WordGirl

About

WordGirl is an educational children's superhero cartoon meant to help expand children's vocabulary, offering definitions of two large and potentially confusing words for kids at the beginning of each episode and asking them to listen for them throughout the episode. The protagonist WordGirl, whose real name is Becky Botsford, is a fifth-grade girl from the planet Lexicon with super intelligence and powers including flight, super hearing and enhanced vision. She has a monkey sidekick named Huggy and often faces off against Dr. Two Brains, an evil scientist whose brain has been merged with a mouse's. A villain, Tobey McCallister III, has a crush on WordGirl, inspiring the ship pairing "Tobecky" online. The series became the increasing subject of fan art and memes over the course of the 2010s, seeing a peak in search interest in early 2022.

History

WordGirl premiered on PBS Kids on September 3rd, 2007, after appearing as a series of shorts intercut with the series Maya & Miguel in 2006. The show ran for eight seasons between 2007 and 2015. A promotional trailer for the show was reuploaded to YouTube in 2009, gaining over 84,000 views in 12 years (shown below, left). The opening theme for the song was also uploaded that year, gaining over 2.1 million views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Online Presence

WordGirl has a strong online presence and fanbase, even following its cancelation, resulting in a consistent flow of fan art and memes online throughout the 2010s and early 2020s. In early 2022, the show saw an increase in prevalence online, seemingly because YouTube started recommending clips related to the show to users and due to increased interest in the Tobecky ship pairing, although the exact reason is unclear.

WordGirl Memes

On October 12th, 2013, YouTuber Becky WordGirl Botsford posted an edit of the intro pitching it to G major, gaining over 815,000 views in nine years (shown below).

On March 3rd, 2021, Twitter^[10] user @ENBYCONNIE shared a scene where Becky's friend, Violet Heaslip, reacts in a devastating way when she finds out she's WordGirl, the user writing, "WHY IS IT SO SERIOUS," gaining over 35,000 likes and 6,600 retweets in just under a year (shown below).

On October 1st, 2021, Instagram^[7] user the_maymays_reloaded reposted a Look At My Lawyer meme by Instagram^[8] user tobeysingzpayphone about Huggy being their lawyer, gaining over 14,000 likes in four months (shown below).

On January 12th, 2022, YouTuber Azabien posted an out of context video comprised of clips from the show, gaining over 182,000 views in a month (shown below).

On February 9th, Twitter^[2] user @phobohobo1 posted a webcomic where WordGirl says "you can control white people by giving them cheese" and tricks Dr. Two Brains into a cage, gaining over 5,500 likes and 990 retweets in a day (shown below).

Fan Art

One of the earliest pieces of fan art dedicated to the show was uploaded to DeviantArt^[1] on November 8th, 2008, and depicts WordGirl and Huggy standing heroically, gaining over 200 favorites in 14 years. There are over 3,900 results for fan art under the search term "WordGirl" on DeviantArt^[3][4] as of February 2022 (notable examples shown below). The series has also inspired Rule 34.

Tobecky Ship Pairing

The romance between Tobey McCallister III and Becky is the subject of much fan content online, including fan fiction and art. Their shipping name is "Tobecky." On November 16th, 2019, YouTuber flygurl2Zim posted a stylized edit comprising of clips of the two over music, gaining over 19,800 views in two years (shown below).

The shipping pair has inspired fan art^[5][6] depicting the two together (examples shown below). Fan art depicting the characters is particularly prevalent on Tumblr.^[11]

On January 28th, Instagram^[12] user clarissasbakery posted a piece of art depicting the pair, gaining over 8,500 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On February 8th, 2022, Instagram^[9] user poroshya posted an original piece of fan art relating to the ship pairing, gaining over 15,300 likes in three days (shown below).

Search Interest

External References