Headscratchers / Blue's Clues

Are They High?

• Are Steve, Joe, and Josh mentally ill or on drugs? They spent pretty much their entire day talking to household objects and jumping into pictures...
  • Household objects who can talk, and they're literally able to jump into pictures.
  • No, it's a kids cartoon. I highly doubt that they're written to be mentally ill or on drugs. Not every fictional character who, by the way, is fictional, HAS to be on drugs.

We are Gonna Play Blue's Clues... But Why?

• Why does Blue force her caretakers to play Blue’s Clues?
  • She probably wants to help them practice their detective skills. After all, this game inspired Steve to become a detective himself.
  • The real answer is probably because it's a kids cartoon.
    • The real in-universe answer though might be because she's a dog and can't tell them directly.
  • I thought they were actually playing a really fun game and the audience so happens to be a visitor playing along, too, because it's a scavenger hunt and those can be pretty fun.

Spice, Spice, Baby

• How did Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper have Paprika and Cinnamon (and, later, Sage and Ginger)?
  • The answer is simple: the Spice Family members are all just spice containers, not the actual spices. They can contain whatever spice they want at any time; they just each choose to have a different one. Spice container + spice container = a baby spice container, and they can switch their spice any time they like.
  • Paprika as her mother and grandmother are named after types of pepper. Paprika is ground pepper. Cayenne is a kind of Pepper. Cinnamon was named by Paprika. Mrs Pepper's dad is named Thyme a type of herb normally used to make Tea, probably from which the names of Sage and Ginger come.

Joe's Age

• How old is Joe? He's Steve's younger brother. Steve's age isn't really stated in the series, but he seems to be a young adult. From the looks of it, Joe is supposed to be prepubescent or a young teen; but his actor makes him seem years older.. Where are his parents if so?
  • It's possible that Joe was living with their parents until he was old enough to live on his own. It could be that Joe just happened to be ready to move out right when Steve needed someone to house sit for him.
  • Maybe it's some weird Dawson Casting but Joe seems like an adult to me.
  • Well, as far as I remember, Steve left the show because he "went to college" so I expect Joe was a high school student, probably a freshman.
  • If I recall correctly, we were always intended to think of both Joe and Steve as kids rather than adults. I don't know how that's supposed to work when they're both clearly adults, but okay.
    • Kids don't go to college, though.
  • It doesn't help that one of the episodes featured a flashback sequence featuring a Steve that was actually a child and Joe as a baby. The age gap seemed to be at least four years.
  • Well Steve Burns (Steve) was born in 1973 and Donovan Patton (Joe) was born in 1978. So Joe is five years younger than Steve.
    • Maybe they aren't "kids" per say but are really teenagers.

Adulterous Mrs. Pepper

• If Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper had Paprika (ignoring the adoption possibility in the WMG page), wouldn't that mean that there was a Mr. Pepper who was cheated on?
  • People who work with little children, like day care workers or teachers of preschool, often have the children refer to them as Mr./Miss/Mrs. and then their first name (presumably to get the children to consider them "friends" by being on a first name basis while still maintaining respectful titles so that they can discipline the children). I've always assumed the situation with Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper were something like that, and that Salt and Pepper are their first names.
  • Fridge Brilliance : They're Salt Shaker and Pepper Shaker.
  • She didn't take her husband's name?
    • The Maiden Name Debate

Where Did the Songs Come From?

• Exactly where did the songs "Buddy Boogie" and "Why Are We Such Good Friends" on the "Blue's Biggest Hits" CD come from? If they're from actual episodes, I don't remember them.
  • They're recycled from the album A Playdate with Blue, both of them. This was one of the innovative things Blue's Clues did; entire "episodes" released as albums. You don't remember them from the TV show because they weren't on the TV show.

Varsity Hopscotch Team?

• In the 100th episode, Steve says he's captain of the varsity hopscotch team. Hopscotch. That's a game, not a sport, and it certainly wouldn't be sanctioned by the NCAA. And even if it was, no network, not even Fox Sports 2 (a network that most major cable systems don't carry) would carry such a juvenile sport. Why couldn't they just say Steve was captain of the marching band that plays at football games?
  • Rule of Funny. It’s also a show aimed towards Preschool/Elementary school kids, so it’s possible that they wanted to make it a game most kids that age would recognize.
  • All else aside, watch Steve skiddoo — he's hopscotching his way into and out of pictures. Just imagine the game you could make with every space on the board being a Portal Picture . . .

Mobile Mailbox

• How is Mailbox capable of stretching off his post?
  • Magic.
  • He’s connected to an extension...
  • I think he mentioned in the inventions episode that he created an extendable post so that he's not stuck in one place all the time.

Oddly Familiar Tune

• Where does the tune that a lot of the songs (the We are Looking for Blue's Clues song, the You Just Figured Out Blue's Clues song, the We Just Got a Letter song, etc.) have come from? It feels awfully familiar but I can't place it.
  • I went through a list of nursery rhymes and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" sounds a bit like those songs, but the Blue's Clues songs are a bit faster . Also possibly "Polly Put the Kettle On". At the very least I think it's a nursery rhyme tune. Or it just has the same notes as some familiar songs.

Dumb Joe

• Why doesn't Joe ever just. See the clue that's clearly behind him. He doesn't need my help. It's infuriating watching him struggle to find a giant blue paw print that's literally right in front of him when he's asking for help. It's just. Why.
  • Why did you single out Joe? Steve did it all the time, too.
  • Maybe he's playing dumb.
  • Remember the game “Newsflash” from Whose Line Is It Anyway? Maybe Joe/Steve can’t see the paw prints unless the kids point them out.

Periwinkle the loner

• If i'm not mistaken Periwinkle's owner(s) has never appeared once. Are we really expected to think Periwinkle moved all those boxes out in the debut ep (assuming in the unlikely moving company did nothing) and is living alone by himself? If they do, I Doubt they'd let Peri hang out with their neighbours so soon and so often.
  • Maybe they're busy alot, and Steve/Joe is Pet sitting for them?
  • In Blue Clues and You Peri owner Aly is revealed. Some lines imply that at least in the Reboot universe he lived with his grandfather Mauve before, the Hosts just never met him.

The places of the Clues

• Has anyone ever wondered HOW Blue is able to put her paw prints on most places that would seem impossible like rain drops or clouds and what not?
  • She's a Reality Warper, if a not very powerful one. Same reason she's able to skidoo into paintings and what not.

How would Steve even get into college?

• He's not very observant nor does he seem to have any deductive reasoning skills.
  • One interpretation could be that Steve is an Absent-Minded Professor or a Bunny-Ears Lawyer and we only see him in his weirdest moments. He's not stupid, he just works in a peculiar way.

Joe’s Name

• This is a bit of a Meta question, but if the show needed to shorten Donovan Patton’s name so it was easier for kids to say, then why didn’t they make his name Don instead of Joe?

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