Kids are notorious for having bad manners. I mean, they aren’t born knowing our societal rules. You have to teach them. A very cute way to instill proper manners in children is with the new hoops&yoyo animations! If you’ve never heard of hoops&yoyo, they are a world-famous animated duo—you know the pink cat and green bunny that appear on Hallmark greeting cards and e-cards? That’s them and they are hilarious. Their new animations show kids the “right way” and the “wrong way” of doing things. For example, kids will learn how to blow their nose politely, handle a burp in public, use a napkin correctly, and more. They are so stinkin’ cute—kids won’t even realize they are learning valuable lessons!


I am very honored to have hoops&yoyo creators and artists, Bob Holt and Mike Adair answering a few questions about the loveable duo—hoops&yoyo! Without further ado, here they are:

Can you tell us about hoops&yoyo?
Bob Holt (animator of hoops&yoyo and the voice of yoyo): “I had created a little green bunny several years back and had been toying around with the idea of using it somewhere, but I wasn’t sure where. In 2001, Hallmark came to me with an e-card assignment for the 4th of July that had a tight deadline. I decided to reveal my creation and add a firecracker since it was for the 4th. I morphed the bunny into a pink cat (now hoops) and it became a huge hit, beyond our imaginations. You can see that original e-card here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AXXA40uutE&feature=channel_page. Eventually, hoops needed a partner and my green bunny (now yoyo) came to life again. We gave both of them voices (hoops was a non-talking animated character in the beginning), and the rest is history.”

Mike Adair (co-creator of hoops&yoyo and voice of hoops): “I sat next to Bob in the office and the minute he asked me to help with the voices and ideas for recording, I hopped right on it. I think the reason we both love the gig is, like hoops&yoyo, we love life and try to have as much fun as possible. As far as personalities go, hoops is energetic, spontaneous, sincere and, well, he sometimes gets himself into trouble. Like yoyo, he’s ageless. yoyo looks up to hoops (everyone needs a big brother) and when hoops goes overboard with his wacky gags and jokes, yoyo is there to bail him out.”

What inspired you to create hoops&yoyo?
Bob: “Well, the original inspiration was a deadline I had to hit. So…maybe…panic? When the first e-card was a hit, I thought hey, why wouldn’t I try another one? So I did, and it got a lot of traffic too. The great response of the fans inspired me to keep going, and that’s what still inspires Mike and me today.”

Do either of you relate better to one of the characters? If so, which one and why?
Mike: “Because there aren’t any scripts to follow, the characters end up taking on our personalities a bit. I am very energetic like my character hoops, but don’t get quite as excited as yoyo. Bob stumbles over his words sometimes, just like his character yoyo. It’s really the best job in the world and it’s kind of fun having these alter egos. When we give behind-the-scenes tours and kids see us, they sometimes have a look of disappointment on their faces when they discover that hoops&yoyo are just two middle aged guys from the suburbs!”

What do you hope children {and adults} will get from hoops&yoyo?
Bob: “It’s pretty simple, really. We like to make people laugh. We have gotten a lot of e-mails from fans who tell us they really needed a laugh, and we were able to give them that. We also hear from friends going through really difficult times who have written to tell us that hoops&yoyo were able to make them smile when nothing else could. We just want to continue making people smile and laugh, and their e-mails inspire us to keep working on that. We also respond to every e-mail we get. That surprises a lot of people, but it’s important to us to keep in touch with our fans. They keep us going!”

How does being dads contribute to your scenes on manners?
Bob and Mike: “The original inspiration for our manners episodes came from a school principal who told us that kids don’t get enough manners education these days. Being dads, we’d seen evidence of that (not in our own kids, of course), and it got us started. From there, all we had to do was look around for inspiration. At work, at the store, in the elevator – bad manners are everywhere! And kids definitely aren’t the only ones putting on the show! So unless the world suddenly gets an extreme etiquette makeover, we figure we’ll never run out of ideas.”

Any real-life embarrassing moments inspire you {either from your own kids or from when you were children}?
Mike: (who also plays the voice of one of hoops&yoyo’s friends: Marshy): “I get ideas from my children all the time (2 girls and a boy). For the lazy days of summer e-card, I was inspired to do a bit on “lazy tongue.” The idea came from a conversation I had with my kids one night at dinner. My 4-year old scolded me for crossing my eyes because I could end up with lazy eye. From there we discussed other parts of the body that could go “lazy” at some inconvenient time (i.e.: Lazy Neck while driving, Lazy Leg while square dancing…). The next day Bob and I recorded it and since then have gotten a huge reaction.”

What does the future hold for hoops&yoyo? Any exciting plans coming up?
Bob and Mike: “Our own radio show, TV show, popsicle, faces engraved on Mount Rushmore…you name it, we’ll do it…well, maybe.”