I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Mr Tickle this week.

Not because I have a strange fetish for Mr Men, although that would make for a very interesting article!

My fleeting obsession was the result of a strange coincidence. A few weeks ago I bumped into Mr Tickle on the South Bank In London. Well, it was a man in a suit but you know what I mean!

Mr Tickle or a Pickled Cow?

At first I couldn’t imagine why Mr Tickle would be loitering outside the OXO Tower. It transpired that he was publicising the Mr Men Exhibition taking place there. These somewhat bizarre characters seemed to me to be a rather odd subject for an exhibition. But then Tate Modern was just up the road and the artistic merits of the exhibits in that place have always passed me by.

If I had to choose between paying to look at a pile of bricks and a pickled cow or meeting Mr Tickle then the man in the suit would get my vote every time. So perhaps this exhibition had some merit after all. But I didn’t bother going in and continued with my walk.

Seeking Inspiration

I had forgotten all about this episode until, just two weeks later, I was asked to write a piece about none other than the Mr Men. Would you believe it?

This presented me with a major problem.  My client, not unreasonably, wanted me to come up with an attention grabbing and engaging piece. Something that would inspire readers to leave comments on his blog. Ordinarily that would mean writing something controversial but I couldn’t for the life of me think of anything remotely contentious that I could say about Mr Happy and his pals.

I sought assistance from my partner. He can generally find something inflammatory to say about anything but I feared that this subject would defeat even his ability to be provoking. But I was wrong.

He immediately suggested that I write an article entitled “Is Mr Tickle Gay?”. Inspired!

Sadly his rather brilliant suggestion was a little too off piste for the task at hand. However, I was determined to use it and now I have!

Finding Controversy

I did eventually find something of interest to say because it turns out that the Mr Men and their friends, the Little Misses, are actually a controversial subject. Although not because any of them are gay, as far as I am aware. I discovered that some people think that these characters reinforce gender stereotypes. I think that some people have too much time on their hands!

Positively Tickled

Incidentally, I wrote the article for Positively Postal’s blog to publicise a new stamp issue from Royal Mail. If your interest in the Mr Men and the Little Misses has been piqued then you can get your hands on the new stamps from Positively Postal on or after 20 October 2016. Don’t forget to read my article whilst you are there!

That’s three times in a matter of weeks that I have been thinking about Mr Tickle. How very disturbing!

Now it is time for Little Miss Sparkle to get some sleep! God I hope I don’t dream about Mr Tickle. That would be too weird!