Cartoons today

[Masherbrum]

how can this be anything but funny???

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You sexist and racist!   

[Jayhawk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censored_Eleven

These 11 episodes were withheld from syndication in 1968.  Looney Toons aren't banned.

[AAJagerX]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censored_Eleven

These 11 episodes were withheld from syndication in 1968.  Looney Toons aren't banned.

No, but kids anymore want to see the "extreme stuff".  Why watch Wiley Coyote strap a rocket on and smash into a wall when they can fire up the ol' Xbox and beat a hooker with a bat?  It's ridiculous.  Realistically, it's not the kids...  It's the parents.

[Threeup]

In the same vein;

I got a 3 Stooges DVD with about 5 episodes on it and started watching it - you know the deal  - they were taking to each other with hammers, someone gets his eyes poked out - pies and paint everywhere  - I become hysterical.

My 2 teenagers walk in - look at me - look at what I'm watching and then decide;

1) It's cruel.
2) It's not funny.
3) I may need to see someone for laughing at this.

We truly are on the road to mediocrity and oblivion

[sntslilhlpr6601]

In the same vein;

I got a 3 Stooges DVD with about 5 episodes on it and started watching it - you know the deal  - they were taking to each other with hammers, someone gets his eyes poked out - pies and paint everywhere  - I become hysterical.

My 2 teenagers walk in - look at me - look at what I'm watching and then decide;

1) It's cruel.
2) It's not funny.
3) I may need to see someone for laughing at this.

We truly are on the road to mediocrity and oblivion

The concept of humor has evolved. Your teenagers may prefer the sarcastic humor of Family Guy over the very obvious humor of the Stooges. Nothing wrong with that. I certainly wouldn't call that a step towards mediocrity, it's just a matter of taste (which is molded by culture).

One thing I see a lot of in this thread are people with rose tinted glasses. I'm the same way. I see the children's cartoons of today and I don't get it. All I can remember is laughing my bellybutton off at Doug, Rugrats, Pinky and the Brain, Aahh Real Monsters, and very early in life -Tom and Jerry. That doesn't necessarily mean that today's cartoons are bad, it just means that I don't get them because I'm not a youngin' anymore and all I can remember is the good parts of the cartoons that I enjoyed.

Btw, stuff like Family Guy, King of the Hill, and Southpark cannot be compared to children's cartoons. Because they aren't children's cartoons. Just because cartoons were exclusively for children when you were a kid doesn't mean it is the same nowadays. I grew up with the Simpsons so for me mature cartoons have always been around. And yes, when I was young watching the Simpsons as a kid was frowned upon. Just like a child watching Family Guy should be, only it usually isn't.

[Wolfala]

My wife is sending my niece all this DORA crap - I want to strangle her. Instead I found a Pinky & the Brain DVD iso and sent that over.

So far as cartoons that are decent from back in the day - I have yet to find a true cell animation that deals with issues like Racism, War, Loss better then Exosquad. Hell I still watch it today and my wife sat through it - for the full 8 hours on a rainy sunday. Another guy wrote "There is no good or bad in this show-there are just sides. If you don't like to have your opinions questioned or are adverse to a little soul-searching, don't try it. But if you would like to see a real depiction of war and the impact it has on people's lives, these are videos you should try"

http://www.hulu.com/exosquad

Episodes worth seeing:  

http://www.hulu.com/watch/2498/exosquad-blitzkrieg

http://www.hulu.com/watch/83799/exosquad-the-brood

[Dragon]

I have a hard time watching cartoons today.  Content is crap.  Animation is crap.  The message to the kids is crap or non existent. 

[b4o2s9s]

Couple guys have nailed it already. People don't want to take responsibility for the actions of their children anymore. Somewhere along the line it became the norm or commonplace to say that the television they were watching was too violent and giving them bad ideas. Wrong. When a child has bad behavior or racist ideas or is sexist, it's because you didn't do your job as a parent. Plain and simple. I watched all the old cartoons, and I was never a bad child. I'm not sexist, I'm not racist, and I knew the difference between cartoons and real life. Problem is, the TV companies were having all kinds of problems with the group of people who decided this was bad TV, so they just stopped airing the cartoons.

As far as new cartoons go, my children won't be watching that stupid crap. My children will learn important life lessons from me, not some stupid cartoon. As far as my own enjoyment, I've bought some of the old cartoons on DVD and watch them from time to time, and they are as funny now as they were 25 years ago when I started watching them.

[Getback]

I have thought about writing a book titled Rd.Runnr. Based loosely on the guy who put a JATO on his Volvo. Rd.Runnr would be the guys custom license plates number.

[Jayhawk]

I think it's hard for anyone to argue that some shows (cartoons or anything else) from decades ago, had scenes or ideas that we would consider racist by today's standards.  I don't think that means they should be thrown out completely, but they have to be watched with a knowledge of the context they were written in.  Impressionable kids might not understand that concept like their parents, and parents shouldn't assume that they will.  As a parent, one would have to make the choice whether to censor certain content or try to explain the context to them, and hope they don't pick up some aspect you might consider negative.  This could apply to most anything, many parents choose to censor violence, sex, or language from their children until they feel they're ready to see it.

[Muzzy]

Honestly, the Looney Tunes cartoons were not originally meant for child consumption.  They were shown back when you walked into a theater and just watched whatever happened to be running at the moment.  I think it's a shame, however, that they're harder to find on TV, even on the so-called Cartoon Network.

The last really great "for kids but really for adults too" cartoons were "Animaniacs", of which "Pinky and the Brain" was a spin-off.

Witness this magnificent re-tooling of a classic Abbot and Costello bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlXjIg4fH74

I remember watching the above in the cardio room of my gym.  Those of us who were tuned to that channel were falling off our stairmasters. Literally.

Or this musical geography lesson (slightly inaccurate, but  still fun!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDtdQ8bTvRc

Of course modern cartoons have also had their high points.  When they're at their best, Family Guy and South Park do amazing social commentary.  And of course there's always the Simpsons.  

But we are ignoring the renaissance of the super-hero animated series that began with Batman: The Animated Series and ran all the way to Justice League Unlimited.  Along with the anime-inspired Teen Titans, these series were unmatched in their ability to translate the modern comic book into a television series.

-Muzzy