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Barbapapa is both the title character, and name of the 'species' of said character, of a series of children's books written in the 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor. They were originally produced in French. As short cartoons of a length of only five minutes, they reached a broader audience via TV.
Barbapapa himself is a generally pear-shaped, pink shapeshifting blob-like creature who stumbles upon the human world and tries to fit in. After various amusing adventures, he comes across a female of his species (more shapely, and black-coloured), named Barbamama. They produce seven children, known as the Barbababies, each a different colour:
The characters' name is a pun on barbe à papa, French for cotton candy.