Is it just me, or has that Snuggles bear gotten creepier over the years?

So this morning I'm at the gym, trying to decide which talking head is the least insipid TODAY (this is another blog altogether - I may have even written one already but it never gets old. The Today show had a segment about a girl who couldn't stop sneezing the other day. Really? Two wars abroad, thousands of people starving and jobless and an environment that's puking up yesterday's lunch and you want to talk about sneeze girl and swine flu. Great. P.S. Is this parenthetical too long? I DON'T CARE IT'S FRIDAY THE 13TH I CAN DO WHAT I WANT YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME) and I see this commercial for Snuggles brand fabric softener. I've always felt a certain affection for the Snuggles brand, mostly because my grandma likes to give me things that don't cost very much or come with other things, and they mostly involve national brands. The things that come with Reader's Digest for a nominal fee that I've gotten include: a totally awesome Christmas songbook with easy accompaniments that I've been using in lessons for years and some Andrew Lloyd Webber recordings that make me happy whenever they pop up on my adorable purple iPod nano which I've nicknamed Purple Potato for whenever it pops up on my computer.

The most important gift in this vein of gifts that my grandma has ever given me is a Snuggles teddy bear which has been with me since I was 2 years old. This was my teddy bear of choice as a child, and he endured many a squished night in my arms or as a pillow, many a trip to the grocery store, in the canoe at camp, etc. I remember specifically playing around on top of the washing machine as a kid with Snuggles as my little companion, and giving him "surgery" when I pretty much ripped his head off and we had to sew it back on (are you surprised? You shouldn't be).

Lately, Snuggles fabric softener has used a CGI cartoonish bear for their commercials, so I thought that the bear puppet was gone. Which is fine - puppets aren't the cute snuggly things they used to be, and kids including me are creeped the frig out by them now. So anyway, I'm watching this morning and this puppet comes out in the commercial! WTF??? He was totally fatter and had crack baby eyes and talked like he's been a heliumholic for years!!! This is NOT okay with me, Snuggles brand fabric softener. I DO NOT endorse your little new demonic mascot. I want the Snuggles of old, who would hug me and love me, not cut me for drug money! He was sweet and snuggly in a natural way, not in an "I ate a herd of baby Alpaca on a drug trip" way.

I'm just saying, the new Snuggles is not okay.