Brian VanHooker
·
When revisiting stuff from your childhood, sometimes you have to call upon the magical power of nostalgia to distract yourself from how truly childish — or downright terrible — it is. Transformers, for example, is the dumbest cartoon ever made, and Nickelodeon’s Doug couldn’t be anymore dull.
There are some kids’ cartoons, though, that have so many layers that they only get funnier as you age. Here are seven of them…
Ren & Stimpy is probably the first cartoon people think of when they’re talking about kids’ cartoons aimed at adults since it’s filled with all sorts of gross and suggestive moments, particularly when involving the relationship between its two leads.
Like Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life had adult jokes that went over kids’ heads, but there’s another layer to the show that appeals to adults, too. Nearly every story is built around how mundane life is, like doing laundry or buying a new TV, which then spirals out of control for the wallaby.
There have been so many times when I’ve watched Bluey with my daughter and thought, “I need to be as good a dad as this cartoon dog is.”
Regular Show is about two dudes in their early 20s trying to get their lives started, they just happen to be a raccoon and a blue jay. They make dirty jokes, they call each other “holes” and they’ve been attacked multiple times by a giant coffee bean that shoots coffee from his nipples. How this show didn’t just start out on Adult Swim is beyond me.
While Animaniacs had some subtly dirty jokes, the adult appeal mostly came from the pop-culture references clearly aimed at older audiences. For instance, the show loved to take jabs at Rush Limbaugh or shout out celebs like Mickey Rooney. And when Pinky and The Brain spun off from Animaniacs, the topical jokes only multiplied thanks to Brain’s often timely diabolical plans for world domination.
The adult appeal of The Tick came primarily from its very smart writing and the depiction of The Tick and his put-upon sidekick Arthur. The Tick didn’t have a superhero hideout, he had Arthur’s apartment where he slept on the couch, ran up Arthur’s credit card debt and constantly broke Arthur’s stuff.
