Boobr... (info dump/character analysis)

WARNING : i dont have ocd and im not a system. Ive done some reaserch on OCD in the past but i'm not a therapist, the diagnoses are just headcanons with a lot of evidence backing them. i am autistic though so i can confirm Boober is 100% ASD!!! /j at the time of writing this i am on eS2 E23 of the original series am have yet to watch the reboot!

   Boober may be the best and most interesting fictional character since Gilgamesh. His various mental illnesses, his queer-coding, and his personality. Everything about him is so amazing. His inner struggle and general character genuinely interests me and it's NOT just because we have the same hat its nOT STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THA---

   Boober exhibits extreme germaphobia and and a fear of bad things happening to him. As his 2006 character description states, "According to Boober, anything that can go wrong surely will, and when it does, it will inevitably happen to him."  This, as well as very strong superstitions cause me to believe that Boober suffers from OCD. He very often has plots centered around his superstitions and paranoia. For instance, episodes like "I Don't Care", "You Can't Do That Without a Hat", and "The Terrible Tunnel" all prominently show Boober's superstitions and how not doing his rituals or having his security items causes him a lot of distress. This behaviour is mostly exhibited in season one. I think this is because of a shift into focusing more on his other traits but the fears are definitely still there. Like how in "Boober's Dream" he says that fun is dangerous and that being part of the reason he dislikes it. Speaking of Boober's Dream...

Characters having a mental alter ego is a very common tactic to get a character to confront their internal issues in a fun and comprehensive way. Boober is no different. In the episode "Boober's Dream", we get to meet Boober's other self, SIDEBOTTOM!!! Sidebottom is Boober's self described "fun side". Episodes including Sidebottom are usually about self acceptance. (i haven't seen the third episode with him yet) Sidebottom seemingly formed due to Boober's repression of certain parts of himself. While this is stated to be his fun and sense of humour, i also believe Sidebottom is a representation of other behaviours as well, such as his dancing that could be described as stimming and his gender expression. 

While Sidebottom is an example of a narrative device seen in many other series such as ii (although evil paper isn't handled very well) and even spider-man with the venom arc, One could interpret Boober's alter ego as a form of plurality. I personally believe that he is. Alters usually form out of trauma and for Boober i think this was probably trauma related to his previously discussed OCD. I don't think Sidebottom matches up with any specific diagnoses because Fraggle Rock is based in fantasy and obviously didn't intend to be a plurality allegory.  To me, however, this doesn't make it untrue. Since Fraggles are vaguely magical creatures, I think that Boober's plurality is a sort of fictional form of plurality that's affected by Fraggles having magical abilities like dream sharing. But enough of my baseless head-cannons, lets get onto the autism.

It is physically impossible for me to hyper-fixate on a character without head-cannoning them to have autism or being gender-queer. For Boober it's both! Let's start with autism. Boober is extremely different from the other Fraggles around him. He's often described as boring, as he has very mundane interests like laundry and cooking. He doesn't really mind being called boring though, because he knows what he likes and he will stick to it. Yes, im head-cannoning that Boober has a special interest in laundry. I am autistic, and while I do usually find interest in artistic things more often (like The Muppets...) I've had my fair share of seemingly boring interests. One of these include WATCHES. Aesthetically and mechanically i love cogs and clockwork. Every time i see a clock i go crayzee. Most people would consider this odd, strange even. Part of the thing I like about clocks is that while they are very intricate and complex, they are very easy to learn about if you try. They just make sense, most clocks share most parts and the repair process is exactly the same. They're predictable, but still different. So lets go back to Boober. Why does Boober enjoy laundry? As he describes himself, Boober enjoys the structure and predictability of laundry. A special interest can be in anything, no matter how odd it is. And while you don't need to be autistic to like something that's not widely enjoyed, it does make it a little more likely in my eyes. 

Another autistic trait of Boober's is his need for structure in general. He likes do do things he understands. There's not much to this one. He likes his routine and gets upset if its disrupted. Boober is also obviously a very introverted person who prefers to do very quiet activities like in Boober's Quiet Day where he attempts to spend the day just relaxing. Not all autistic people are introverted, but i do feel like many autistic people are due to getting overstimulated and needing time to be alone. Boober is also often seen getting overwhelmed. I don't think it's an obvious trait of him per-say but he does hyperventilate when hes upset very often. Boober is very frustrated with the overstimulating life in the rock which is what causes him to move out in the episode Boober Rock. I relate to that a lot because i live in a house with a lot of people doing their own things very loudly and its reduced me to tears on multiple occasions because i overstimulate easy. I personally disagree with the message of that episode because I don't think its a crime to live alone and he only moved back in because the cave he moved into could give people amnesia and kill you. In general, I think the fact that the fact Boober is very different from the average Fraggle is enough evidence on it's own. He's the only fraggle who very often needs to separate himself from others and enjoys being alone. The last bit of evidence once again relates to Sidebottom. We can infer that Sidebottom is ALL the behaviours Boober represses in himself. This is important because one of the things Sidebottom is notable for is his little dance he does that makes a jingling sound. To me, this is stimming. Plain and simple. Boober has the urge to stim and represses it. At the end of Boober's Dream, the way that Boober checks if Sidebottom is still there is by doing the same dance. Now he could be not stimming for a few reasons. My guess is that, like Sidebottom's other behaviour, Boober thinks that stimming is dangerous (that sounds weird but i will remind you that Boober canonically believes laughing is bad for you.), or he doesn't do it because hes built up a persona of seriousness and doing something like that would throw that off. Unlike in real life, I don't think Boober is masking simply because fraggles would judge him. Fraggles are very very energetic creatures who's culture is very intertwined with music. I do think that someone could have taken note of him doing this in the past and saying something because it seems uncharacteristic of him (honestly probably Red teasing him) that made Boober realize and stop.

Dispite Boober being a routine oriented introvert with a special interest in laundry of all things, that doesn't mean hes completely different from other fraggles. He sings just like the rest of them. He is an extremely complex character for being from an 80s kids puppet show. 

THIS PARAGRAPH IS LITERALLY ONLY DISCLAIMERS : Okay here is the LAST part of Boober Fraggles complex self. Boober fraggle is the queerest damn fraggle I've ever seen. Queerer than his boyfriend. For this part of the info-dump ill mostly be talking about the episode "Boober's Quiet Day" and how its about drag and gender expression. Though I head-cannon Boober as gay, you don't need to be gay to do drag and ill only be talking about the gender expression stuff. If you go to watch the episode, please know that it does contain the repeated use of a slur and insensitive representation of Romani people. The show was made in the 80s and the G slur was not considered a slur until verryyy recently and i don't believe the depiction was intended to be malicious but that's not an excuse. Romani people hardly get any good representation in the media and that is a huge shame. Since I'm white I'm going to ignore the race aspect of the episode for the rest of my analysis because i can not speak well on it and the fact the person Boober impersonates is Romani is honestly not important to the episode's plot at all. What matters is that she's a WOMAN.

in the episode, "Boober's Quiet Day", Boober want to have a calm, peaceful day when he accidentally lets Sidebottom out of his head, beginning the hell. Sidebottom is a direct contrast to Boober's rather blunt self, so he is a natural liar. Sidebottom makes Boober lie about leaving the rock on an overnight trip and lending his cave to a visiting old... *ahem* prophet lady. Cause all that matters is that she can read fortunes. Eventually Boober gets wrapped up in so many lies that he has to dress up as the prophet and preform a song and tell his friends their fortunes as her. Eventually he gets caught. lying is bad bc this is a moral show or whatever. What matters is the secondary moral! When Boober talks to Sidebottom, he admits that he did have fun after spending the whole episode complaining. Sidebottom tells him that maybe if they collaborated more, then Boober wouldn't need to lie. It's a moral that would remind you of Sander Sides to be honest.

Point is, Boober had FUN doing a DRAG PERFORMANCE. He had the time of his life putting on a female persona for a crowd. While you could say this makes him some form of trans and id back you up, I personally just see him as a generally masc presenting fraggle who does drag. His boyfriend on the other hand.... /j To me, this shows that part of Boober's gender expression is part of his repression and that he does find it as something he shouldnt enjoy even though he does. I want them to do something with this in the reboot bc I already know about Wembley's gender expression episode and the fact they have a canon non-binary character and a gender-queer mentor character!! Hense the references to how gender-fluid Wembley is in this part!!

Now is the perfect time to mention that Boober (and Sidebottom ofc) are played by Dave Goelz. You know, the guy who plays gonzo. The queerest Muppet. Gonzo also does drag multiple times and is very often seen as non-binary by the public. (personally i think hes gender-fluid bc me too!!) Sidebottom has a very gaudy and clashing outfit that personally reminds me of Gonzo's weirder outfits as well (by no means the same style, but i think they would appreciate each other) Dave still plays both characters to this day in 2024. I honestly dont think they will recast him until he dies... Especially bc i think hes an executive producer on back to the rock?? i could be wrong but ya.

I've been writing this for hours and no one will ever read it! Yay!! Closing thoughts, they should do more with Sidebottom in Back To The Rock and do more very in depth emotional moments with Boober. They should also make him kiss Wembley again and confirm all by headcannons except i dont think fraggles know what a mental disorder is so they have to say it like "Wow Boober, your so obsessive and compulsive its like your dis-ordered or something." /j