Caillou

"No! I don't want to make duckies! That's for babies!"

- Caillou, "Caillou Joins the Circus"

Caillou is the titular main protagonist of the Canadian animated TV series of the same name, its 2016 reboot, mh:terribletvshows:Caillou's New Adventures, and its upcoming 2022 CGI reboot of the same name. He is a 4-year-old bald boy who is Rosie's older brother. His interests include cars and dinosaurs and he owns a stuffed dinosaur named Rexy.

He was voiced by Bryn McAuley from 1997 to 2000, then Jaclyn Linetsky from 2000 to 2003, and then Annie Bovaird from the same year afterward until the original series' ending. In the 2016 reboot, Caillou's New Adventures, he is voiced by Laurie Hymes, and in the upcoming CGI reboot, he is voiced by Logan Nicholson.

Why Each Day, He Won't Grow Some More

 * 1) To start off the list, he is infamous for his constant whining, crying, and pointless temper tantrums. Most infamously, he had a meltdown after finding out that he was going to the circus tomorrow when he thought it was today. Not next week, not next year, but tomorrow. This obviously proves he cannot handle not going to the circus.
 * 2) * These temper tantrums got so out of hand that many parents complained about their children's behavior changing after they watched Caillou.
 * 3) * His second most infamous temper tantrum was in the episode "Caillou's Teddy Shirt", which is during the scene where Rosie wears his teddy shirt. Here, he has to have a stupid meltdown all because of that. He even shouted at Doris really loudly that the whole house could hear him. And when Doris told him that it was too small for him, he just shouted back at her by saying "NO! IT'S NOT TOO SMALL FOR ME!" when it actually was too small for him.
 * 4) His voice is grating, especially when it was provided by the late Jaclyn Linetsky and when he cries. His voice is even worse in New Adventures, where he sounds older than a 4-5-year-old most of the time.
 * 5) * On that note, his crying will most likely get on your last nerves. The worst offender of this is in the New Adventures episode "Caillou and the Bully", as it sounds so realistic.
 * 6) He is very selfish and often does not like to share.
 * 7) He is also cruel to his little sister Rosie, even going as far as pinching her in the face in "Big Brother Caillou" (and he acts even more spiteful in the book version by biting her on the face).
 * 8) He became a Gary Stu in Seasons 4 and 5, despite being better behaved, he is given a blander characterization.
 * 9) * Modern Caillou (the Caillou with the yellow shirt) also isn't any better than Caillou with the beige/grey shirt for a number of reasons which are,
 * 10) ** In "Caillou's Cross Word", he and his friend Leo call Clementine "stupid" and hurt her feelings.
 * 11) ** In "Caillou and the Chores", he refuses to go outside to help his dad to work and instead just stays home just to play video games.
 * 12) ** In "Caillou's Prison Break", he refuses to eat his vegetables and eventually got grounded for it and then, later on, tries to escape his room.
 * 13) ** Not helping matters is that Caillou would be reverted back to his Seasons 1-3 self in mh:terribletvshows:Caillou's New Adventures, where he's back to acting like a whiny spoiled brat, with a hint of his Seasons 4 & 5 characterization thrown in, although he doesn't whine as much as he did in the original series.
 * 14) His design in New Adventures is pretty unappealing to look at, at least in the episodes from 2016-2022. His CGI design, as shown in the first image of the 2022 CGI reboot, is no better.
 * 15) * Plus, in Season 1 of the original series, he had a slightly more generic design, as he wore a beige/grey shirt.
 * 16) While not often, he can sometimes be treated like a Butt-Monkey since things never seem to go his way. Not that he doesn’t deserve it however due to how much a brat he is. For example, during his first day of daycare, he plays with blocks, only for Leo to come near him and take the blocks from him, whilst saying "Hey! Those are my blocks!"
 * 17) In the original series, he rarely, if ever, gets punished or scolded by his parents for his actions, making him a good example of a Karma Houdini.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) When he is not being bad, he is kind of cute sometimes, and there are some episodes where he is nice and helps out. The same can be said about his design as well, and his yellow shirt from Seasons 2 onward makes his design look better compared to the beige/grey shirt he wore in Season 1, though the same can't be said about his character design in the 2016-2022 episodes of New Adventures, or his design in the the CGI reboot. Speaking of his character design in New Adventures, his design as of "Doctor Caillou's Patient" is an improvement over the previous one due to it looking less rigid and looking more accurate to how he appeared in the original series.
 * 2) He sometimes does teach decent life lessons about social skills and exploring the world.
 * 3) Despite his Gary-Stuish behavior in seasons 4 and 5, he is much better behaved in those seasons and doesn't throw tantrums as often as he did in the earlier seasons, although he would revert back to his Seasons 1-3 self in New Adventures.
 * 4) He does get his comeuppance (albeit rarely), such as when Boris scolded him for throwing a tantrum in "Caillou Joins the Circus".
 * 5) * On top of that, in New Adventures, despite reverting back to his characterization from Seasons 1-3, he does end up getting his comeuppance. To name two examples:
 * 6) ** He got grounded for not listening to his mom for not getting off of the video game he was playing.
 * 7) ** Another time he got grounded was for banging on the table, for not eating his broccoli, and for trying to escape his room to play with his friends in the aforementioned "Caillou's Prison Break".
 * 8) * This even manages to make an influence on the GoAnimate/Vyond grounded videos from YouTube (whom Caillou is a major victim of).
 * 9) It's possible that due to him being 4 years old, he doesn't really grasp the fact that it's not okay to act spoiled and selfish.
 * 10) He does have his fair share of likable moments. Special mention goes to the series finale, "You're Not Miss Martin!", where he redeemed himself and doesn't act like a Gary Stu.

Reception
Caillou has received overwhelmingly negative reviews from people and critics and has been regarded as one of the worst preschool show characters of all time, as well as one of the most hated fictional characters of all time. Criticisms have been commonly directed towards his spoiled and selfish behavior (particularly in the first season), and as a result, he has become an infamous character among many people.

In spite of this, he is also a divisive character among other people, as many either see him as a charming and realistic child, or a wimpy and bratty jerk who is a terrible influence on children.

Trivia

 * When the book series started in 1987, Caillou was a baby, but when it was time for him to age up, the illustrator found that giving Caillou hair would've made him unrecognizable, thus explaining the character's baldness.
 * He along with Dora are both main victims of grounded videos made in Vyond, Plotagon, and Wrapper. On a side note, Little Bill, Sid the Science Kid, Peppa Pig, Bob the Builder, and (in the case of Harri Marken Prits from Estonia) some of the Numberblocks are among supporting to recurring victims.
 * His misbehavior and unlikable behavior also caused him to spawn a parody series called "Caillou at 22" made by AOK and an appearance in a mh:besttvshows:Family Guy episode named "Stewie's First Word".

Videos
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