Mr. Tickle
{{Short description|1971 children's book by Roger Hargreaves}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Mr. Tickle
| image = Mr. Tickle.jpg
| caption = Cover of Mr. Tickle
| author = Roger Hargreaves
| illustrator = Roger Hargreaves
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series = Mr. Men
| genre = Children's literature
| publisher = Egmont Publishing
Fabbri
| pub_date = 10 August 1971
| pages = 40 pp
| isbn = 978-0-85396-003-4
| preceded_by = N/A
| followed_by = Mr. Greedy
}}
Mr. Tickle is the first book in the Mr. Men series by Roger Hargreaves which was published on 10 August 1971.{{cite news|last=Tait|first=Amelia|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/fifty-years-of-mr-men-books|title=How the Mr Men made their millions|work=New Statesman|date=18 August 2021|access-date=26 August 2021}}
The character of the story was originally based on a question by his son Adam Hargreaves, who asked him what a tickle would look like; the claim of which is currently being disputed. Adam Hargreaves said that it was one of his most impossible questions as said in the TV special 50 Years of Mr. Men.
Mr. Tickle is an orange Mr. Man who has long, bendy arms and a small, blue hat.
Plot
Mr. Tickle's story begins while he is in bed, getting himself a biscuit without getting up, because of his "extraordinary long arms". He then decides that it is a tickling sort of day, thus he journeys into town to tickle people: a teacher, a policeman, a greengrocer, a station guard, a doctor, a butcher, and a postman. The book ends with Mr. Tickle thinking about all the people he tickled that day and the author warning the reader that Mr. Tickle could be seen at the reader's door, wanting to tickle them.
It is a relatively unusual Mr. Men book where the main character is amoral, tickling everyone, yet there is no corrective action taken to mend his ways. Because of this, Mr. Tickle is left free to tickle the next day, learning nothing from the previous day.
Translations
Mr. Tickle appears under the titles:
| class="wikitable"
!Translation !!Language | |
| Monsieur Chatouille | French |
| Ο Κύριος Γαργαλίτσας | Greek |
| Meneertje Kietel | Dutch |
| コチョコチョくん (Kocho-kocho-kun) | Japanese |
| מר דגדוג | Hebrew |
| 搔癢先生 | Mandarin |
| Unser Herr Killekille | German |
| Fætter Kilderik | Danish |
| Don Cosquillas | Spanish |
| Mr. Goglais | Welsh |
| Mister Solletico | Italian |
| 간지럼씨 | Korean |
| Senhor Cócegas | Portuguese |
| Gubben Killekill | Swedish |
| Pan Łaskotkiewicz{{cite web | url=https://egmont.pl/Pan-Laskotkiewicz,11079736,p.html | title=Księgarnia Internetowa Egmont }} | Polish |
| Mr. Csiki | Hungarian |
''The Mr. Men Show''
In the 2008 TV series The Mr. Men Show, Mr. Tickle remains relatively the same in looks, though his hat is aqua with a stripe on it and his arms have a normal size, but can stretch out when needed. However, he tickles other Mr. Men and Little Misses due to the absence of the humans of Dillydale. He is still determined to tickle everyone he interacts with as far as some character traits go, but, instead of doing it for mischief, he does it to make people happy, and will stop when nobody wants him to tickle them—save for when the opportunity knocks with Mr. Grumpy, who is his favourite target. He speaks with a Canadian accent in the US dub and a Welsh accent in the UK Dub. He has a catchphrase: "I think somebody needs a tickle!" In both of the US and UK dubs, he is voiced by Jeff Stewart and Rob Rackstraw, respectively.{{Cite web|title=The Mr. Men Show (TV Series 2008–2009) |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029211/fullcredits |publisher=IMDb |access-date=2022-02-01}}
Criticism
The Mr. Tickle character has been invoked in discussions over whether tickling children may violate their bodily integrity.{{cite news |last1=Starkey |first1=Adam |title=Mr Tickle crashes debate on whether tickling children should be banned |url=https://metro.co.uk/2019/02/01/mr-tickle-crashes-debate-whether-tickling-children-banned-last-time-see-8424685/ |work=Metro |date=1 February 2019 |language=en}} Critiquing the unequally applied justice in the realm of Mr. Men, Charlie Brooker decries the fact that Mr. Tickle goes unpunished despite being a "1970s children's entertainer with wandering hands who runs around town touching strangers inappropriately from dawn till dusk".{{cite news |last1=Brooker |first1=Charlie |title=The Mr Men inhabit a godless universe. It's a brutal existence |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/02/box-set-mr-men-stories |work=The Guardian |date=2 June 2014 |language=en}} Journalist Eleanor Mills compared Mr. Tickle to sex offender Harvey Weinstein in a discussion of misogyny in the Mr. Men books.{{cite news |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Kyle |title=GMB viewers stunned after guest compares Mr Tickle to Harvey Weinstein |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/good-morning-britain-viewers-stunned-12505134 |work=Mirror |date=9 May 2018 |language=en}}
See also
{{Portal|Children's literature}}