Welcome back, joy: The Wiggles and Wordle save the world
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I didn’t realise I’d been infected. It really crept up on me, and there were just too many other distractions to pay attention to this other pandemic.
Whilst we’ve all been churned and dumped by wave after wave of the ground-hog day that has been our lives for over two years, an insipid and joy-sucking malaise has infected us all.
That’s right, we’ve all been ‘joybotomised’—our senses deadened to seeking out simple, wholesome, nobody’s-trying-to-sell-me-something, joyous moments—until now, that is!
Like the calvary riding in on their trusty steeds, The Wiggles won the coveted number 1 song on the Triple J Hottest 100 and reminded us of what we live for in Australia—good ole’ fashion underdog glory!
I hadn’t felt this way since Bradbury did ‘A Bradbury’. There was nothing, zip, zilch, nada that was jarring, controversial, but-what-if, about this. It was pure joy.
For those of you who still have your head stuck in the joy-vacuum, Australia’s very own internationally successful kids entertainers pulled off this win with a cover of Tame Impala’s ‘Elephant’, breaking records as the first debut artist and cover to win. And in case you are wondering, Jeff did wake up and became the oldest artist (68) to win.
The Wiggles formed in 1991 which is the year I got married and my ovaries started to long for a time when I could attend one of their concerts. A few years on and the first time I saw them was at the Queanbeyan Town Hall with Little-Miss-20-month-old in tow who kept throwing herself at the stage like a middle-aged woman at a Tom Jones concert. Two more kids later, and their popularity meant a larger venue like the AIS Arena was needed where they were joined by Dorothy the Dinosaur and Captain Feathersword.
If it weren’t for The Wiggles there would have been a six-year period of my life where I would never have showered or gone to the toilet alone. It takes a village and The Wiggles to raise a child, but I’m now at the stage between raising children and spoiling grandchildren, so their joyous presence in my life seemed like a distant memory, until now.
I have only watched the video of their performance like—I dunno, 100 times—and if Anthony wearing an elephant head and Jeff resplendent back in his purple skivvy isn’t enough to inoculate you against misery, then I challenge you to try to stop the corners of your mouth creeping up when Emma Wiggle plays the drums—she is adorable!
And, as we all know, these things need to have a second dose to really work, so lo and behold, on the very same day as my big red car driving friends re-entered my life, I discovered Wordle. I got curious when friends were posting pics of what looks like a green, grey and yellow Rubrik’s Cube.
A quick Google of ‘Wordle’ and I was off and running playing a word puzzle designed by a software engineer for his girlfriend. It is free, doesn’t require a login, credit card, DNA sample and doesn’t promise that you’ll lose weight, wrinkles or your teeth will be whiter.
It is just joyous fun, so much so my family are now on board, and we post our results to our family chat creating more fodder for a good ribbing of each other—also joyous!
Double-vaxxed against my own wretchedness by The Wiggles and Wordle, I feel confident that I can re-enter the world and literally laugh out loud, such is my faith that we aren’t such a miserable lot after all.
I don’t know what the booster shot will be yet, but maybe it will be much easier to get now I’m reminded what I’m looking for.
