Stick Stickly (and his empty red eyes) was the host of Nick in the Afternoon, a block of afternoon programming on Nickelodeon from 1995 to 1998.
I feel like every cartoon I’ve ever watched has warned me that red eyes are bad but sure, let’s just go with it.
To try and make a popsicle stick a more interesting host, Nickelodeon encouraged viewers to vote on into what substance they would dip Stick Stickly. Here’s a compilation video in case you can’t quite visualize it:
It’s literally just dipping a popsicle stick in stuff. I wish it was cooler but it’s not. We were apparently very easily entertained in the 90s. Also, don’t let the preview frame of this video fool you–JTT is barely in this. It’s all a lie.
Another segment featuring Stick Stickly was when viewers sent in videos of riddles to try and stump a popsicle stick:
You could also write letters to Stick Stickly in the hopes that he would read your note on the air:
Re-watching these, it makes me question my intelligence as a child. I remember thinking Stick Stickly was dumb and yet I really didn’t have to do much research to write this column because I remember him with a startling amount of clarity. The only logical explanation is that Stick Stickly’s address song is some sort of Faustian anagram and if you sing it, even once, your soul is his.
Happy Throwback Thursday!
Emily Regan 