Ranking the Characters in Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

We've started introducing my child to screen time, and we decided to just dip our toes into the shallow world of children's television programming and settled on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. You may know Daniel Tiger as a character in the land of make believe in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Well, Daniel Tiger now has some new friends, and they have spun off into an animated world of imagination to teach kids valuable lessons. Instead of breaking down those lessons, let's break down and rank the characters who vary in their levels of charm.

Max

Max is the autistic nephew of their teacher. The show actually does a really nice job of framing his autism as more of a quirk than any sort of disability. He is used more to show that different kids like different things so even though you may want to play one way, you should be aware of what other people prefer and adjust your playing style so everyone can have fun. I would have to be a total monster to rank him any lower on this list.

Jodi Platypus

I've only seen Jodi Platypus in small doses, but everything she does seems fairly harmless. That is why she is almost my favorite. The only truly odd thing is that her mother is a dentist, despite platypuses not having teeth. This reminds me of the time I consistently went to a barber who wore a really bad toupee. You may be surprised to learn that I have never been complimented on how my hair looks.

Daniel Tiger

The man is the star of the show, and he's fairly inoffensive all around. He loves his family, has a lot of friends, and seems like a nice enough five-year-old tiger. He is a bit of a mess as nearly all issues that kids will run into have to happen to Daniel so they can find ways to overcome. This man has some good coping mechanisms, but twenty years from now, he will likely be telling a therapist about that one time he didn't get a crayon box.

Margaret Tiger

Daniel's little sister. She is just a baby so she only knows a few words. She once broke Daniel's rainbow crayon, and I thought Daniel was about to be an only child. Still, Dad Tiger swooped her out of that situation before her blood splattered the walls. She is really only an agent of chaos, but she is a baby, so that's kind of what they do.

Miss Elaina

She's very bossy, and does things backwards a ton which also ends up in causing more problems than are needed. Still, Music Man Stan is her Dad, and he's BY FAR the coolest person on the show. Also, she calls the other characters, "Toots," and I fully support that word being utilized more in today's society.

O The Owl

My son loves O The Owl despite O being a bit whiny with no attention span. O floats through the day and just does his own thing, but he can be disruptive, and he is an Owl that was afraid to go down a slide. Because of my son's love for him, I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he is being raised by his Uncle X. There has never been a mention of his parents, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were eaten by the Tiger family.

Katerina Kittycat

Katerina Kittycat is not great at all. She is just constantly spinning and oblivious to the world around her which causes issues every week. She's just banging around, saying sorry, but never learning from her mistakes, so is she really sorry? Sure doesn't seem like it. She's also big on stealing both physical things and ideas from the other children. She would be the worst, if this last guy didn't exist.

Prince Wednesday

None are worse than Prince Wednesday. On the surface, he's actually the most normal one. He's pretty relaxed, not too hyper, and generally a friendly young man. But Prince Wednesday will NOT let you forget that he's royalty. He is constantly reminding his friends with lines like, "Let's have a royal good time," or "This is royally delicious." He laughs every time he says royally, and it's just him being a dick by letting everyone know it is his birthright to be better than them. In the immortal words of Lemmy, "Eat the rich."

Overall, Daniel Tiger teaches valuable lessons and is fairly harmless when it comes down to it. Still, I'm definitely working on getting my son into John Dillermand, a show that teaches the valuable lessons about using your manhood to do good.