90s cartoons shaped an entire generation just by being completely inappropriate
our parents really thought animated=child friendly which is NOT the case
The prompt this week was inspired by this tweet about Rugrats character Phil and Lil’s mom and how even thought it was not explicitly explained, we all knew she was at the very least bisexual, but probably gay and in a marriage of convenience with their equally gay father (according to my head canon):
While this conversation was started from Rugrats becoming the latest victim of classic media being confirmed for a reboot, it got me thinking about how there were so many shows that were animated and were not… the most child friendly. In fact I would argue that our entire generation should NOT have been watching them. But back in the 90s to early 2000s, our parents assumed anything animated was a cartoon that was perfectly fine for their impressionable children to watch. Which is incorrect and was absolutely not the case.
It got me thinking, how exactly has my generation been affected by these cartoons? When I think back to those cartoons that were on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, I immediately think of shows like Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ed Edd and Eddy, and Spongebob. Which as we ALL know contributed to some type of trauma and is DEFINITELY why we all have superb humor. They for sure distorted some type of brain development.
So then I decided to point out a few key moments that imo shaped us into who we are today. Whether it was moments that were personally traumatizing or realizations that came once we hit teenage years, here’s what I came up with:
1. Courage the Cowardly Dog (but more specifically The House of Discontent episode)
When I think of the show Courage the Cowardly Dog, I immediately think about this episode. I associate the entire show with this specific episode, because I’m pretty sure it traumatized me. I can vividly remember watching this on the tv in my room at night and not sleeping after witnessing it.
While this is what I think of, there are a lot of other episodes that are messed up. And there’s plenty of terrible themes within this show. Not only is Courage basically abused every episode, the creepy guests that always end up appearing at their house that is in the middle of nowhere is basically the plot line of a horror movie, which I also happen to hate. The only reason Courage isn’t dead is because the show takes place in a cartoon.
I don’t have much else to say, but I’m sure the second you read the title you thought of your own memory of getting terrified from this show and if that does not show how much it traumatized us as a collective, I don’t know what else will.
2. Ed, Edd, and Eddy
As someone who used to say Ed, Edd, and Eddy was her favorite show, I could say so much about it. I know some people were not allowed to watch this because it just looks like it’s not for kids, but I watched it a ton. Like Courage, this show has so many moments where it’s just off and totally NOT something children should watch. This show specifically is one where we did not realize it was really that bad until we rewatched it as teenagers.
It allegedly started off as a dare to make a kids show and became one of the most loved and long running shows at Cartoon Network. And what a “kids” show it was. From the violence to the super trippy animation, especially in certain episodes (like the one above) to Ed’s bed literally having dirty mags and USED tissues under his bed, there are plenty reasons we should not have watched this as children.
3. Rugrats
I think some will believe that Rugrats isn’t that inappropriate and at first glance I would agree. But there are some things that you learn as an adult that make you realize Rugrats wasn’t really for children. Even just from the intro of the show, it feels… a little trippy rewatching it as an adult. Check that off on the list of things you didn’t realize until you were an adult.
Why was the grandpa asleep when he’s supposed to watch all these kids? Why is there a weird cat toy walking towards Tommy? Why is Chuckie riding the vacuum and how did he not wake up Gramps? Why did Tommy’s parents just walk in like everything was fine? Like wtf?
First off, Angelica is evil. When I was younger I thought “oh well she’s just a kid” and yeah she IS a kid. But she’s an evil kid. She’s the reason for all of these weird things to occur in the show. She’s the reason that the children’s overactive imaginations go haywire. Although there are many instances of this, the Rugrats episode “Chuckie’s Wonderful Life” is the episode I want to highlight. A parody of Charles Dickens It’s a Wonderful Life, Chuckie imagines what the world would be like if he did not exist. This thought was put into his head because Angelica tells him that the world would be better without him, which is a pretty fucked up thing to say to a child, and even worse when you think about how Angelica is not much older than him and had the audacity to say something like that. But this episode shows a plethora of adult themes, including poverty, homelessness, and mental illness. Angelica has her parents as slaves, Tommy is on the streets eating garbage, and Chaz (Chuckie’s father) is mentally ill with his only companion being his sock puppet.
And then there’s the commentary from parents. It can be argued that all of the parents in the show are not very good parents, but I think that opinion is because we see the world in the show through the perspective of the children. This POV is one filled with overactive imagination and adventure. But if you rewatch the show and actually listen and understand what the parents are saying, they’re pretty relatable now that you’re an adult. This video goes into depth about that and does a much better job explaining than I could and also brings in inter-generational issues as it pertains to the show:
4.Pokemon (but just this one episode)
Pokemon is another one that doesn’t really see too bad for children at first glance, and I am only including this because someone reminded me of this episode that’s actually banned now. There’s definitely more risqué jokes that happen throughout the series, but I’d like to highlight the “Beauty and the Beach” episode where James has some big mommy milkers.
Basically, Team Rocket is actually taking responsibility for the damages they did to a boat and is working at a restaurant to pay for it. Ash and Brock are in the same situation and a rivalry ensues between the two duos. Fast forward a bit, you’ll find Jessie and James BOTH wearing bikinis to try to entice people to come to their restaurant instead. Here’s the screen cap I’m sure you want to see:
It’s not like the worst thing, but could lead to a lot of children being confused about why James, a man, suddenly has boobs and it’s only for this episode. It sure went over my head as a child. They’re also very large, even larger than Jessie’s.
5. The entirety of Adult Swim
Not that this was really considered a child’s tv program given the adult label in the name, but I did watch it as a child whenever I couldn’t sleep at night. It IS intended for mature audiences, as the title and disclaimer suggests before playing but honestly who actually listened to those? I sure didn’t. Some shows that you’d probably recognize are Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Boondocks, Futurama, Beavis and Butthead, and soooo many more. I don’t have much to say besides that the vivd visuals and completely inappropriate themes are not something children should have seen. I’m just gonna leave a little compilation about some of the forgotten shows that would play and move on.
6. Dexter’s Laboratory but the episode where it’s just about how thicc his mom is
As the title of this suggests, a child tv show should probably not fixate on how thicc Dexter’s mom is. As adults we know she’s dummy thicc, but why would you point it out to a child?? I can’t find the episode online, probably because it was allegedly removed due to bad feedback. But there are gifs that exist so here’s one from that episode:
Just a word of caution if you’re going to do your own research, there was a reboot of Dexter’s and there’s a very…. suggestive animated clip of Dexter’s mom that may or may not be real. Oh, and there’s a lot of artists that have also drawn her without clothes on so… remember that if you’re gonna go looking.
7. Spongebob
I think this is the most frequently referred to one on the list. As a collective generation we’re always using Spongebob references. Spongebob did have some adult themes, but the humor in the show is what really shaped us. From censoring a curse with a donkey noise to Spongebob watching a sea urchin on his tv then immediately changing it once Gary came into the room to Patrick covering his crotch after Spongebob said his “genius is showing” to literally so many more from the 41 segments/20 episodes, it’s a gold mine for laughs. Here’s a round up with even more moments but here’s the episode where Spongebob, Patrick, and Mr.Krabs go on a panty raid, which is definitely not safe for children to watch. Imagine little kids stealing underwear, actually no please don’t do that.
While these examples are not the first and definitely not the last ones to include adult jokes in what was intended to be more child friendly content (Disney frequently does this to make it more interesting for the parents watching with their kids) and we ended up watching inappropriate animated content as kids, there is something to be said about the way these specific shows impacted an entire generation of people that are now in the 20s.
tldr: classic cartoons from the 90s-early 2000s fucked us up because we watched them as kids
That’s it for me today. Tune in next time for more passionate, useless commentary on The Tiny Report.
Follow me on twitter @jessicakuma_ for shorter bits of useless commentary or to tell me what you thought about this issue!