90’s Cartoon Moments That Wouldn’t Fly Today Script by Ian McNeill
It should come to no surprise that a lot of content that exists on the internet is
created out if a strong love for nostalgia. So many video games, movies, television shows
and even commercials from yesteryear have found relevance decades later due to the
fond memories of those who experienced them bringing the works up in conversation. Beyond
bringing back great memories, many of these pieces of media also include reminders of
how much the times have certainly changed. Today we're looking at a plethora of moments
in our favorite cartoons that many people may be shocked to discover was considered
acceptable back when broadcasters' restrictions were a little looser.
I'm Brad with WickedBinge and this is 90's Cartoon Moments That Wouldn't Fly Today.
Our only real rule for this list is the moment in question in question has to have aired or be
produced for a cartoon segment for the 90’s, not simply for a show that existed in the
90’s. For example, a show like The Powerpuff Girls contained many risqué moments but we’re only going
to be taking into account the first few seasons as the later seasons aired during the early 2000’s.
Also, the list is in no particular order for the most part, but we’re saving what
we feel to be the five most outrageous moments for last so stay tuned to the end!
With that said, let’s jump into the video and talk about some moments that flew
over the heads of many 90’s kids! Powerpuff Girls - Screenshot Only
The Powerpuff Girls is a show has plenty of moments that wouldn't fly today, even with
the upcoming reboot. Not the least of which would be the original name of their team. The Powerpuff
Girls originally appeared in shorts on the What a Cartoon! segment of Cartoon Network's programing.
Here they were known as The Whoopass Girls and were created using the use of Whoopass Stew.
Unsurprisingly, Cartoon Network's executives had the name changed when picking up the shorts for a
full series. Don't expect to see this origin story making its way into new episodes of the show.
Powerpuff Girls - Screenshot Only Even with the change of name, the
show itself contains plenty more moments that we'd be surprised to see featured on
current airwaves. The very intro of The Powerpuff Girls depicts Fuzzy Lumpkins
getting kicked with blood flying out of his mouth. That's right, blood featured in the
intro of a show featuring crime fighting little girls. This was brilliant at the time as anyone
who thought The Powerpuff Girls was a show aimed only a little girls had that perception
immediately altered from watching this intro. Whenever someone hears the words "edgy" and
"Nickelodeon" together, the first thing that comes to many people's minds is undoubtedly The Ren and
Stimpy Show. One of the raunchiest children's shows in history, Ren and Stimpy was notorious
for how far it pushed the boundaries, much to the dismay of the executives at Nickelodeon. It
seems that the show's creator, John Kricfalusi, didn't have a very good grasp on what would be
appropriate for children which has become even more apparent in light of certain behind the
scenes activity. Anyway, we're here to dissect the show itself, not the monster behind it. Ren and
Stimpy pushed so many boundaries that even at the time, much of what they tried to get on the air
didn’t make it. This included scenes from certain episodes that were cut from the episode’s final
broadcast. In the episode Sven Höek, Ren describes how he’s going to brutally torture his cousin Sven
along with Stimpy. At one moment, he claims that he’s going to gouge their eyes out, which
Nickelodeon executives felt went a little too far. That one moment was removed from Ren’s speech
although the rest of the scene was kept in tact. Even the moments that were approved in
the Sven Höek episode at the time likely wouldn’t fly today. This includes a scene near the end of
the episode where Ren pees on Stimpy’s game Don’t Whiz on the Electric Fence, causing their house to
explode. From here, Ren, Stimpy and Sven die and are transported to hell where they meet Satan.
While the concept of a cartoon episode ending with the main characters dying and being sent
to hell is certainly funny, we’re not sure it would get approved as the cap for a current
episode of a show “supposedly” aimed at children. Ren and Stimpy’s controversies were not limited
to individual scenes but even included an entire episode known as Man’s Best Friend. Nickelodeon
refused to air this episode back when it was created due to an excessively violent scene that
features Ren brutally beating the character George Liquor with an oar. The episode also contains
references to tobacco and feces which didn’t help its case much. The episode did eventually
air years later on the more adult oriented Spike TV but never has been seen on Nickelodeon itself.
Dexter’s Lab - Screenshot Only While we’re on the topic of banned episodes,
let’s briefly venture back to Cartoon Network once again to talk about Dexter’s Laboratory.
Any long time fans of the series or Genndy Tartakovsky knows we’re talking about the
episode Rude Removal. Here, Dexter and Dee Dee are split into two different bodies through the
Rude Removal machine, with one body portraying their polite qualities and the other portraying
their rudeness. That’s all well and good but Cartoon Network refused to air the
episode at the time due to the rude counterparts of Dexter and Dee Dee using profanity. Many fans
thought this was a bizarre choice considering all the swearing was censored and other cartoon shows
from around this time were able to get away with that such as the SpongeBob SquarePants episode
Sailor Mouth. With that said, no fans would be surprised to see the episode being shot down from
airing today, along with Sailor Mouth potentially. Moving away from zaniness, one Nickelodeon
show which has received a lot of praise for its grounded and mature
storytelling is Hey Arnold! This show was willing to delve into topics that many other children's
cartoons even at the time wouldn't even dream of touching such as depression, separation,
unrequited love and even alcoholism. That's right, while it's explicitly using booze to make its
point, Helga's mother Miriam has an addiction to smoothies which the show's creator, Craig
Bartlett, confirmed to be a metaphor or alcohol. Miriam's primary actions in the show involve
sleeping, drinking and sulking from depression, all traits which stem on her "smoothie" reliance.
Even if you could use the smoothie work around theoretically, Miriam's actions portray alcoholism
extremely realistically which might be deemed as triggering for children facing that issue at home.
Even with it’s more serious and grounded subject matter, Hey Arnold wasn’t above making the
occasional edgy joke here and there too. A great example is in the episode Back to School wherein
Arnold convinces Grandpa Phil to finish grade school. Grandpa protests, saying that he lost too
many brain cells from going to Woodstock. If you want us to spell it out, this seems to be a subtle
hint that Grandpa Phil has partaken in certain mind-altering substances over the years which may
or may not have had permanent damage on his brain. Another episode which contained many adult
oriented themes is Veteran’s Day. In this episode, Grandpa Phil and Martin recount
their experiences serving in World War II and Vietnam respectively. Even though it may not be
commonplace to see children’s cartoon characters fighting Nazis (at least outside of the protest
shorts made during the war), that’s not why we’re bringing this episode to light here. Instead,
we’re talking about a specific scene where Phil recounts his experience of meeting three beautiful
French girls at a farmhouse. Martin cuts him off before he can finish but if he hadn’t,
Grandpa Phil would have told Arnold and Gerald about his fun time on the farm. Not sure if
he’d even get the chance to allude to the situation had the episode aired these days.
Animaniacs - Screenshot Only It's time for Animaniacs and
they're edgy to the max. Yes, we're fully aware that Animaniacs was rebooted recently but that
doesn't change the fact that the original run of the show had some moments that wouldn't have
flown had they been pitched in the reboot. A great example is the joke where Yakko ask Dot
to search for prints. After finding the artist then currently known as Prince,
Yakko clarifies he meant "fingerprints" which she also misinterpreted. Even back in the 90's were
not sure how this joke managed to make it passed the censors. Would it make it onto air today? To
quote Dot in the scene, "I don't think so." Animaniacs - Screenshot Only
The Animaniacs were also noteworthy for including topical references that would fly over the heads
of most children. Sometimes this was the odd joke or two and others it was the focus of an
entire episode. A great example is the episode Goodfeathers which parodied very violent and
mature mafia films such as Goodfellas and The Godfather. While current cartoons may be able
to slip in the occasional movie reference in their episodes, we highly doubt networks would
be keen on having entire episodes which lampoon such mature subjects as organized
crime. This is probably why The Goodfeathers didn’t have any starring roles in episodes
of The Animaniacs reboot. Pokemon - Screenshot Only
American cartoons aren’t the only ones to contain questionable material because
Pokémon also contains a few moments that certainly would be considered contentious nowadays. In fact,
there was one episode that was infamously banned from international releases due to health-related
issues that arose from its initial broadcast. We are of course talking about the episode Dennō
Senshi Porygon which featured flashing red and blue lights that gave hundreds
of Japanese children seizures. Even though the episode was never aired internationally,
the controversy surrounding it was so infamous that news of it reached North America. So much
so that it led to the seizure incident being parodied in American cartoons such as The
Simpsons and South Park. We’re willing to bet that new episodes of Pokémon or other cartoons
won’t being using flashing lights anytime soon. Then again, The Incredibles 2 received a similar
although less widespread controversy due to its use of flashing lights so maybe animators haven’t
learned their lesson quite yet. Pokemon - Screenshot Only
Other episodes of Pokémon feature content that would no longer fly not due to health-related
issues but because of ridiculous localizations. While most contemporary localizations of anime
have no problem including references to Japanese culture, broadcasters in the 90’s were seemingly
afraid of including any references to the customs of a country that American kids were not familiar
with. This included the hilarious choice of swapping references of Japanese food to American
food. Sometimes this included visual changes such as inserting a sandwich over the original
food from the Japanese version of the episode. Other instances were much lazier at hiding it,
such as the meme worthy scene where Brock refers to the rice balls he’s eating as “jelly filled
donuts.” Hollywood nowadays has gotten a lot of scrutiny for white washing characters and culture
in movies such as Dragonball Evolution and Ghost in the Shell. Because of this, we can’t imagine
any current networks inserting jelly filled donuts into scenes where they don’t belong.
Now we’ve reached our five most outrageous moments. For number five we’re going with
another Nickelodeon show which was noteworthy for pushing boundaries, Rocko's Modern Life.
This show was so edgy in fact that finding full episodes with all the jokes in tact has proven to
be quite the difficult task for Rocko fans. Most of the DVD releases for the show omit the more
risqué moments and some of said scenes were cut from reruns of the episodes after their initial
broadcast. One such moment is a scene wherein Rocko and Heffer visit the No-Tell
Motel. Here, Rocko and Heffer spend a night at what they believe to be a normal hotel with joke
being that the hotel is actually used for sexual rendezvous. In reruns of the episode only the
exterior of the motel is shown with no references as to what's really going on behind closed doors.
Powerpuff Girls - Screenshot Only Next, we’re venturing back to the
City of Townsville once again. Certain episodes of The Powerpuff Girls would also be risky to air
nowadays not for their use of violence or edgy jokes but instead due to how dark they are. The
episode Speed Demon is a great testament to that. This episode sees the girls entering an alternate
timeline where they have disappeared for fifty years and Him has taken over the world. This
episode contains some really dark and frightening imagery even by the standards of the network that
was airing Courage the Cowardly Dog. Speed Demon gave many 90's kids nightmare fuel which we're
not sure is what many current executives are looking for in a television episode.
All Cartoon Network shows featured in this entry are screenshot only
Johnny Bravo - Screenshot Only The Bronze Medal goes to not necessarily a
specific moment but an entire character. Thanks to fan outcry we've seen the resurrection of popular
Cartoon Network series like The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack with more such as Foster's Home
for Imaginary Friends scheduled to return as well. One series we're not expecting to
see resurrected any time soon is Johnny Bravo. It's hard to even point to one particular moment
in the series as the best evidence for this. Watch even one episode of this popular series and we're
willing to bet you'll find multiple examples as to why this womanizing Elvis look alike would
never been seen amongst the roster of children's entertainment today. The very first episode which
involves a search for a lost gorilla includes a scene where Johnny Bravo sleazily asking a woman
if she's hiding a gorilla under her clothes. Many early episodes of this show were written
by Seth MacFarlane who went onto create another famous womanizer known as Glen Quagmire. Even
Quagmire's womanizing nature has been downplayed in recent seasons of Family Guy so what hope does
Johnny Bravo have of being seen in the current landscape? Now, we would argue that Johnny
Bravo could been seen as a pro-feminist show since the titular character does almost always
face repercussions for his inappropriate behavior. That said, we don't believe that
argument would be enough to sway networks from seeing a reboot as a risky idea.
For the Silver Medal we’re going back to Ren and Stimpy once again. One of the more disturbing
episodes of Ren and Stimpy is Ren's Toothache. Here, Ren loses all of his teeth from teeth
decay and rips out his nerve endings so that he can be visited by the Nerve Ending Fairy.
It's as hard to watch as it sounds. Watch one minute from this episode and we're willing to
bet you'll understand why we brought it up here. Finally, The Gold Medal once again goes to scene
from Rocko’s Modern Life. Another scene that was cut from reruns and DVD releases is from
the episode The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby. In the initial broadcast of this episode, Heffer
uses a machine called the Milk-O-Matic which, as the name implies, is used for milking cows. Since
Heffer is a steer, he receives a different kind of gratification from using it. We're honestly
shocked that this scene was even allowed to air once, along with the aforementioned motel scene.
We'd like to see the writers try to get away with this in a Nickelodeon cartoon nowadays,
even if we don’t think they would. Let us know in the comment section
if you agree with our ranking, and tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit
that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist, where we break down the
morality of the characters in your favorite shows. But most importantly, stay wicked!