We all know by now that Bluey is a show with as much to entertain adults as kids. Full of silly games and poignant life lessons, it’s a show with something for everyone. It also happens to be a show with Easter eggs in literally every episode. From hidden “long dogs” and tennis balls to cultural references that will fly over most kids’ heads like Stranger Things and Pink Floyd. (Muffin ecstatically and aggressively screaming “I am the Flamingo Queen” as an ode to Jim Morrison might be my favorite.) But not all of those references are geared towards adults. In fact, one is not only one kids will get, but they will be more likely to catch than most adults.
It can be found in the Season 3 episode “Phones.” Mort, aka Chilli’s dad, aka Granddad, comes to the city to visit with his daughter’s family. It’s been a while since he’s been there and is quickly taken aback by all the changes since the last time he was there. Specifically, he’s somewhat baffled by the reliance on cell phones and apps. This bleeds into the game Bluey and Bingo are playing, and ask Mort to join in.
Their playroom is set up with a pretend restaurant and a blanket fort. Mort is in the fort — it’s not his house, but one he’s renting from another family via an app.
“It’s not my house?” he asks Bluey.
“It’s theirs!” she says cheerily, pointing to a picture in the tent. But a close look shows that they are not just any owners, but children’s entertainer/newly-minted EDM legends The Wiggles, the Australian kids group that many a Gen-Z/Gen-Alpha kid has grown up on.
Decked out in the group’s iconic colorful shirts, we see The Wiggles have been “Blueyfied.” Everyone is a dog! And lest anyone thought this was mere coincidence, the picture is signed with the group’s names: Lachy Wiggle (Lachlan Gillespie), Emma Wiggle (Emma Watkins), Simon Wiggle (Simon Pryce), and Anthony Wiggle (Anthony Field).
The show even thanks the group in the credits.
You love to see it, especially in an episode about how, in a rapidly changing world, little kids are always going to be pretty much the same. (“Kids are still kids,” is, in fact, the last line of the episode.) It just goes to show that Bluey creator Joe Brumm and the team at Bluey are not only aware of the entertainers who paved the way for them, but want to pay tribute to the iconic Australian children’s entertainers who have come before.
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