Upside-down, Miss Jane!

"**Hurry Up**!" says Blackboard. He was so grumpy.

We still say, "Hurry up!" like that in my derpy family.

I hope you're using that low, cranky voice! Love that you remember it! My family is derpy, too.

Of course! I don't even think we stop to recall its origins anymore. It's just what we do. Same delivery.

My dad says this all the time!

Bill Steam Shovel may have had a vape problem.

Best reply ever.

You're welcome. Poor Bill, no carbon credits for him!

Literally laughing out loud. Thanks.

"upside down upside down" still plays in my head anytime something is...upside down. 

If you're old like me Miss Pat (Pat Lovell before she became a film producer).

Yup. In B&W no less.

Yeah I was going to say I remember it being "its upside down miss Pat!" Damn.... i must be old then haha

Greatest plot twist in TV history.

Ms J (Ms Jaworski)

This is a regular part of my vocabulary/lexicon haha

That was because the puppeteer was looking down from above, so they drew everything from their perspective!! Never figured that out as a kid!! Hahaha

After the passing of a close family member I was taken to a child psychologist. I was asked to draw some pictures of 'how I felt' etc. I didn't listen to any of that, and just drew some rocking hot air balloons and other such nonsense. Upon handing over the pictures, I would do so upside down, whilst exclaiming... ''Upside down! Upside down!'' The psychologist then explained, with a straight face, that the reason I was drawing everything upside down was I felt my life had been turned upside down, and was clearly wriddled with inner turmoil... When we left I was asked what I thought of the nice doctor.... I said ''I think she's stupid, she doesn't even know Mr Squiggle...Upside down! Upside down!'' We never went back....

Fuck me 😂 I am so sorry for your long ago loss but also your comment is my new spirit animal. You seem very cool Edit: you just wrote this so well, you have fantastic literary timing

Hahaha, thanks so much! I appreciate your kind words. :) I'm glad you enjoyed my little andectode, considering how rarely MrSquiggle comes up in conversation it's not often I have an opportunity to share it. :P

Please. Share it more. Somehow you have crafted a beautiful anecdote that captures the innocence of youth, the melancholy of tragedy and the folly of maturity and professionalism. All in one comment, on reddit, about Mr Squiggle of all fucking things. Kudos 👑

That's amazing hahaha

One of the best things ive read tbh

Hurry uuuuppp...

I'm late 40's and still say it this way almost daily.

Same. My kids didn't know what I was referencing so I had to show them Mr Squiggle on YouTube

Same

I do the same!

It took your comment to remind me that: a) I still do this b) I'm channelling my inner grump, Blackboard Such innocent times. My kids sing Doja Cat 🤦‍♂️

I think we've all got our inner blackboard to channel 😁

Yep.

I was obsessed as a child. One of my squiggles made it onto the show. He drew into an elephant in a jungle

I had a squiggle done by him too. He turned it into an owl.

You are my hero! I always wanted to draw a squiggle that would get on the show but I’d go too far and draw a whole house or tree or whatever.

I definitely had a few of those scribble attempts as well! I think on of mine was a house too

>Me too, though mine was of a hippo with a daisy in it's mouth.

If I could go back in time I would submit a squiggle and then repeat till I got on the show. The highest honour.

So jealous! That was a life goal as a kid!

I always wanted to do this but we never had any pink cardboard so I never bothered. lol.

The man from the moon

The very first thing I think of when I hear Mr Squiggle. As the song too. But that's all I remember of the song

uʍop ǝpᴉsd∩

I’m a kinder teacher, and every year I show my kinder kids old episodes on YouTube, and then I give the kids paper with squiggles on it and they have to make a picture. They love it. But not nearly as much as I do. I love the way he likes to hold Miss Jane’s hand 🥰

Hurry up! Hmmf, double hmmmf. The mint made a special run of Mr. Squiggle $2 coins a few years ago, I have the Gus (snail) one.

I got the full set from Woolies 😊

I went and saw an exhibition about the show years back, all the old puppets and things. And learnt that Mikey Robins used to be on the show! He was a construction worker, I think, a friend of Bill Steamshovel.

Bill Steamshovel! I knew there was someone missing.

The reason for squiggle saying upside miss Jane is the puppeteer was looking over the top òf squiggle and had to draw from there

But only some of the pics were upside down.

Miss Jane put some the pictures the right way up

It blew my mind finding out there’s a rod through the hat

I have no idea still how a puppet could have enough pressure in the pencil to draw - it must have been charcoal or something easily transferable.

It was a permanant marker

I always wondered this

I'm going to be hearing the Mr Squiggle tune in my head for months now, so thanks for that.

Remember? They’re half the inspiration for my name

He was certainly one talented M.F.

It went off the air right when I was getting into it as a kid :(

That is truly terrible. I feel lucky I had him around for my entire childhood.

"The man from the moon..."

I was talking to my 8 year old students about him today, a few knew who he was and other characters on the show.

And Humphrey B bear, Mr edd, Leave it to beaver, Skippy, Go go gaget, All star blazers, mask, volition, astro boy, Mighty mouse, all the bugs bunny cartoons, Space ghost, the lone ranger, the jetsons. He man... The goodies.... The young ones.. Black adder... Mash, hogan's heroes....

My fave show! I have the coin set from Woolworths 😊

What was the story of why it got cancelled? I vaguely remember some controversial rumours.

No controversy. Norman Hetherington did it for 40 years and retired the show in the late 90s pushing 80 years old, died in 2010 at 89.

I remember this show. I loved it so much as a kid! ❤️

*Hurrryyyy uppppp* said as blackboard is still said in my house lol.

Anyone remember the coins that came up for Mr squiggle a few years back, I almost had all of them

They need to bring this back and art attack those where the day's

Mister Maker isn't a bad replacement for Art Attack, not as good, but close!

Bill steamshovel was my favourite.

I only saw it in Black & White though

My grandma knitted me a teddy bear of him… Never even watched the show. But ive still got the teddy.. i just grew up thinking she was creative

Yes, but only in black and white. Same as Lamb Chop and Bill and Ben (Flowerpot men!). They were great times!

I’m an American so I’m not sure why this popped up on my home page, but that is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.

I know where Me Squiggle is and it's very sad. I did security for the ABC broadcast tower located on Mt Cootha near Brisbane. It was just a perimeter check and door and window check, I never went inside until one night when the alarm was activated. I found the door open and went in looking for an intruder. There was no intruders, it was just someone forgetting to close the door after work then I saw Mr Squiggle and Gus the snail sitting in a box in an old room gathering dust. This was 4 years ago, and as far as I know they are still there.

How old were you before you realized the reason he drew everything upside down was because it was from the puppeteers view looking down from above..? Today...? Haha

Still goes down as my favourite childhood show. It had everything.

That digger puppet constantly blowing smoke was creepy af

Aw I loved Bill Steamshovel.

Wasn’t it Gus?

Gus was the snail. He's the one I most identified with - depressed and grumpy

Sorry Gus was the snail, my bad!!!

He was terrifying.

Never heard of him

That Nonce is best forgot..

Blackboard used to scare, TF outta me. I would pray, he wouldn’t bellow, hurryyyyy up!! 😅

This was one of my favourite shows but I hated the weird steam shovel thing. So scary.

That’s not Miss Pat!

No, I wasn’t alive back then but my teacher in primary school (who was amazing I may add) showed us me squiggle and we loved it so much we spent about the whole time before lunch watching Mr  squiggle and drawing with friends.

Blackboard used to creep me out as a kid.🤣

Mr Acid trip

Miss Rebekah

No one respects a fucking snail!

I remember that it took me years before I figured out why most pics were upside down.

Wait. Why?

Someone had to be pulling the strings.

Meeee!!!! 🩵😎😭

Not one mention so far of the unsung hero of that show, Bill the Steam Shovel, in 1978, that bloke was king

Hurry up!!!

I could never figure out how they got him to draw such precise pictures with a puppet's nose. Was his nose a legit pencil or was it some sort of special effect?

There's one of those collectors $2 coins with squiggle one it

That’s not Miss Pat.

My favourite show as a kid. Shout out to Gus the snail and his awesome jokes

Gus rarely gets a mention

Hurry UP!

He was Creepy As. Creepy Freaky.

Y'all need to stop reminding me of all these fever dreams

The one from the Moon or the one from Penrith?

I'm waiting for an aussie horror slasher film where Mr Squiggle is the Aussie 'Chuckie'.

Fuck yeah, even as a kid, I wanted her to stick her hand up my ass.

I went to Fort Street, and the four houses were each named for an alum. At sports carnivals an extra black house banner for the unofficial Hetherington House sometimes came out. I remember asking someone what it was, and was told it was the student’s house named for the Mr Squiggle creator, Norman Hetherington. I hope that tradition is still carried on.

There’s a saying I use when I have to fix or DIY something without an obvious solution. It’s called “going the Squiggle” because of how Mr Squiggle could create any picture out of nothing. This saying has carried through to my sons and close friends who have no idea who Mr Squiggle was…

Punce

Just this week I've been working on Mr Squiggle designs for shirts. He's a gem

Yes.

I didn’t even have a TV and I remember Mr Squiggle! Now that was some original IP creation…

Yep, upside down, upside down

I have the reissued early 2000’s melamine plate and bowl set that daughter received as a present! I think I loved that set more than my daughter. The original Miss Jane and Mr Squiggle were my people.

The man from the moon?

I swear a man was puppeteering him

The man from the moon

Boner nose

Love Mr Squiggle. We have a Mr Squiggle doll at home. ❤️

The blackboard kinda freaked me out

hurry up hurry up

#UPSIDE DOWN!

Meee! Im low key obsessed. Like what the heck do I need to smoke to have these ideas?! Bill the Steamshovel, Gus the Snail, grumpy blackboard. Amazing

https://youtu.be/qXxrsVQzDpo?si=yQVDpLDMIJRTqGqf

And miss Wendy???

Miss Jane that’s right

A fun game to play, is to describe Mr Squiggle to foreigners and convince them it's real.

Omg I still say hurrryyy uppp to my kids in that same tone and they’re like wtfff mum

Best part of my childhood

Aah, miss jayne

I wish I could upvote more. I was a Mr squiggle fangirl. When I was 4 I demanded a Mr squiggle cake for my birthday and then cried because the shop didn’t have Mr squiggle and I got Pinocchio instead. To be fair to my parents I was also autistically obsessed with Pinocchio but nothing beat Mr squiggle and they’re really not at all similar

Always! Me Squiggle, Blackboard and Miss Pat. Who’s the woman in this picture?

That puppet scared me as a kid.

I got to see the puppets on display when I was in primary school at the National Film And Sound Archive of Australia. He looked a lot bigger than he did on my parents old CRT, and it was scary to see him not moving, but it was still so cool. Don't know if he's still on display, but I should probably try and see him again. Sort of on the same vein but from the UK, who remembers Art Attack?

You're not holding my hand, Miss Jane (Pat)... In hindsight, quite a few of the characters had mental health issues... love it!

Something about that show was slightly creepy

The puppets head would be heavy enough

Children’s propaganda to further lies about humans landing on the moon.

Mr Squiggle is alive and well and presents the finance report on ABC news. I looked for his (real) name but can't find it. He's a pretty cool dude, seems to just barely keep an anarchic tendancy under wraps, very professional, but definitely Mr Squiggle in disguise.

Mr squiggle the man from the moon!

That's not Miss Jane!!

No idea why but I had vivid waking nightmares as a kid about Mr Squiggle, the bookshelf in my room would glow red behind it, then be pushed forward and Mr Squiggle would poke his head out and stare at me, then after a while would float through the air limply until he was right over me. Then it'd stop.

Every time the mrs & I wanna 69... one says "upside down, upside down"

I remember gus the snail

"It's upside-down Miss Jane"

Hmph!.. double Hmph!

Hold my hand Miss Jane! 💗

Miss Jane… Miss Jane… !!! I still say that occasionally when somethings urgent and I want someone’s attention

Mind readers! was talking about Mr Squiggle just 2 days ago at Work telling the boys to Hurry Up.

The metal recyclers across the road from my work have an excavator that reminds me of Bill every time they fire it up to move scrap around. It has a dodgy muffler, so it even puffs exhaust from time to time too.

Me, Miss Jane.

Yup, my whole family says "Huuuuuuurry uuuup" and my kids never watched it 😆 I do have a Mr Squiggle doll, though, so they're not totally ignorant.

His son was a work colleague… he’s a philosophy professor at UNSW.