Things in animation that haven't aged well

[Classic Speedy]

There's a moment in Dr. Katz that is laughably dated today. It's when Marc Maron is reluctant to get on the internet, thinking it's just a fad to play computer games with people in France and having banal conversations like "Do you like dogs?"

 

[90'sKid]

Eh, I think shows are allowed to have villains. At least in the early years Angelica was the villain of Rugrats and, in my opinion, a good one.

Id say Angelica is a perfect reflection of real life spoiled brats. I've seen little girls who act exactly like Angelica, it's all about THEM, little drama queens, never told no by their parents and think they can do anything with impunity.

If anything I'd say Angelica is prolly the most realistically written of the babies. And she fits her role well as a minor antagonist, and unlike alot of bully-type characters, her actions often came back to bite her in the butt.

I feel like she does a good job at adding conflict to the show, as otherwise it feels like alot of the baby's problems would have just been circumstancial. I think it's good for kids to learn that their are some bad people out in the world who are only in it for themselves.

That's one thing that separates Rugrats from most other baby-focused shows, it wasn't all saccharine sweetness, everyone gets along, there's never any real trouble kinda setting.

Sent from my 5004S using Tapatalk

 

[Classic Speedy]

Here's a more personal one: Any of the "jokes" in The Simpsons where Homer has a heart attack. Funny when I was younger and felt invincible to the concept of death. Not so funny when I'm almost 40 and that kind of thing hits closer to home (in case anyone's concerned, no, I don't have heart disease- yet, but I'm more speaking generally about how jokes like this are less funny as you get older).

This also leads into my complaint about the "Hollywood heart attack"- characters clutch their chest when it happens. In real life, people would probably be clutching their left arm instead. Also would likely be sweating profusely even if not exercising, have trouble breathing, would look pale, might have jaw/shoulder pain, have intense nausea, etc. I swear, Hollywood heart attacks misinformed a whole generation of TV watchers.

 

[MeiMei2002]

In the original Naruto series, during the Forest of Death part of the Chunin Exams arc, there's a scene where Anko inserts a VHS tape into a player (don't think that scene was in the manga)

Nowadays Naruto is extremely popular, and since that episode is a part of the main canon, most kids now won't even know what a VHS tape/player even is

 

[Sam the Cartoonist]

Here's a more personal one: Any of the "jokes" in The Simpsons where Homer has a heart attack. Funny when I was younger and felt invincible to the concept of death. Not so funny when I'm almost 40 and that kind of thing hits closer to home (in case anyone's concerned, no, I don't have heart disease- yet, but I'm more speaking generally about how jokes like this are less funny as you get older).

This also leads into my complaint about the "Hollywood heart attack"- characters clutch their chest when it happens. In real life, people would probably be clutching their left arm instead. Also would likely be sweating profusely even if not exercising, have trouble breathing, would look pale, might have jaw/shoulder pain, have intense nausea, etc. I swear, Hollywood heart attacks misinformed a whole generation of TV watchers.

That's one reason I don't find ageist jokes all that funny. Even though I'm still young, I know someday if I live long enough, I'll be the punchline and that thought terrifies me.

 

[Pooky]

Also, Xiaolin Showdown. Imagine trying to tell someone in 2022 that you watched a show starring multiracial kids voiced by white voice actors and one of them was an Asian kid with a completely yellow face who misuses slang and the reboot introduced another yellow-faced Asian boy named PINGPONG. Even though the creator themself is Asian, that still seems like a premise that would elicit a knee jerk response.

Similarly, there's a Japanese Terrytoons character (a mouse) called Hashimoto-San which was one of the few (maybe the only?) Golden Age cartoon characters created by an Asian American and drew inspiration from a lot of traditional Japanese art, but probably hasn't aired on TV for a good few years as the risk of backlash would be too great.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

Some of the Robert Smigel cartoons from SNL, but especially the Ambiguously Gay Duo (forget about being offensive, it's a one-joke premise that would have worked for a single short, but not multiple ones).

 

[Darklordavaitor]

One thing I just thought of that dates The Simpsons- Krusty being a huge favorite among children. It feels like with each generation, clowns are becoming an increasingly niche kind of entertainer as it becomes more common to be terrified of them. There's no way he would be such an omnipresent superstar today.

 

[Dantheman]

One thing I just thought of that dates The Simpsons- Krusty being a huge favorite among children. It feels like with each generation, clowns are becoming an increasingly niche kind of entertainer as it becomes more common to be terrified of them. There's no way he would be such an omnipresent superstar today.

Pretty much. The whole idea behind Krusty the Clown is a throwback to the days when local TV stations had a clown kiddie show host, a la Bozo the Clown, who usually showed cartoons or Little Rascals shorts for kids. In fact, didn't Matt Groening say that Krusty was based on a clown kiddie show host he watched as a kid, named oddly enough, Rusty Nails?

 

[Pooky]

Yeah I was going to say it seems to me that Bart and Lisa worshiping Krusty seemed like one of the deliberately retros 50s/60s touches that formed the initial creation of the show, I guess the difference is in 1990 people (at least in the US) would have recognised and understood what they were parodying, in 2022 it's all a bit more remote.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Some of the Robert Smigel cartoons from SNL, but especially the Ambiguously Gay Duo (forget about being offensive, it's a one-joke premise that would have worked for a single short, but not multiple ones).

Yeah, as much as I enjoy the SNL Best of TV Funhouse DVD, it's definitely a time capsule of the era. Many shorts directly reference then-current events (9/11 aftermath, the War on Terror when it was new, the 2004 election), TV shows that were new at the time (The Anna Nicole Smith Show- remember THAT?), or are just flat out dated because a celebrity they were making fun of has died (Michael Jackson). It honestly gives some sketches on there a sad tone in hindsight.

One of the worst offenders, at least if you're not a sports fan, was a sketch called "Ray of Light". The running gag in that sketch was a Disney death scene occurring and Ray Lewis saying "I didn't see nothing!" and getting in a limo. I had to look up on Wikipedia what the sketch was making fun of- something about how Ray Lewis was a possible witness of a murder and knew more than he told the police? Just head scratching today unless you remember this specific event or, like I said, follow sports.

 

[Goldstar!]

Pretty much. The whole idea behind Krusty the Clown is a throwback to the days when local TV stations had a clown kiddie show host, a la Bozo the Clown, who usually showed cartoons or Little Rascals shorts for kids. In fact, didn't Matt Groening say that Krusty was based on a clown kiddie show host he watched as a kid, named oddly enough, Rusty Nails?

Yeah, the Krusty the Clown thing was/is definitely a throwback to the 1950s through the early 1980s when local independent stations would have costumed hosts (usually a clown, a pirate, a cowboy, a ringmaster or a space captain) who would perform short skits that would air between showing old cartoons and the occasional Three Stooges or Little Rascals shorts. Patchy the Pirate from SpongeBob Squarepants is another reference to this. TBS' Superstation Funtime, later TBS Superstation Funhouse were later examples of this. In Baltimore, Maryland, there was an independent station WNUV channel 54 that had live action wraparounds called 54 Space Corps, which featured local weatherman Stu Kerr playing a starship captain with his crew of puppets. This was in the late 80s/early 90s and was of the last examples of weekday afternoon live action kids' show hosts that I've seen.

 

[Dantheman]

Funny enough, my local ABC station had a Bozo the Clown show when I was a kid. It aired on Saturday mornings before cartoons. They kept at it until the '90s or so. I remember one time my older sister sent in her, me, and my brother's names to be the at-home contestants for the bucket bonanza, where whoever in the studio played it and won prizes, the person at home got the same stuff. Well, we were chosen, and got a little bit of a haul, that included IIRC a Coca-Cola t-shirt and a Kenner Star Wars Greedo figure.

 

[Pooky]

Incidentally it was on one of the Simpsons commentaries (I think for Krusty Gets Busted) I learned that Bozo the Clown was a McDonalds-style franchise, as a non-American born after Bozomania I assumed it was one guy's persona.

 

[Silverstar]

Similarly, there's a Japanese Terrytoons character (a mouse) called Hashimoto-San which was one of the few (maybe the only?) Golden Age cartoon characters created by an Asian American and drew inspiration from a lot of traditional Japanese art, but probably hasn't aired on TV for a good few years as the risk of backlash would be too great.

Similarly, there was a cartoon by Famous Studios (the folks behind Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo) called The Go-Go Gophers which likewise hasn't seen the light of day in decades and it's not hard to see why: the cartoon starred a pair of Native American gophers named Ruffled Feathers and Running Board, the former of which spoke in excitable gibberish while the latter who spoke Tonto-speak would have to translate. In addition, the segments attempted to make light of the subject of prejudice and genocide; the 2 gophers were the sole survivors of a massacre that wiped out the rest of their tribe, and the series' antagonist, a cavalryman named Col. Kit Coyote, was clearly a bigot who spent the series attempting to finish the job by offing the 2 remaining gophers. At the time it was seen as an innocent take on the American frontier, but today it would be viewed as massively politically incorrect and 'cringe', as the kids would say, by modern standards.

 

[Dantheman]

Incidentally it was on one of the Simpsons commentaries (I think for Krusty Gets Busted) I learned that Bozo the Clown was a McDonalds-style franchise, as a non-American born after Bozomania I assumed it was one guy's persona.

Pretty much. Though if you had cable/lived in Chicago, the WGN version of Bozo was probably the most well-known.

Interesting trivia fact: Larry Harmon Productions, the company that owns and licenses the rights to Bozo the Clown, also are the executors of Laurel and Hardy's estates. So they also are responsible for licensing out their likeness rights for merchandising.

 

[Goldstar!]

Pretty much. Though if you had cable/lived in Chicago, the WGN version of Bozo was probably the most well-known.

Interesting trivia fact: Larry Harmon Productions, the company that owns and licenses the rights to Bozo the Clown, also are the executors of Laurel and Hardy's estates. So they also are responsible for licensing out their likeness rights for merchandising.

I remember when my household started receiving WGN channel 9 in Chicago through Comcast cable (we got cable in the 1980s), and I was surprised to learn that The Bozo Show was still airing.

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

Similarly, there was a cartoon by Famous Studios (the folks behind Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo) called The Go-Go Gophers which likewise hasn't seen the light of day in decades and it's not hard to see why: the cartoon starred a pair of Native American gophers named Ruffled Feathers and Running Board, the former of which spoke in excitable gibberish while the latter who spoke Tonto-speak would have to translate. In addition, the segments attempted to make light of the subject of prejudice and genocide; the 2 gophers were the sole survivors of a massacre that wiped out the rest of their tribe, and the series' antagonist, a cavalryman named Col. Kit Coyote, was clearly a bigot who spent the series attempting to finish the job by offing the 2 remaining gophers. At the time it was seen as an innocent take on the American frontier, but today it would be viewed as massively politically incorrect and 'cringe', as the kids would say, by modern standards.

I know I saw this as a younger kid (early to mid ‘90’s), but I don’t know how, where, or why. For some reason I can see those characters in my head clear as day, but I can’t specifically name any plots.

 

[Low Spark of Lyman]

Bob Bell, who originally* portrayed the WGN version of Bozo, was the inspiration for the voice of Krusty. I remember one time seeing the Bozo, Gar and Ray: WGN TV Classics** documentary special, where Bozo and other Chicagoland children's shows from the mid-late 20th century were covered. During the legacy part around the end, there was a clip of Dan Castellaneta discussing where he got the voice from. I remember reading about that prior to viewing the special, but still...

*Joey D'Auria took over the role sometime in the 1980s and maintained it until 2001

**via the online live feed for WGN-TV

 

[Classic Speedy]

I know we keep piling on The Simpsons here, but I thought of another one:

"Alf pogs! Remember Alf? He's back, in pog form!"

Nowadays, we can say "Remember pogs?"