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Real-Life BFB
Main infoProduction info

Yearly overviewShow timelines (Timeline of RLBFDIRLBFDIA • RLIDFBRLBFB before and after the split • RLTPOTExtra scouting) • General timelines (pre- and post-1950)

Differences from Pencil 2.OAestheticsMethodology (NamesNationalitiesHeightsAgesColours • AccessoriesTeam portraits) • Beyond the 64

TL;DR: InfoTimeline of the final project (part 1part 2part 3)

The (slightly un)official RLBFB yearbook! (Alternate takes)

It's been mentioned before, but look at what you get when you search "BFDI humans" on DeviantArt. About 1,100 results, 917 more if you replace the name of the first season with "BFB". The bottom line is that 擬人化 are hugely popular in the object show community.[1] When the majority of characters are inanimate objects that have personalities indistinguishable from those of humans, this is to be expected.

My "problem" with contemporary humanizations[]

At the risk of this part of this mini-special-whatever-it's-called sounding too ranty and thus attracting too much attention in the greater OSC,[2] I should like to preface this by saying I honestly don't have any negative feelings about what those people have done on these art websites. Often they have put so much work into what they draw that it is impossible to call them anything other than talented. That's why I put the word "problem" in quotation marks (for somewhat clickbait-y reasons)—it's more of an observation that I raise an eyebrow to.

Have you ever noticed that there are some aspects of BFDI 擬人化 that seem consistent regardless of the artist? It's usually nothing specific, but the general stuff. Just the first page of the DA search query set the tone for the rest. And this is going to sound weird, but in all of the pictures, the 擬人化-passed contestants looked like they were from the goshdarned future. Barring anime and the conventions thereof, to which I have never gone, I don't think I've seen so many people with vividly-coloured hair before. Not to mention the other things I found, like the very exaggerated style of dress I saw on some of them. I'm not naming names because they're everywhere. And again, this is not a complaint, because I know that DeviantArt is a place where you can be your most creative, a credo that manifests itself in artworks such as these.

But what if we were less creative and a little more realistic?

This was actually the main reason why I wanted RLBFB to be set 48 years ago. I had almost become accustomed to the modern BFDI-related 擬人化 (which harnessed the potential and fanciful future fashions), so my dreams of redrawing BFB with the aesthetics of a bygone era seemed quite bland in comparison! Still, I thought it was a good idea to take one of the most uniquely-styled shows in Internet history and send it generations into a time where such styles were more constrained. I don't think anyone's made a BFDI 擬人化 that's meant to take place in the "current year",[3] let alone in the distant past.

RLBFDI's fashion(able) eras[]

Here's something both Flora and Flower would be very much into: a timeline of sixties fashion and its interconnections to the real world![4] In both universes, BFDI existed for just shy of eleven years as of this month (2010–2021 in the YouTube universe, 1962–1973 in the RLBFDI universe), and the way people looked, the way they saw the world and even the way they treated each other drastically changed over the years. Can you really imagine the first non-binary contestant in RLBFB[5] existing in 1962, when our very own (P2O-canonically trans) G.P. said just how wrong it was for a girl to sound like a boy?[6]

But this part will focus on appearances—specifically hairstyles—since this is the Aesthetics page and all. I shall use simple words that even I can understand so as not to make a fool of myself; again, I am no fashion historian.

Since this section is only about the 64 original contestants—not the hosts or the newbies (yet)—I have separated these analyses into those for the female and those for the male contestants. That's just the way it was in the twentieth century. Also, a survey from Manchester confirms my earlier suspicion that there are more stages for fashion changes in women than in men, and I'm sure that it must have been like that fifty years ago.

You can follow along, too! The Internet does wonders at chronicling the history of the way people looked. What I imagine most people would do is to look at fashion advertisements, movies and music videos from the time period to have a look, and I think that's fine. But since RLBFB isn't a fashion runway for most contestants, I found that it was helpful to look at school yearbooks, home videos or the extras in TV shows at the time. It captures more accurately how the average person (albeit the average person who had access to yearbooks, Super8 films and minor acting roles, i.e. Americans) dressed.[7]

One more thing: I didn't arbitrarily assign styles to the contestants; that would be insensitive.[8] I've looked at some of the trends[9] from the various 擬人化 I saw on DeviantArt and extrapolated them to the 1960s, as if to say, "What would they have looked like back then?" So I'll pause under each section and point out the individual changes that selected contestants went through at the time.[10]

Girls[]

Stage 1: RLBFDI and RLBFDIA (1962–1965)[]

I don't want to call this the "early sixties" because most of what happened here belongs more to the middle of the decade. But you would probably get an idea of why I want to call it that if you suddenly found yourself in this era: television was in black and white in all countries, The Flintstones was one of the most popular cartoons and women were rather conservative when it came to fashion.

This is true even for the over-the-top world of RLBFDI. First filmed in December 1961 and broadcast on New Year's Day 1962, this could easily be mistaken for a 1950s series, when in fact it was not. Much of what people wore seemed like a continuation of the whole "housewife" aesthetic, plus a few subtle changes that were only noticed by the people who were physically there. The long hair typical of the sixties wouldn't appear until much later, and when it did, it was more a sequel to the styles of the previous decade. This era lasted from the first to the eighth episode of RLBFDI.[11]

Sometime in August 1962 a change happened, analogous to the great arms-and-legs asset switcheroo in the YouTube series.[12] The fifties were finally beginning to die out. Not just in fashion trends, but also in music! In Britain, a once-small band was starting to gain extreme popularity. Have you heard of them? They were called The Beatles… Maybe the changing aesthetics in nearby countries was a a reflection of the times that were a-changin'. This era lasted roughly from episode 9 of RLBFDI to "GTTTATINT RLBFDI Frames", broadcast in March 1964.[11]

In 1964, the world was completely in the sixties. Sure, there was a more "modest" look among everyone, but depending on where you were, you couldn't deny that you were living in this swinging decade. This is also the time period in which RLBFDIA was released, and it would air until August 1965 "for unknown reasons". Because of the long story arcs in a few episodes, the way people looked was very consistent in this five-episode season.

We lose track of the contestants when RLBFDIA began its lengthy hiatus. That doesn't mean no fanfiction was written and no fan art was created. Since the audience didn't know what the RLBFDIA contestants looked like during this hiatus (they were sent to their home countries and were viewed as has-beens),[13] most artists just drew them as though it were still 1965.

All changed in 1968, when object show fans had their hopes restored.

Stage 2: RLIDFB and early RLBFB (1968–1970)[]

1968 was a turning point in the history of the world. A general anti-establishment feeling was in the air, not only in the U.S., which was deep in the Vietnam War, but also in in Mexico, West Germany, South Africa, Senegal and Czechoslovakia, just to name a few. A growing counterculture manifested itself in the most popular songs of the time ("The War Is Over", "Draft Morning"), and "hippie" became an often contemptible household word.

With much prelude, it's also the year that RLBFDI came back, starting with a video called "RLBFDI Is Back"! The summer of 1968 set the tone for what would happen next, and that was made known in the way people looked once RLIDFB hit the small screens in September. This era lasted not just for one episode, but for other videos released around the same time:[14] I've it written down that the last animation to take place in a universe not using the RLBFB style was "RLBFDI: Ballers", released in the summer of '69.[11]

Stage 3: Late RLBFB and early RLTPOT (1971–present)[]

Counterintuitively, the most stereotypical year of the sixties[15] was 1969, a year closer to the seventies than any other. At that time, the hippies were in full bloom seen by facepalming elders, "Hare Krishna" became an insanely popular record in Europe and it seemed like every young person was against their parents, the patriarchy and more.

In our universe, BFB began with an extremely different asset change. The pre-formed eye, mouth and limb assets were replaced by simple, to-the-point drawings, causing shock in some people but sympathy in others. Facial expressions are hard enough to animate! With RLBFB being done by humans and not objects, this aspect of the change wasn't reflected in the show, but surely enough, everyone went to their personal extreme by the end of the decade.

This era of intense rebellion lasted during the first twelve episodes of RLBFB, all released within a good time from each other. One could argue that it lasted until January 1971, when animators from all around remade the first RLBFDI episode with current sensibilities.[11]

As RLBFB went into a hiatus for a few days short of a full calendar year, fashion in the human world greatly changed, as is usual for the turning of decades. By the summer of 1971, it was very clearly no longer the restrained sixties, and the strange eclecticism of the past decade was normalized by modern society. When was the first time you saw someone in bell bottoms?

This era, the early seventies, started in RLBFB 13 (July 1971), and I suspect that it is still going on to this day. It will very likely change later this year—I've it written as "until early 1973".[11]

Boys[]

Stage 1: RLBFDI and RLBFDIA (1962–1965)[]

In the yearbooks, the TV shows and the photographs, you'll notice that while women were in this version of the "early sixties" were conservative in their fashion choices, men were even more so. Must be the gender stereotypes talking here, but I think it's because the discrepancy in the number of career opportunities between men and women was much higher then than it is now. Imagine a surgeon or military general or, gosh forbid, a priest[16] who dresses like John Lennon.

Put another way, men's hairstyles have remained exactly the same as they were in the fifties, forties, even a bit in the thirties. If you go back further in time (i.e. to the 1920s and before), you will find many guys looking like they would in 1963, again, with small, subtle differences imperceptible to the twenty-first-century viewer.

Stage 2: RLIDFB and early RLBFB (1968–1970)[]

As with women, fashion changed a lot at the end of the decade. People like to think that the late sixties were exclusively full of hippies and the like, but there was a much more significant change in men's fashion in the middle part of the decade. So says Wikipedia:

Due to the influence of mod bands like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, mop-top hairstyles were most popular for white and Hispanic men during the mid 60s. The mod haircut began as a short version around 1963 through 1964, developed into a longer style worn during 1965–66, and eventually evolved into an unkempt hippie version worn during the 1967–69 period and into the early 1970s.

The primary sources say otherwise, as is common with websites that anyone can edit.[17] Whatever is claimed to be popular in a certain year (when it comes to fashion) comes into vogue later, especially in regions outside the major cities. Look at an old yearbook from Los Angeles vs. one from rural Kansas, for example. What was popular around 1963–64 according to Wikipedia appeared more in the source images from 1965–67. The longer style was more 1968–70, and the hippie style (while not invisible before then) prevailed from 1971–74. This was visually evident in the episodes of the new seasons.

Stage 3: Late RLBFB and early RLTPOT (1971–present)[]

What many people think of when they assume "sixties hair" for men actually became ubiquitous around 1971, when the early seventies began. The more conservative generations lamented the passing of the sixties and were shocked to see everyone engaging in the new counterculture. Well, almost everyone. Now, this era is ongoing, and I predict that the present-day styles will die out by mid-1974.[11]

How do I know this?[]

I've been keeping a Photoshop file with crude, XKCD-like drawings of the hairstyles the 64 contestants had from 1962 to the present day. I wasn't going to post it here since I assumed things were going to change, but as soon as I gave everything colour, there was no turning back. And so, here's the final product: a timeline of all the (hair)styles that the original RLBFB contestants wore over the years, from the beginning of season 1 to the present day.

July edit: It's outdated.

I plan to make this whole series of images a living project: the chance of the styles of 1962–1973 being revised is 0.001%,[18] but I am also working on a file illustrating all the future aesthetics until RLTPOT (and later RLBFB) should end.[19][20]

Notes[]

  1. For my analysis, mentioned in the Methodology section, you'll see that I got most of the data from looking at DeviantArt posts, Reddit posts with over 10 karma and the first pages of Google Images. But there are other websites out there that feature art of BFDI 擬人化, viz. Tumblr and whatever Amino is.
  2. Doesn't happen very often. Sometimes, I imagine there's a bit of drama in the community, so I avoid listening to it.
  3. The oldest 擬人化 I've ever seen is from when I had just joined the fandom. This one, by CCartfulgirl on DeviantArt, shows Flora, Iris, Kathy, Frederic and Lelanda as they were before BFDIA in 2012, or should I say "1964".
  4. I don't really know a thing about fashion history, but I felt the need to look at the popular media of the time.
  5. This was written before the review of BFB 26 (aired 6 November 1972) was completed, but Sam Thornbury confirmed that Profile Picture was indeed the first genderqueer contestant in (RL)BFB history. For those who don't know, it means that they—referring to Profily—identify as neither male nor female. That's all.
  6. BFDI 11: 2:07-2:14. Am still mulling this scene over for a P2O episode. Don't want to plug, but will anyway: read "The Biggest Hidden Club That This Uni's (N)ever Seen" when it's finished, yeah?
  7. Doesn't mean it's all Americans being represented in it; I looked at how the British, Japanese, Germans, even Jamaicans looked in those time periods for inspiration.
  8. To whom? No one, really, but I still want to be consistent.
  9. There are some notable ones. Not only in hair, but in other things as well (which will be covered). Kathy [Bubble] always wore her hair in some kind of bubbly bouffant, Iris [Ice Cube] and Briselda [Bracelety] tended to have little-girl hairstyles, while Toni [Taco] and Adolphus [Blocky] strayed as far as possible from the accepted mainstream.
  10. Some may be coming here from the first part of the Backstories page, so I'll include both the contestants' human and object names.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 July edit: With more detailed information about the filming schedule of RLBFDI episodes, this sentence is now outdated. Contestants can change the way they look whenever they want.
  12. BFDI 9… 0:00.
  13. Also, celebrity culture wasn't as weird. They didn't have Instagram back then, mind you!
  14. The aesthetic in the YouTube universe was similar throughout. You can almost tell that a video came from a time period because of the fluidity of the animation, and although this had been going on since the later parts of BFDIA 5, it was pretty much normalized by IDFB.
  15. In other words, what most people think of when they imagine the sixties.
  16. I was going to say imam, although beards have always been quite common in Islam.
  17. Oops!
  18. Saves me hassle on the Aesthetics page, though.
  19. I originally predicted the show to end in 1977, with an upper limit of 1981, but since I messed up the calculations—TPOT won't be released monthly—I'll have to find another date to predict for the show's finale. On the plus side, this means you'll get to see your favourite competitors with the "worst" looks of the eighties!
  20. July edit: Considering how futuristic the time RLTPOT ends will look, this "future fashion" graphic isn't as high on my list of priorities as I was when I was working on this article. All you need to know is that G.P. gets a mullet like the guys on Full House (that's what his cap is for).

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