So the folks at WGBH are “disappointed” by the proliferation of crude, sexually suggestive memes with images taken from its animated series ‘‘Arthur.” But it’s a good bet that by issuing a statement about the memes, the Boston-based network has only prompted more to people to share them.
Tool around Twitter for a while and you’ll see that a day after WGBH took issue with the memes, people with too much time on their hands — but, in some cases, a decent sense of humor — are still at it, tweeting memes using images of the bespectacled aardvark at the center of Marc Brown’s children’s books and the public television series the books spawned.
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While it’s true that many are too naughty to reproduce here, some are just silly. Take for example:
When your friend shows you photos of you from the night before #ArthurMemes pic.twitter.com/nFq1QET9Ak
— Arthur Memes (@arthur_memes) August 3, 2016
Or this:
Walkin' in the club thinking you look fly af #ArthurMemes pic.twitter.com/mfWihujfQw
— Arthur Memes (@arthur_memes) August 3, 2016
It wasn’t ones like these that prompted WGBH to weigh in. A spokesperson for the network said that while it appreciates that the memes ‘‘have been created and shared in good fun,’’ it’s ‘‘disappointed by the few that are outside of good taste.’’ (Trust us, there are more than a few and they’re a long way from good taste.)
“‘Our hope is that Arthur and his friends will be depicted in a way that is respectful and appropriate for all audiences, including young ‘Arthur’ fans and their families,’’ WGBH spokesperson Ellen London told the AP.
The Twitter account @Arthurtbh seems to have become a repository for the good, the bad, and the ugly memes featuring Arthur and his buddies Buster, Francine, Muffy, Binky, and the rest of the anthropomorphic creatures. What’s not clear to us is why now? The TV show, based on Brown’s books, has been on the air for nearly 20 years, and now this is a thing?
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