Between a new animated kids’ show on Max and a new documentary podcast series, Barney is definitely back in the public consciousness, inspiring fond memories as well as ironic nostalgia. But as Thanksgiving approaches, millennials who grew up watching the big purple dinosaur are remembering a much more darkly funny moment in the character’s history.
This week, TikTok account @onlyninetieskidsknow posted a vintage clip of the Barney balloon in the 1997 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade careening out of control over Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue before a nearby lamppost tore a massive hole in its side.
The video goes on to show balloon wranglers and NYPD officers wrestling the giant inflatable to the ground amid high winds, stomping on it to deflate it further.
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“Anybody else think about the time we watched barney d*e [sic] on national tv?” text above the clip reads.
The video is captioned simply, “Emotional damage.”
The Barney incident was just one of several at the 1997 parade. The New York Times reported the following day that winds reached 43 miles per hour on Nov. 27, 1997, causing handlers to struggle to maintain control of their towering balloon characters. In what was reportedly the worst mishap in the parade’s 100-year history, a six-story-tall Cat in the Hat balloon crashed into a lamppost at 72nd Street and Central Park West. Several bystanders were injured, with one reportedly sustaining a near-fatal skull fracture that left her in a coma for 24 days.
Evy Mages/NY Daily News Archive/Getty
The amateur-shot video of the Barney incident included in @onlyninetieskidsknow’s post shows handlers losing control of their leads, while other cling for dear life. The crowd gathered along Sixth Avenue can be heard shouting and screaming as the balloon first veers left, then right, before being punctured by a lamppost, leaving a gaping hole in the smiling character’s right side.
A mix of cheers and booing can be heard from the crowd — giving an indication of the decidedly mixed sentiment about the character, even in his heyday — as NYPD officers stomped and reportedly stabbed the Barney balloon to deflate it. The Associated Press reported that one child could be heard saying “Barney’s dead! He’s dead! YEAH!”
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Commenters on @onlyninetieskidsknow’s post recalled the incident with similar gallows humor.
“When my therapist asks me where it all began, I ask her if she knows about the 1997 Macys Day parade,” one wrote.
“The beginning of millennial trauma that continues to this day,” another user commented.
“This was TRAUMATIZING and my family STILL makes fun of me for crying during this,” another wrote.
The original home video of the incident seems to have been uploaded to YouTube back in 2013, and has continued to resurface every Thanksgiving since.
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