little compliments go a long way ✨💕

002 : Walking against the wind...

This is a multi-use character template with a mime theme. It is two pages using various spaces for links and condensed information to provide a character summary. This template provides ample room for descriptions while also offering many stylistic options.

This template is $3.00

𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄!

TIPS:

⊹ ࣪ Please do not remove credit!!!!

⊹ ࣪ The only drawings are the gray accent lines.

⊹ ࣪ For the box on the last page, feel free to link other sites/docs for the sample, song, Pinterest, and inspo. I usually make a Pinterest board/link a website for the last two.

⊹ ࣪ To link something with the text: 'select the text, paste the URL, click the link, click the pencil, type the phrase, edit font/colors'.

⊹ ࣪ Text boxes are character-specific. If you do not fill the section, press return a few times to even it out! ⊹ ࣪ To change an image: 'click the image, replace image' (I find it easiest to replace an image with a URL!)

   ✦ ‧ ₊ ˚ ⊹  ˖ ˚ ₊  𓂃

They say 'mime' like it's a bad thing.

each episode had brothers Shane and David encounter something they hadn’t before or something they didn't think that much about: bicycling, haircuts, ice cream, kites, birthdays, etc. and they'd go on these little journeys to learn about these things and what was cool about this show was that Shane and David were very open to learning and everything they learned and they learned from kids. the kids would teach them how puppets worked, how movie theaters work, how to take care of pets, etc. at the end of each episode, we see Shane and David try out the things they've learned about and the narrator announces something like "Shane and David go to the airport for the very first time!" in a very ringmaster-y tone of voice. ultimately, it positions kids as teachers and adults as learners, showing that adults have as much (if not more) to learn from kids as kids have to learn from adults.

the world of The Upside Down Show also included some other recurring characters, like Puppet (a puppet, the brothers' roommate and friend), Fido the Fly (Shane's invisible pet fly who lives in a tiny house with a tiny door in the wall with tiny front steps), Mrs. Foil (Shane and David's friendly and outgoing tuba-playing neighbor who has a male calico cat named Elizabeth and whose spouse we never see, so i choose to believe her partner is either super shy [we love an opposites-attract kind of relationship] or she's divorced and living her best single life), Action Fingers (the action duo Knuckles and Pointy who are literally just played by Shane and David's middle and index fingers), the Narrator and the Schmuzzies (little fuzzy puff balls kind of like tribbles - except they have eyes - who say every word with the sound "schm-" before it).

also, the laws of physics and reality are different in this show: Shane and David own an invisible Remote that they give to their viewers at the start of each episode, which affects things in-universe with the Pause button, the Instant Replay button, the Stumble button and lots of other buttons. Shane and David, played by the Umbilical Brothers, produce a bunch of sound effects with just their mouths throughout the show and mime a lot of things like the Remote, Fido the Fly, the Snooglenook and other characters and gadgets. it's a very wholesome, wonky sketch comedy time and i highly recommend it.

all this to say, the most important part of my post: the greatest love story of all time.

the very first episode features Shane and David going to a movie theater and also, to the laundry room? in the laundry room, which they first mistake as a movie theater, they meet a blue sock named Lefty nestled in a pile of Mrs. Foil's yet-to-be-folded laundry. Lefty explains to them tearfully that they're in the laundry room, not a movie theater. when Shane and David ask why he's crying, Lefty recounts his tale of sorrow to them over the backdrop of sad violin music: the laundry room is where he lost his "socky partner", Barbara. saddened by his story and determined to help the sobbing sock out, Shane and David call upon their pals the Action Fingers. after a little kerfuffle with Mrs. Foil's laundry, which they fold neatly back into a stack for her, Knuckles and Pointy hear a voice calling for help: Barbara! she's caught in a narrow storage drawer below one of the dryers! Knuckles and Pointy rush to her side and manage to pull her out in a dazzling display of heroism.

"Barbara!"

"Lefty!"

Barbara and Lefty are reunited and they embrace, so ecstatic that they cling to each other for longer than intended by way of static electricity. with the pair united, the tender moment is cut short as Mrs. Foil plucks them out of the laundry pile and Shane and David move on, leaving the laundry room behind them.

what i love about this story is that while it's short and sweet, it's also packed with all the angst and dramatic tension a good love story with a happy ending should have. Barbara and Lefty's tale is one of woe but also one of joy and yet...in the end, they are still socks. together, they become simply a pair, united, to be folded alongside each other as they should be. we can rest knowing they have found each other once again.

and sure, it's just a silly little snippet of a silly little kids' show, but it's cute and imaginative and it brings you into the world of your sock drawer and laundry pile very effectively. it implies that socks have personality and thoughts and feelings and reminds you to treat them with care, to remember that socks almost always come in pairs.