Trali Wali without Huggy Waggi and Kissy Missy – Picture of the day – Kommersant

The management of the circus show “Barneo” had to remove from the program an act featuring popular horror characters Huggy Waggi and Kissy Missy from the program. Residents of Surgut, where the performance is scheduled for November 20, signed a collective appeal to the prosecutor’s office, arguing that the images of the mentioned heroes are dangerous for the child’s psyche. In the complaint, parents are asked to check the circus for compliance with the laws “On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development” and “On the basic guarantees of the rights of the child in the Russian Federation.” The circus insists that these are “very cute characters that children love,” and reminded: “Baba Yaga eats children, and Koschey the Immortal cut Ivan Tsarevich into 33 parts.”

The theater and circus show “Barneo” (a touring circus from the Trans-Baikal Territory) in Surgut will be held on November 20 at the theater of Surgut State University (SSU). As part of the performance, a number of performances are planned with the participation of characters popular with children, for example, the heroes of the Brawl Stars and Among Us games, animals from the Madagascar cartoon, as well as Huggy Waggi and Kissy Missy from the horror game Poppy Playtime.

Evpraksia Dmitrieva, an activist from the parents’ union “Together”, initiated a collection of signatures among parents to protest against Khaggi Waggi and Kissy Missy. The complaint to the prosecutor’s office (it was signed by 84 people) contains a request to check the circus program for compliance with the laws “On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development” and “On the basic guarantees of children’s rights in the Russian Federation.” In case of violations, it was proposed either to cancel the show or to oblige the organizers to exclude the performance with horror characters from the program.

Such “monster toys” pose a danger to the child’s psyche, Evpraksia Dmitrieva said in an interview with Kommersant. At the same time, Khaggi Waggi and Kissy Missy can be replaced by characters of Russian culture who “teach goodness and justice.”

The woman added that the decision to appeal to the prosecutor’s office was made in connection with the “good experience” of canceling such performances in Kazan and other large cities.

In addition, activists are now sending requests to venues in the cities of Yugra, where Barneo performances will be held, in order to influence the organizers of the performance or remove posters with “monsters”.

In total, the Barneo circus will visit nine municipalities of Ugra from November 16 to 26, where it will give 17 performances. Activists of the union of parents “Together” urged parents from other cities of the district to also contact the prosecutor’s office, Rospotrebnadzor and representatives of the sites.

The artistic director of the circus, Alexander Sapunov, said that with complaints about the use of images of Haggi Waggi and Kissy Missy, they complained to the prosecutor’s office in Khanty-Mansiysk, where the performance took place on November 16.

Representatives of the oversight agency, according to Mr. Sapunov, attended the performances and were satisfied, finding no violations.

“Recently, due to Khaggi Vaggi, an identical situation was in Abakan (Republic of Khakassia.— “Y-Ural”). There, the prosecutor’s office also came to us because of the appeal of “caring” parents. At my request, they came to the performance and in the end they said that we had a very good show, ”he emphasized.

Mr. Sapunov noted that the circus team does not violate the laws, and the decision to attend or not attend the show, where there are certain characters, is the responsibility of the legal representatives of the children. According to him, as soon as messages appeared in social networks and the media that Huggy Waggi might disappear from the show program, “dozens of calls” began to come to Barneo from parents who asked not to remove the characters. “These are very cute characters that kids love. We have hundreds of kids chanting the names of Huggy Waggi and Kissy Missy at every show before they show up, and then they run to hug our artists. Children will not hug monsters that scare them. Therefore, these claims are unfounded. There is a lot of horror in Russian fairy tales, where Baba Yaga eats children, and Koschey the Immortal cut Ivan Tsarevich into 33 parts, ”added the artistic director.

Nevertheless, the performance of Huggy Waggi and Kissy Missy from the show on November 20 will be removed at the request of the theater of SurSU. Alexander Sapunov explained that he did not want to come into conflict with the site.

At the end of September Roskachestvo announced that it would test toys based on the Huggy Waggi universe for safety for children. Particular attention will be paid to toys sold in online stores and marketplaces. State Duma deputy Tatyana Butskaya said that “a child can repeat the scenarios of playing with a killer toy in real life, so it is important to determine during the examination how this can affect the child’s psyche.”

Ilya Smirnov, Yekaterinburg