(music)
- (Kris) Hey Wisecrack, Dr. Kris here and today we’re talking about a kids cartoon that still haunts our
grown-up nightmares, Courage the Cowardly Dog. This show is WEIRD.
(Screaming)
- (Kris) Between its empty, isolated setting,
it’s bizarre plotlines and its unsettling animation style, the show is just… off?
- Return the slab or suffer my curse!
- (Kris) And because of that, it terrified a
generation of young viewers. But was it creepy just for creepiness’ sake?
- (Fred) Oh such fuzz, such fuzz it does demand that I be... naughty.
- (Kris) No way. Because while it was busy thoroughly freaking us out, it was
also doing something else: showing us how fear could save, or ruin, us.
(Courage screaming)
- (Kris) We’ll explain in this Wisecrack Edition on Courage the Cowardly Dog.
- (Announcer) We interrupt this program
to bring you... Courage the Cowardly Dog Show, starring Courage, the Cowardly Dog!
- (Kris) And now for a quick recap: Courage the Cowardly dog is, well,
a fearful canine living in the middle of nowhere. Kansas. With a kindly old Scottish lady, Muriel,
and her cranky husband, Eustace. If this plotline sounds a bit prosaic,
the show itself is ANYTHING but. Courage’s adventures are not the wholesome games
of SpongeBob or the whimsically imaginative adventures of the Rugrats.
The reason for its distinctiveness is simple: Courage the Cowardly Dog,
more than any other cartoon we can think of, clearly went to great lengths to scare
the hell out of its young audience. Whether it was parodying hardcore horror flicks like The Exorcist
or inventing its very own terrors, like the vengeful three-headed chicken from outer space,
it really pulled out all the stops to ensure it gave us a childhood fright we’d never forget.
(Slamming sounds)
- (Kris) And the reason it resonated so well has everything to do with the protagonist:
See, Courage himself makes for an oddly perfect avatar for the psychology of a child. As a little
purplish-pink dog, he’s physically dwarfed by the world around him and only has a limited
understanding of it making much of it appear quite frightening. This happens to be the same exact
reason why small children are so easily scared. Their underdeveloped brains and limited pool of
past experience to draw from make it impossible for them to accurately assess the threat
which outside stimuli pose. As a result, perfectly harmless things might appear terrifying.
Also like a young child, Courage has a restricted ability to communicate his
fears - Eustace perpetually writes his screams of terror off as the panicked reactions of a:
- (Eustace) Stupid dog!
- (Kris) While Muriel is much more compassionate,
she is similarly unable to understand what has him so spooked.
- (Muriel) What is it Courage?
- (Kris) So he’s left alone to deal with fears which no-one else seems to understand – like
a young child who can’t comprehend why his parents insist on sending him to bed
when there are CLEARLY monsters under there!
- (Muriel) Eustace must he really sleep in the attic? It’s so cold!
- (Eustace) Meh, he seemed happy to me. (Courage shivering)
- (Kris)
Understanding Courage as an avatar for a young child becomes a sort of heart breaking exercise
when you consider the poor pup’s early years. They were marked by the severe
trauma of watching his parents launched into space by a deranged veterinarian.
And while this is a typically absurd plot detail for a Cartoon Network show, it also acts as a
weirdly effective analogy for childhood trauma. Witnessing their loved ones in danger, from a
crazy vet or whatever else, fundamentally shatters a child’s sense of safety. The after-effects of
such a huge shock to their developing psyche can linger for a long time. As a result of his trauma,
Courage now lives in a heightened state, anxiously expecting the worst at every turn. In particular,
he has developed a clear case of Separation Anxiety, panicking every time Muriel leaves
his sight and constantly worrying about her safety. As is common for children who
experience loss at a young age, he now lives in fear of his other loved ones leaving as well.
- (Muriel) My! Poor thing – out here, all alone? What courage you have!
- (Kris) Most episodes
begin with him freaking out about a danger that no one else is bothered by. But importantly,
he is sometimes incredibly wrong. In the episode “Heads of Beef”, Courage is convinced that the new
burger joint in town is secretly killing off its customers to use them as meat, Sweeney Todd-style.
After thoroughly freaking out and knocking the owner unconscious in his bid to rescue Eustace,
Courage discovers that he was wrong all along. His mind has been so molded by his early experiences
that he lives in a constant state of terror which can cause him to panic unnecessarily.
- (Eustace) That sure is one good looking statue! When can we eat it?
- (Kris) However,
because he lives in a place riddled with aliens, ghosts, giant insects and the like,
Courage’s initial fears tend to be pretty well-founded, more often than not. In fact,
thanks to his hyper-alert nature, he’s actually frequently able to save the day.
While Eustace and Muriel continually walk blindly into all kinds of danger, Courage
spies the threat early enough to take action. The two parts of his name are what makes him
the show’s hero – he is “cowardly” enough to feel threatened by all the crazy stuff life
throws at him, but has the “courage” to power through it to protect the people he cares about.
- (Courage) The things I do for love!”
- (Kris) This is important. In making Courage’s neurosis not only well-founded,
but actively life-saving, the show tells us something about fear itself:
Namely that the emotion isn’t a weakness. Rather, it’s a natural and necessary part of life,
key to keeping us safe. This is underscored by the introduction of a recurring character
known simply as “The Computer” – a well-spoken AI who lives inside Courage’s computer and who,
like an awful lot of people, is kind of a jerk to him.
- (The Computer) Ah! You're such a lousy typist!
- (Kris) In particular, The Computer seems to take issue with the whole idea of fear – he prides
himself on being a cold, calculating machine. When a freak storm allows him to take control
over Muriel’s body, he uses it to perform a series of death-defying stunts to show
just how unafraid he is. But being fearless isn’t necessarily a strength – it might just
mean you don’t value anything or anyone enough to worry about them being harmed.
- (The Computer as Muriel) Well it's not like I"m scared or anything it's
just that... if there's an electrical surge, I could crash you know? Get wiped. Zippo.
- (Kris) And, again, it’s Courage’s overwhelming concern for the safety of
those around him which regularly inspires him to save the day.
- (Kris) But while fear can be helpful, or even fun in the right context,
it can also ruin people. While Courage has basically
internalized his trauma, many of the show’s villains reveal what can happen when inner pain
is expressed outwardly. Episodes “The Tower of Dr. Zalost” and “The Shadow of Courage”
both feature characters who break bad as a result of their own suffering. In the first, Dr Zalost
is a mad scientist who is so deeply depressed that he launches a barrage of emotion-altering
cannonballs to make everyone as unhappy as he is. In the latter episode, the Shadow takes to
terrorizing Courage and his family, only stopping when Courage finally manages to connect with
him emotionally and convince him to follow his dreams rather than ruining other peoples’ lives.
- (Courage) I don't know how to make it in showbiz but up there are the real stars. Why
don't we hang with them? - (Shadow) You mean,
become the shadow of a real star? - (Courage) It's worth a try!
- (Kris) These episodes offer a far more complicated idea of evil. They suggest that,
much of the time, the people who scare us the most are the ones most wrapped up in their own fears.
The lesson? If we let it overwhelm us, fear makes monsters of us all.
- (Dr. Zalost) What’s the use of having all the money in the world if it doesn’t
bring any happiness? And if I’m not happy, no-one deserves to be happy!
- (Kris) And if you think we’re reading too much into this terrifying children’s show,
guess what? The creator, John R. Dilworth, agrees with us, saying: "I don't portray
psychopaths... those don't interest me... I'm very much interested in the repressed
traumas of villains... the idea of going deeper, trying to assign an etymology of bad behavior to
childhood trauma is based on actual science. That's the science of psychiatry." Nowhere
is this more true than with Eustace, the most constant source of fear in Courage’s life.
A grumpy old man who never has a kind word to say and mostly seems to exist only to abuse
the other members of his household, Eustace would have been tragically familiar for too
many young viewers. But we learn more about his past childhood throughout the show and it
turns out that his own hostility is rooted in the treatment he received as a child.
The way he treats Courage is just a replication of the way his own mother treated him -
- (Mother) Stupid boy! - (Eustace) Stupid dog!
- (Kris) Berating him constantly and favoring his older brother,
all to ensure that he lived in constant fear of not measuring up.
- See ya later Useless!
- (Kris) And while it’s heavy stuff for a creepy kids cartoon, it’s also
sadly true to life – many adults carry their own childhood abuse with them,
inflicting the fear they felt onto others rather than learning to process it in a healthy way.
- (Eustace) Stupid dog!
- (Kris) But while Courage extends a lot of sympathy
to many of its more monstrous characters, it also has a pretty empowering central message:
That it’s important to take action in the face of those who make us feel unsafe. Even if it can be
a really scary thing to do. In one of the series’ most infamous episodes, “Freaky Fred”, the family
is visited by a relative named Fred narrates his actions with a rhyming inner monologue.
- (Fred) That's when my tired eyes behold - a doggy dog! Like dog he spelled,
"D-O-G" is what he spelled, and this is how I spell... naughty.
- (Kris) And compulsively shaves people's hair off because it makes him feel naughty.
Because Muriel and Eustace ignore Courage’s protests about their creepy new houseguest,
Fred is able to trap Courage in the bathroom and forcibly shave him. Fred
is one of the many figures from Courage who linger with viewers years later even
if they struggle to put a finger on exactly what made him so unsettling.
- (Fred) Hello new friend! My name is Fred!
The words you hear are in my head. I say, I said my name is Fred! And I've been... very naughty.
- (Kris) Looking back though, the tale is basically a Cartoon Network-friendly story about
a child predator. Fred is terrorizing Courage in his own home while other family members refuse
to acknowledge that this creepy compulsive rhymer is dangerous, despite our protagonist’s warnings.
Fear has an ability to make us feel unworthy or cowardly. This is something many abusers
prey on. But Courage’s fears are valid and he deserves to have them taken seriously.
Fortunately he eventually realizes this and makes a call to Fred’s mental institution. The villain
is promptly carted away.
- (Kris) The episode “The Mask”, widely regarded as one of the show’s best, returns to this idea
of how immobilizing fear can be with a tale about a couple of friends named Kitty and Bunny.
- (Kitty) I was forced to leave my home. And my best friend, Bunny.
- (Kris) Some have argued it’s a thinly-veiled allegory for a same-sex couple. Bunny has been
forbidden from seeing Kitty, and is being held captive by her vicious partner, Mad Dog. Kitty,
now wearing the titular mask, has come to believe that all canines are evil and attacks
Courage every time they meet. While Kitty lashes out in the same way that Eustace,
Dr. Zalost and so many others do, Bunny’s fear pushes her to accept the abusive treatment she
receives from her boyfriend, convinced that she deserves nothing better. Again
wrapping heavy subjects like domestic abuse and homophobia up in its colorful cartoon language,
the show gets at how easy it is for us to be made afraid of who we really are. To
feel like we need to hide ourselves, no matter the cost to our happiness.
Watching Kitty and Bunny ride off triumphantly after Courage rescues them
is a bright, brilliant way to tell a young audience that this simply isn’t true.
- (Kitty) Now we can be best friends forever.
- (Kris) While Courage’s attention is typically drawn towards the monster of the week,
deep down he shares Bunny’s same ultimate fear: not being good enough. Courage clings
to Muriel because she is the one person left who re-affirms his sense that he has value. And yet,
he puts up with Eustace’s abuse because, on some level, he doesn’t entirely believe it.
That nagging voice we all have on some level, the one that insists that we aren’t good enough-- is
even given physical shape in the series finale, “Perfect”. The episode sees an old schoolteacher
dubbed “The Perfectionist” demanding that Courage prove his worth by performing a never-ending
series of tasks up to her impossible standards. The more he struggles, the more she berates him,
steadily grinding away at his confidence and adding to his anxiety. By the time
she orders him to “sleep perfectly”, which prevents him from actually sleeping at all,
he is pretty much losing his mind. That is, until a friendly green fish in his bathtub
offers some sage advice – to stop aiming for perfection and to embrace who he is.
- (Fish) With all your imperfections, you can do anything.
- (Kris) And just like that -- he is able to vanquish the nagging voice of The Perfectionist
and the fear that she feeds on. And so one of the weirdest, darkest, most soul-rattling
shows that Cartoon Network ever aired comes to a genuinely heart-warming conclusion.
- (Fish) There's no such thing as perfect. You're beautiful as you are, Courage.
- (Kris) Courage was able to get inside our heads
when we were kids because, as disturbing as it might be to admit, it really spoke our language.
And one of the reasons it continues to resonate is that it isn’t just invested in scaring its
viewers -- it ALSO wants to teach us about what it means to be scared. That our fears matter even
if others dismiss them, that we can overcome the things we’re scared of and ultimately,
that there is no shame in being afraid. So what do you think, Wisecrack?
Is Courage the Cowardly Dog, in all it’s weirdness, a wonderful exploration of childhood
fear? And is that why it means so much to us as adults? Let us know in the comments.
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