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, who resided in Paris, France.

The books were originally written in French (barbe à papa is French for candy floss, or - literally - "father's beard"), and were later translated into over 30 languages.

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.

The shapeshifting is usually accompanied by the saying "Clickety Click—Barba Trick" (in the French version "Hup Hup Hup, Barbatruc", in Turkish version "Değiş Tonton" means "Transform Barba!" in english).

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.