The Idiot with a Camera

cwphoto:

There is a very distinct element missing from every children’s oriented show on television right now.  An unspoken rule of thumb that was not handed down properly to the present children’s writers of America.  And because I feel like it is my duty in this existence to shovel out as many ideas as I can in hopes to maybe alter something someday, even if it’s small, I am going to let everybody in on the secret.

The ideal cartoon isn’t directed at just children.  When I was a kid, I could watch any cartoon on Nickelodeon with my 18-19 year old cousins and they wouldn’t complain at all.  In fact, they would enjoy the same show I was watching for reasons that were completely impossible for me to comprehend at the time.

Even though Nickelodeon is hardly a domain of cartoons anymore (do they even have any?  that’s a scary thought in and of itself, children growing up with people as their cartoons), the ones they do have harbor the most narrow of demographics I’ve ever sat witness to.  Cartoons today are meant for children of certain ages.  In 1993, I could watch Rocko’s Modern Life and love the crazy situations the characters always got themselves into.  My adult cousins could love all the hidden sexual innuendo.  My parents could love all the homages to generations past that were relevant in the show.  The same could be said about virtually any cartoon until about 2001 or so.

Something changed.  The cartoons lost their balls.  The situations were more ridiculous, but there was no intelligent undertone.  When a character got himself in a dilemma, it could be solved with the brain of a 10 year old.  No sexual innuendo.  No intelligent homage to cartoons of prior generations.

The writing has since gotten even more lazy, and the animation less imaginative.   The FCC has pussified cartoons to such an overwhelming degree.  No longer will you see character’s intestines being ripped out through their mouths.  You won’t find cartoon characters fighting or smoking cigarettes or doing anything dangerous.

Because of this, adult cartoons have gotten even more crude.  Back in the day, an adult cartoon involved a couple kids blowing up frogs with firecrackers and foul language.  Now, an adult cartoon is watching a group of people fuck children and do drugs through their eye sockets.  In it’s own way, adult animation has gotten stale as well.  It’s simply outrageous for the sake of being so, and in that reality, it has also lost it’s intelligence.  It’s ability to shine.  I could watch Beavis and Butthead with my dad and only have to cover my ears if it got to be a little too much for my virgin soul.  I would not let my daughter watch anything adult oriented I see on television now, as it’s just fucked up to be so.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the idea that kids and adults cannot enjoy the same things.  It’s a new disconnect and it’s a sad one.  Back then, people got it right.  They found a formula and it worked.  It would still work.

It’s easier to shock people or to make kids curious with colorful monkeys in over-sized shoes and talking maps.

Is this the death of intelligent creation?  The mainstream is barely even flowing anymore.  It’s dying so fast that it’s almost difficult to write about.