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Do Not Watch This Show is a 2025 Australian cartoon created by Australian comedian Andy Lee. It is based on the children's picture book Do Not Open This Book, which was also written by Andy Lee, with its illustrations done by Heath McKenzie. The series is produced by the Melbourne-based Lee Bones Productions, with Studio Moshi handling the animation and 9 Story Media Group handling international distribution.

The cartoon follows Wizz (Andy Lee), a pompous but unlucky blue monster who finds himself stuck as the star of this very TV show. Displeased with his role, he is now determined to try and stop YOU from watching his show. Luckily, his friends, the wise, old Tortoise (Denise Scott), best friends Lime and Kiwi (Joel Creasey and Kura Forrester), and resident expert Douglas (Andy Lee), are there to help him navigate the schemes and shenanigans that come with being TV's most reluctant star.

The show premiered on ABC iview on July 4, 2025, and aired on TV on ABC Family, ABC Kids and ABC Entertains later on. Quickly becoming one of ABC's most popular children's programs (evidently, the target audience has not been listening to Wizz's demands), the series has already been greenlit for a Season 2, which is set to debut in 2026.

Do NOT READ THESE TROPES!

• Adaptation Expansion: In general, the series is this to Do Not Open This Book and its sequels, adding additional characters and a slightly more concrete setting for Wizz in the form of his house. The first episode in particular, "Frog" adapts the original Do Not Open This Book, but adds a bunch more scenes to the plot and runtime, notably Wizz's claim that he will be eaten by a Tyrannosaurus if we continue.
• Agony of the Feet: "Bucket" opens up with Wizz stubbing his toe against the table in his kitchen. He does it again later in the episode.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Wizz feels this way about his parents, who give him kisses in public, always ask him if he's wearing clean underwear, love to crack bad jokes, and make him take part in their family's ridiculous traditions. For this reason, he is determined to shoo the viewers out when they come to visit in "Parents".
• Animated Adaptation: Of Do Not Open This Book and its many followups, which like the show, follow the premise of Wizz trying to discourage the audience from interacting with the work.
• Anthropomorphic Food: Living in Wizz's kitchen are an anthropomorphic lime and kiwifruit known as Lime and Kiwi, who often comment on the episode's events.
• Bewitched Amphibians: The first episode, "Frog", has Wizz claiming to us that if we continue watching his show, he'll be transformed into a frog as per a curse a witch placed upon him.
• Bird-Poop Gag: A budgie craps on Wizz's head in "Ghost".
• The Bore: Douglas is considered extremely boring by Wizz due to his constant interrupting of the show to provide random bits of useless information and make technical corrections to Wizz's statements. Wizz tries to exploit this in "Fart" by having Douglas take over the episode so as to bore viewers into losing interest in the show.
• Breaking News Interruption: Invoked. Wizz tries this in "Stinky" to discourage the viewers from watching the show, reporting that studies show that watching Do Not Watch This Show will cause viewers' eyes to turn into moldy grapes.
• Bucket Booby-Trap: "Bucket" is all about Wizz having to deal with a mysterious bucket constantly hanging over his head that is designated to pour its contents on him at the very end of the episode. He spends the whole episode fretting over what might be in the bucket and goes great lengths to both stop us from watching the episode and get rid of the bucket himself.
• Butt-Monkey: Wizz constantly runs into trouble trying to stop the audience from watching his show, as well as by his own ignorance.
• Cactus Cushion: Wizz's family has a tradition of trying to leap over a cactus, which Wizz's father claims goes all the way back to the Stone Age when their caveman ancestor did so to escape a hungry sabertooth. However, not a single member of the family has succeeded in replicating the fleet. At least until Wizz does so at the end of the episode. Though he does land on the echidna from earlier.
• Canon Foreigner: Douglas, Tortoise, Kiwi, and Lime are all original to the series and did not appear in the original books.
• Catchphrase: Douglas has "That's not entirely true", which he always says when he enters a scene to drop some facts and corrections.
  • Phrase Catcher: Wizz will then always respond with "Douglas, not required" once Douglas is done before shooing him out.
• Christmas Carolers: Or rather "Whiffmas" Carolers. A group of these stink-loving singers drop by Wizz's house in "Stinky", bombarding him with songs about stinkiness and their bad breath, caused by a diet of raw onions, garlic, and coffee.
• Cold Opening: The first scene before the intro is always of Wizz doing some mundane activity in his daily life before he gets interrupted by the theme song and the intro's announcer.
• The Conscience: Tortoise acts as this to Wizz, usually advising the most reasonable solutions to him, especially if they involve apologizing to somebody else.
• Couch Gag: In the series intro, Wizz exclaims a different adjective every episode when the narrator asks him how he's feeling today.
• Counting to Three: One of Wizz's attempts to stop us from watching the show. He warns the kids that he'll get the attention of their parents once he counts down, and even has giant cardboard numbers he pulls down from somewhere above to emphasize his counting.
• Cranky Neighbor: Mr. Goblin is this to Wizz, being constantly annoyed by the various things Wizz does to him and then placing curses on him as a result. He's not unjustified though, as the vast majority of the time, it's usually Wizz who starts the problem.
• Creator Cameo: "Vanish" ends with Wizz being poofed out out his own show and ending up in the real world sitting next to his creator and voice actor Andy Lee. Turns out he was the one watching the show the entire time, and everything that vanished from the episode is with him.
• Different in Every Episode: Early on in most episodes, when Wizz takes notice of the viewer, he asks them why they are watching him when they could be watching something else. He then provides two examples of alternative watches for them, the second being wordplay on the first, like a rock listening to rock music, a worm doing the worm, or a cricket playing cricket. Sometimes elevated to Brick Joke status later into the episode.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Among Wizz's friends are a tortoise named Tortoise, a lime named Lime, and a kiwifruit named Kiwi.
• False Teeth Tomfoolery: The beginning of "Getting Older" sees Wizz watching a funny video of an old man's dentures falling into his birthday cake when he tries to blow the candles out. Later on in the episode, as a result of his Rapid Aging, the same thing happens to Wizz.
• Forced Perspective: In "Frog", Wizz tries this using an inflatable T. rex toy to make it seem like he's being attacked and eaten by a giant dinosaur.
• Games of the Elderly: In "Getting Older", Wizz finds himself having to play a game of bingo as part of his Rapid Aging. Tortoise, Lime, and Kiwi are happy to participate.
• Glad I Thought of It: In "Treasure", Douglas explains to Wizz that the last clue to the treasure refers to a school of fish. Wizz, driven mad by obsession with claiming the treasure as his own, takes all the credit for Douglas' explanation. When Douglas objects, Wizz quickly shoos him out of the episode.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The snarky and rather sassy Lime is the Grumpy to the cheerful but slightly naive Kiwi's Gleeful.
• A Good, Old-Fashioned Paint Watching: One of Wizz's attempts to get audiences bored of his show in "Fart" has him get Lime and Kiwi to paint his walls so they can spend the rest of the episode watching it dry. However, Kiwi and Lime miss the point entirely by hiring an artist to produce a very impressive artpiece for the wall and using quick-dry paint.
• Growling Gut: The gas building up in Wizz throughout "Fart" causes his stomach to grumble a lot throughout the entire episode.
• Hurricane of Puns: The series loves its wordplay, and practically every episode features at least one instance of it.
• I Taste Delicious: In "Fart", Lime (who is indeed an anthropomorphic lime) asks for lime-flavored ice cream. When Wizz expresses puzzlement at this request, Lime simply explains that he likes the way he tastes.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode is named for the thing that happens at the end of the episode to Wizz.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: In "Shrinking", Wizz is cursed by Mr. Goblin to become increasingly tiny over the course of the episode as long as his show is being watched.
• Insomnia Episode: In "Sleeping", Wizz is cursed by Mr. Goblin to be unable to sleep so long as people are watching his show, leading Wizz to try and employ various methods of falling asleep that the show then foils.
• Kitchen Sink Included: In "Vanish", Mr. Goblin's latest curse on Wizz causes everything around him to disappear in a poof one by one. Eventually, it gets to the point where Tortoise exclaims that "Everything's gone but the kitchen sink". Guess what vanishes next?
  Tortoise: Okay, that's on me.
• Mistaken for Undead: In "Ghost", Wizz mistakes all kinds of things for a ghost during a blackout, including Lime with a handkerchief over him, a parrot in a birdcage under a white cloth, an owl outside his window, a vacuum cleaner, and the silhouette of Kiwi and Lime stealing from his cookie jar. The ghost he had been warned to expect turns out to be this too; it's not "A Ghost", but Andrew Ghost, an electrician with a cold who had come to help Wizz with his blackout problem.
• Mr. Exposition: Douglas is a scientist whose primary role in the series is to deliver random facts related to the things Wizz is talking about in the episode (and correct him on arbitrary bits of information), much to Wizz's annoyance.
• Mythology Gag: Wizz's closet contains a painting of a terrified child with white hair. This is a reference to a bit from the original Do Not Open This Book, where Wizz pulled out this exact painting to claim it was of a child who saw something terrifying on the following page.
• Named by the Adaptation: Wizz did not have a name in the original books.
• No Fourth Wall: The whole premise is that Wizz is trying to get us, the viewers, to stop watching the show, so it’s fair to say that the fourth wall in this is shattered beyond repair.
• No-Neck Chump: Wizz is basically an oval with arms and legs; wearing his pants directly below his chin. Douglas qualifies too; his head basically just peeks from his lab coat with the way his body is shaped.
• Our Goblins Are Different: A recurring character in the series is Mr. Goblin, who tends to curse Wizz for offending him in various ways, such as mocking his height or letting his pet goat defecate on his lawn or wake him up at night by using a leaf blower or forgetting the bike he borrowed from him. He appears a the classic diminutive, green-skinned, pointy-eared, long-nosed type, albeit with a pointy red hat like a gnome and a magic wand in his hands.
• Owls Ask "Who?": In "Ghost", Wizz mistakenly believes an owl to be asking him a question when it hoots at him.
• Paranormal Episode: "Ghost". Wizz receives a letter from "A Ghost" telling him they'll be coming to his house and spends the rest of the episode anxiously awaiting the ghost's arrival while trying to shoo us away so the ghost doesn't scare us too.
• The Pig-Pen: Wizz is cursed to become this in "Stinky", resulting in all his food expiring suddenly, his deodorants all losing their air-freshening quality, his armpits now being uncontrollably smelly, and every stinky thing imaginable barging into his house (including a skunk, some "Whiffmas" carolers, and an entire football team that just finished playing a big game) to heap more stench upon him.
• The Professor: Douglas is a parody of these types of characters, being a nerdy-looking scientist who randomly interjects into episodes deliver facts and corrections related to whatever Wizz is talking about, much to Wizz's annoyance.
• Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: A Running Gag in "Parents" involves Wizz trying to teach a "new dog an old trick", with said trick being to pull a rabbit from a hat. The dog manages to pull out a fish and an echidna, but when Wizz later shoves the viewer into the hat so they will not see him performing his family's cactus-jumping tradition, we find the rabbit.
• Quarter Hour Short: The series is produced in this format.
• Rapid Aging: In "Getting Older", Wizz is tricked by an Internet ad into becoming a hundred years old in the span of 10 minutes so long as people keep watching his show.
• Running into the Window: When trying to find Mr. Goblin in "Shrinking", Wizz rides a fly to exit his house, only to find said fly has trouble getting past his kitchen window.
• Senior Sleep-Cycle: In "Getting Older", a turned-elderly Wizz falls asleep in the middle of Douglas' latest fact-dump. Unable to wake him back up, Douglas gives out Wizz's usual "Douglas, not required" response before seeing himself out of the episode.
• Shout-Out: In "Fart", Wizz comments to himself as he eats a large can of beans that he loves them so much, people oughta call him Mr. Bean.
  Wizz: ...Actually... I think that's taken...
• Show Within a Show: Wizz is the unwilling star of one. Other characters are even seen watching it on a few occasions, much to Wizz's annoyance.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Douglas is a scientist and the show's designated expert, and he wears glasses.
• Smelly Skunk: Discussed. In "Stinky", a skunk busts into Wizz's home as part of the stink curse placed on him by Mr. Goblin. However, Wizz initially assumes it to be a cat as he reasons that if it were a skunk, it would smell awful. Douglas interrupts to point out skunks actually smell fine most of the time and actually spray a foul-smelling liquid when startled. And indeed, when Kiwi scares the skunk, it performs a realistic skunk spray on Wizz and the rest. That said, the skunk is a very touchy individual and threatens to spray Wizz and the others again if they make the slightest disturbance.
• Spiders Are Scary: In "Bucket", Wizz becomes convinced that the Bucket Booby-Trap floating above him at all times contains a swarm of spiders inside. While Douglas shows up to inform him most spiders are harmless to humans (but should still be treated carefully), it does little to soothe Wizz's fears. It turns out there is a spider in the bucket. Just one. And it's very tiny and very cute and very friendly.
• The Tag: Every episode has the denouement occurring concurrently with the credits.
• Talking Animal:
  • Tortoise is a talking tortoise who regularly interacts with Wizz and helps him with getting through each episode.
  • Discussed in "Ghost". Impressed by Kiwi's pet parrot, Wizz assumes all birds can talk. Douglas of course interjects to explain that birds are only able to mimic other voices, and even then, only two groups of birds can do so (parrots and songbirds, of which he brings a number of Australian species as examples, such as a superb lyrebird, an Australian magpie, a budgie, and a galah). Wizz ignores him as usual, and later on in the episode, he mistakes the hooting of an owl for the bird trying to ask him a question (Douglas pops back in quickly to correct his assumption).
• Tempting Cookie Jar: "Ghost" begins with Wizz placing a cookie jar as high as possible so as to avoid tempting him. Kiwi and Lime are later tempted by said cookie jar into stealing its contents with the help of Tortoise and a large stack of random objects.
• Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Wizz's first attempt to stop us from watching his show in the first episode is by claiming a Tyrannosaurus rex will show up at the end of the episode to attack him and the audience if we continue watching. Douglas also shows up to help him explain just how terrifying a T. rex is with some facts about its size and appetite.
• Those Two Guys: Lime and Kiwi serve as this in many episodes, making a variety of remarks about Wizz and his efforts to stop the audience from watching the show while sometimes helping him out with his efforts.
• Toilet Humor: The entire premise of the episode "Fart". Wizz eats a very large bowl of beans for breakfast, and desperate to avoid embarrassing himself on TV, now must hold in his farts.
• Treasure Hunt Episode: "Treasure" is focused on Wizz trying to find a treasure supposedly hidden in his house. The last thing he wants however is for anyone else to take that treasure from him or find it before he does, whether those be his friends or the viewer.
• Treasure Map: The plot of "Treasure" is started when a pirate intent on retiring decides to give Wizz his old treasure map (plus his parrot, and initially one of his peg legs).
• The Unapologetic: Wizz's ego means that he tends to consider himself above apologizing for things he does, particularly to Mr. Goblin. Multiple episodes involve Wizz being cursed by Mr. Goblin and spending the whole time trying to just get around the curse until he has to be finally convinced by his friends (typically Tortoise) to just say sorry to his neighbor.
• Visible Odor: Being an episode entirely about bad smells brought on by a curse, "Stinky" is full of these, from Wizz's armpits and all the expired food in his kitchen to the poop of his pet goat and the combined stench of an entire football team.
• Wicked Witch: In "Frog", Wizz claims he was cursed by one to turn into a frog for shoving her in line at a grocery store.
• Wise Old Turtle: Tortoise is 97 years old and often acts as the voice of reason to Wizz's pompousness.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: The eponymous treasure in the episode of the same name ultimately turns out to be a deck of playing cards.