Q & A with "Yo Gabba Gabba!" co-creator Christian Jacobs

In a recent phone call, Jacobs talked about the reach of "Yo Gabba Gabba!"

Q: People always wonder if you guys do a lot of drugs.

A: Really, no! This is about kids and about a pure childhood fun land that you imagine in your mind. Kids can smell a rat, and I think hipsters can, too. Hipsters are just big kids. They just have a few more years behind them. If you think about what the hipsters are into, it’s whatever’s new, whatever the buzz is, and it’s the same thing with kids. With "Yo Gabba Gabba!" we try to keep it honest and pure for that age group.

Q: Can you talk more about the origins of the show?

A: “Yo Gabba Gabba!” definitely springs from the loins of the age of “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company” but also from all the Sid and Marty Krofft stuff of the early ’70s. Those were the shows that made the first impressions on our young minds, and they’re still there.

When we were having our own kids and growing up as dads and watching television and realizing there’s not a show like “H.R. Pufnstuf,” we asked, why can’t there be?

Q: How is what you do different from those ’70s pioneers?

A: We wanted to pave new ground with some trusty old tools and create something that harkens back to those shows, but at the same time had a modern sensibility and used modern music and had things in it that spoke to our generation.

That’s similar to hip-hop or punk – you’re using conventional things or borrowing samples to create something new.

Q: Your show seems to be part of a hipster parenting trend that fits with things like Baby Loves Disco, nationwide events that create G-rated rave-style parties for parents to take kids to. Do you think it’s important to a lot of parents who grew up in the 1970s to inflict their own definitions of ‘coolness’ onto their kids?

A: I think that’s unique to our generation because we’re really the first parents of that particular TV generation. The TV kids have grown up now!

I’m part of a generation that still goes to concerts and collects toys and is interested in pop culture and movies and is still a kid at heart. Whereas my parents believe that when you’re a kid you do kid things. And now I’m a man, and I grow up and do man things.

My parents always looked at me a little sideways about my interests. I’ve been into skateboarding and music and collecting toys… kind of that “when are you going to get a real job?” type of thing.

Q: What are the benefits of adults liking the same show as their kids?

A: I’ve heard parents say stuff like, “My kid watches this or that show, and I hate it.” And you can see the look on the kid’s face just kind of drop. It’s like that discord is the beginning for teenage ammunition.

We wanted to create "Yo Gabba Gabba!" as a celebration of our generation and our offspring. A show we can all watch together and get excited about. We thought, how awesome would it be if we could create a show that had really fun-to-dance-to songs, but the lyrics were appropriate for our kids, and they were substantial and they could help them learn and be excited about sharing or treating other people kindly?

Kids aren’t dumb. They’re excited by the stuff we’re excited by.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! There’s a Party in my City!

2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St., Atlanta. www.ticketmaster.com.