You might have heard of Caillou, one of the most well-known Canadian children’s cartoon series, because of its infamous reputation. Based on a children’s book series by Hélène Desputeaux and Christine L’Heureux, the series aired on the Canadian channel Teletoon from 1997 to 2010. Many American kids also had the chance to see the show because it was aired on PBS under the PBS Kids label.

The series follows the titular Caillou, whose name means “pebble” in French. He is a four-year-old boy who has to deal with changes associated with growing up, including having a new baby sister. While seemingly innocuous, many parents and others have criticized the show because of Caillou’s temper tantrums and attitude and how it teaches their kids bad manners. The backlash still rings today, evidenced by a Reddit community where users express their dislike of the main character. There even was much rejoicing when PBS finally announced in 2021 that they would no longer be airing the series.

Whether you like him or not, Caillou is one of the most memorable characters to ever grace television. He’s so popular that even discussions of dislike toward him turn into lighthearted moments of people asking: how tall is Caillou anyway? Of course, people dug for answers, and what they discovered was surprising!

Caillou is a Superhuman Toddler

It all began when a Twitter user decided to look up Caillou’s height on Google. What was found was shocking: the four-year-old Caillou is apparently 5 feet 11 inches tall! In metric terms, that’s around 180 centimeters.

Obviously, the idea of a four-year-old kid being that tall sent the internet into a frenzy. Fans and critics alike joked around that Caillou could be a good basketball player one day and questioned how oddly inappropriate the show’s theme song is. It has the lyrics, “Each day I grow some more”, to which Caillou’s mother Doris replies “you’re getting to be a big boy!” Perhaps Doris is right, Caillou already is a big boy.

Unfortunately for fans who liked the idea of a gigantic toddler, Caillou’s superhuman height is unofficial. The show’s producers or writers have never confirmed how tall he is. Indeed, Google searches no longer even show this supposed 5 ft 11 in height anymore. Instead, results show news articles and forum discussions about his equally controversial height.

The heights of children’s television characters have become a bit of a regular topic online. A similar thing happened to Peppa Pig as well, with the internet world wondering how tall Peppa Pig is.

Caillou’s Family Consists of Giants

While there was much pomp and fanfare about Caillou’s height, it seemed that fewer people cared about the heights of the rest of his family. Indeed, apart from one or two Reddit posts that claimed that Caillou’s parents are about twice his height (and thus are around 12 ft 9 in or 396 cm), there doesn’t seem to be much attention for Boris and Doris.

Nevertheless, let’s just assume that Caillou is indeed 5 ft 11 in. If that’s so, his parents would be so tall that Caillou’s entire family (including his little sister Rosie) would be a clan of giants!

Why is Caillou Bald Anyway?

While we’re here, it may be worth mentioning another one of the more famous aspects of Caillou: his baldness.

Caillou is already four years old but his head remains hairless. For many years, fans and critics have speculated about the reasons for this design choice. One Reddit user theorized that Caillou has terminal cancer, which could explain why his family largely accepted his behavior.

However, it turns out that the true answer is far from extraordinary. According to the publisher’s official website, Caillou was originally created as an infant, and infants usually have little-to-no hair. When the books were adapted into the cartoon, it was decided that Caillou would be slightly older instead. It was thought that giving him hair would make him unrecognizable, and so his distinctive bald appearance remained.

As for why Caillou was aged up? It was so that the show’s target audience, mostly children five and below, would be able to relate to him more.

So What Have We Learned Today?

We have learned how tall Caillou is (or at least what fans think how tall he is). We also got to know that everyone’s favorite (or least favorite?) mischievous child is probably not actually a superhuman toddler. His claimed height also actually fits his show’s theme song quite nicely! And finally, we learned that the internet has a strange obsession with the heights of characters from children’s TV shows.

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