Sunday, November 27, 2011
Revisiting my childhood - thank you Adult Swim!
If you know me you know my dislike of all things Saturday-morning-cartoony. Cartoons these days suck. The animation sucks. The storylines suck. They don't seem to teach kids much aside from fart jokes and how to be even more ADHD. What happened to the good old days of cartoons of my youth, like He-Man, and Thundercats, and ...um... Rainbow Brite?
But then I realised the extent of my hypocrisy. What about those cartoons one forgets about because they aren't for children? No, not some sort of Disney porn; I refer to the kind of humour parents don't want their children exposed to because it would mean having to field some awkward questions later. I mean, I recall even Animaniacs being vaguely borderline at times, and Adventure Time with Finn and Jake deals involves the odd surprisingly adult situation.
But to get on with it, there is the Simpsons of course. An old favourite, and a little old hat. There is Futurama, still funny after all these years; they should stop cancelling it. However, the funniest of all has to be Archer. A cartoon mysogynistic alcoholic narcissistic spy, with something of an Oedipus complex. One of the oldest types of parodies in the book, and yet it's laugh out loud funny.
Then there's The Venture Brothers. It could almost be a Saturday morning cartoon! It has the right formula: mad scientist, two adventurous sons, lots of supervillans.... many carnal references and a womanizing bodyguard. Perhaps it does go a little far.
And Frisky Dingo. Who could forget that. It looks like they cooked each episode up in about haldf an hour, but they can be forgiven for that. Strangely enough, it's kind of a mixture of the above two cartoons put together, if that makes sense. Which it does not. You're just gonna have to take my ramblings at face value.
Just remember, not all cartoons are for kids. I remember my mother saying words to that effect about 20 years ago when I wanted to watch the Simpsons! I guess I never really moved on?
But then I realised the extent of my hypocrisy. What about those cartoons one forgets about because they aren't for children? No, not some sort of Disney porn; I refer to the kind of humour parents don't want their children exposed to because it would mean having to field some awkward questions later. I mean, I recall even Animaniacs being vaguely borderline at times, and Adventure Time with Finn and Jake deals involves the odd surprisingly adult situation.
But to get on with it, there is the Simpsons of course. An old favourite, and a little old hat. There is Futurama, still funny after all these years; they should stop cancelling it. However, the funniest of all has to be Archer. A cartoon mysogynistic alcoholic narcissistic spy, with something of an Oedipus complex. One of the oldest types of parodies in the book, and yet it's laugh out loud funny.
Then there's The Venture Brothers. It could almost be a Saturday morning cartoon! It has the right formula: mad scientist, two adventurous sons, lots of supervillans.... many carnal references and a womanizing bodyguard. Perhaps it does go a little far.
And Frisky Dingo. Who could forget that. It looks like they cooked each episode up in about haldf an hour, but they can be forgiven for that. Strangely enough, it's kind of a mixture of the above two cartoons put together, if that makes sense. Which it does not. You're just gonna have to take my ramblings at face value.
Just remember, not all cartoons are for kids. I remember my mother saying words to that effect about 20 years ago when I wanted to watch the Simpsons! I guess I never really moved on?
# posted by Jon @ 2:50 PM 
