasseyes at 3:35 AM on June 12, 2022
Specially if they have more than one chin
posted by glasseyes at 3:35 AM on June 12, 2022
Bluey is probably my number one role model for parenting. My own father was always either at work in in the garage with a project, not on rug island.
To the Bandit/Chilli debate, I think of episode is when Dad takes the girls to the pool but foregets sunscreen, floats, and snacks. He does his best to entertain in the shallow, shady side of the pool, but mom eventually shows up and saves the day. Shows the limits of creativity and at least one parent does have to do the work.
posted by CostcoCultist at 6:19 AM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
To the Bandit/Chilli debate, I think of episode is when Dad takes the girls to the pool but foregets sunscreen, floats, and snacks. He does his best to entertain in the shallow, shady side of the pool, but mom eventually shows up and saves the day. Shows the limits of creativity and at least one parent does have to do the work.
posted by CostcoCultist at 6:19 AM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
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