Sure, there are some exceptions. But for the most part, adult cartoons are the worst! So why are they so successful?
Honestly, I wish I knew the answer to this question. I’ve personally held a derision for shows such as South Park ever since middle school when the boys on my bus would quote the show (in the mind-gratingly annoying voices of the characters) and use it to bully, belittle and sexually harass everyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths.
It feels a bit paradoxical in nature—because why would someone love a show that’s so terrible? But perhaps the answer is in the question. Folks love these shows because they’re terrible. While some fans might praise a given show’s satire or multi-layered wit, let’s face it: Many viewers engage with these shows on the level of my juvenile bus-mates. They laugh at the foul language and animated nudity and gross-out jokes. And more often than not, the shows themselves sink right down to that level—and they seem to be getting worse all the time. And in a weird way, watching these shows that demonstrate an equal-opportunistic mockery of race, gender, disabilities, addiction, abuse, depression, suicide, politics and religion makes viewers feel just a tiny bit better about their own sinful natures.
It all started with The Simpsons. First airing back in 1989, it’s now the longest-running scripted primetime series in American history, predating the World Wide Web, a united Germany and even myself.
“The Simpsons was the family no one wanted to be but secretly wanted to visit, if only for a vacation from themselves,” wrote Paul Asay in his review. Viewers either considered The Simpsons “to be a cogent, witty and surprisingly warmhearted satire of the American condition,” or they found it “crass, lewd and morally impaired.”
But because of The Simpsons’ success, Hollywood felt inclined to create even more content of this nature. Thus we were given equally crude Futurama, American Dad!, South Park, Bob’s Burgers, Disenchantment, Archer, Bojack Horseman, Central Park, Big Mouth and “the most obnoxious show on broadcast television” (according, once again, to Mr. Asay) Family Guy.
There are, of course, many other shows that fall into the animated adult comedy category. But these are the ones I’ve been unlucky enough to come across (and sometimes review for Plugged In). And all I can say is “Seriously?”
Fans of these shows—particularly teens who want permission from their parents to watch without limitation—will die on the hill that these shows are brilliant because of their all-inclusive derision. They’ll hunt for a lesson to be learned in each episode to justify the crudity. They’ll defend that because it’s a joke (and because it’s animated, thus removing any real victims from the equation), that somehow makes it OK.
Ironically, these same people will recognize that these shows are terribly inappropriate. But they’ll still watch them because they’re “mature” enough to not replicate the behaviors exhibited.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, it doesn’t matter how “mature” any of us are. Galatians gives us a whole list of wicked things to avoid: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5: 19-21). And whether we like it or not, many of these adult cartoons don’t just display these actions, they celebrate them.
So perhaps, instead of letting these types of shows play in the background while we cook dinner, we could change the channel or even turn the TV off. And when your teenager tries to convince you that he needs to watch it to fit in with his friends—well, personally, I would tell that kid to find new friends, because these ones aren’t doing him any favors—encourage him to do the right thing (James 4:17).
Because at best, the worst of these shows are offensive to all peoples and all cultures. At worst, they’re a direct reflection of why Jesus had to sacrifice himself on the cross. And that sacrifice is often ridiculed in these shows as well.
12 Responses
I miss the golden era of “The Simpsons” (seasons 3 – 9). The humor was subversive, but in an intelligent way. I also enjoyed “King of the Hill” as it was an affectionate parody contemporary American values. It celebrated them as much as it made fun. Never really cared much for any other animated sitcom as their humor was always too lowest common denominator. I’m glaring at you, South Park. MTV somehow cranked out a surprisingly amusing show in “Daria,” which I enjoyed despite its progenitor. I was in high school when it aired, and it was relatable. Now it serves as an interesting time capsule. That said, any good qualities in it are solely a product of the relative innocence of the 90s. Any update or reboot made in the modern era would be distressing considering our current culture, unless it sought to subvert that culture, but I doubt MTV would sign off on that. The then WB made a TV adaptation of “Baby Blues,” which I really wish had continued. Same with ABC’s “The Goode Family;” it felt like the liberal counterpoint to the conservative KotH. I don’t think this article’s author’s complaints are limited to animated shows, though. So much of our fictional entertainment on TV feels down right icky, but I think that’s just a reflection of our society’s current values. Nowadays, I just watch historical documentaries and “The Matt Walsh Show.” SBG for life.
You guys might be interested to check out Spy x Family. It’s the hottest anime of the spring season. Everyone’s talking about it. Themes of family unity, self-sacrifice, and teamwork run strong in it. I really think adults and teens can genuinely appreciate the wholesomeness. Yes there’s some action violence (it’s a show about spies after all) but it’s a far cry better than the toilet humor-filled, profanity-laden, sexually perverted adult cartoons on modern Western television.
-Agreed, I love it! My mom and i watch each new episode and it’s so sweet to watch the adventures of a new family. I recommend it all the time to friends. The fact that the family aren’t biological, and really only came together as a cover, but they immediately come very close and care deeply for each other is fantastic.
Great article Emily. I’m an animation major at my university and I totally agree. I just can’t get behind popular shows like Big Mouth, Inside Job, and Rick and Morty because of the reasons listed above. When I graduate, I hope to work on more family-oriented series and films. Don’t get me wrong, not all “adult” animation is bad, but so many shows rely on crude humor that the genre has earned an unsavory reputation (and for good reason).
I know very well that cartoons weren’t originally intended to be entertainment strictly for kids, but, to be honest, I can’t stand adult cartoons of ANY kind. The idea of R or even PG-13 rated animation just doesn’t appeal to me in any way. I think I’ll always prefer family-friendly animated films and shows. I’m glad you guys are talking about how terrible (a majority of) adult cartoons are (and I wish you’d talk about them more).
-Sorry to say this, but this is super insulting, I love adult animation and as an adult animation fan, I know a lot more better than you guys do, yes, some shows are not perfect (in terms of actual quality, not the so called “problematic” content itself), but you guys take it way too far, and I’ll tell you what I know, you say all of these shows you mentioned are “crude” and “obnoxious,” but this is not entirely true, for instance, Bob’s Burgers is tamer than your average FOX cartoon and had a lot of great messages about family and Bob for once is a great dad and is even a million times more open minded than you guys think you are, and for Bojack Horseman, even though it’s rated TV-MA which gives it full permission to curse as much as they want, they limit the F-bombs to one per season and during the more hard hitting moments especially when a relationship is ruined and this is one of the things that helped it avoid being another clone of Family guy and South Park, and F is for Family is a show that mixes vulgarity with drama, arcs, and character development pretty well, the same goes for Rick and Morty, the reason you don’t see it is because you only see adult comedy, but I see more than that, and overall, Bob’s Burgers, Bojack Horseman, and F is for family is way more realistic in its subject matter, situations, and such than those horrible movies like God’s not dead and Unplanned, then we have Amercian Dad, while it does follow some of the Family Guy formula, but Stan, despite his flaws and idioticy (especially in the later seasons) is more likable than you think, as there’s no need for him to commit crimes unlike Peter just to get laughs, no need for thousands of Cutaway gags, and you should be also thankful there’s no need for excessive toliet humor,and for Sausage Party, it not only broke ground as the first R rated 3D CGI movie, but had a thought provoking story about how people like you are stuborn and close minded and refuse to believe the truth and the meaning behind it, and then overall, it’s not wrong for anyone to like shows like Family Guy or South Park, and don’t you realize that there are Christians who actually like these shows, especially South Park which was praised for its willingness to mock everyone they can find, and even once said it’s okay to be religious, so please stop using the guard your hearts and minds such as an excuse to judge us all for what we watch, let us be
-I disagree with a lot of this article, mainly because, although you address that there is *supposed* to be a nuance to the crudity of adult animation, you make it seem like it can’t have it _because_ of the crudity. It simply seems like a lazy argument and ignores the effort the writers put into their show.
An example would be Bojack Horseman, the sex displayed is utterly meaningless, it doesn’t make the main character feel any better about himself, it doesn’t need to be justified.
The biggest issue with your article, and this website in general is that you seem to be in the mindset that when a writer creates something, they have Christianity’s perception of them in mind, or that they even care. They don’t. And they shouldn’t.
Also, why are you only quoting other PluggedIn articles??? That makes no sense to me at all.
-I agree to a small extent with this article, in that a lot of these shows are blatantly unsuited for viewers who have to ask permission to watch them (see also Plugged In’s own review of “Dead Space 2,” where its opinion of that game’s marketing gimmick was, deservedly, more negative than that of the actual game), but some of your comparisons don’t make sense. “Equally crude” is a very questionable label to stick on The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park, each of which may as well exist in its own dimension. As for “why” these shows are so successful (kudos to the person who mentioned King of the Hill, one of the most compelling slices of modern American history I’ve ever seen on television), you are not the target audience, as someone else mentioned. Your profile mentions Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and I’ve heard some Christians complain about both because of the spiritual elements.
I do find a lot of adult comedy tasteless, and I do prefer shows that are more “adult” because of serious examinations of subject matter than because of crudity stuck in for the sake of crudity, but that doesn’t necessarily make it ‘unsafe’ or spiritually dangerous to view, or your site’s own professional reviewers would inevitably become some of the worst people imaginable over time. (They clearly have not.)
-Thank you, Emily, for writing this. I agree fully with what you said. It seems those who enjoy these shows are are more fleshly, then Christian.What we fill our minds with eventually comes out. Cling to what is true and pure.
-I think eventually we’re going to have to define where our ‘line’ and our standard falls, and that’s going to vary from one person to the next. “The Passion of the Christ” had a profanity (Matthew 26:74 is referring to an oath, not to culturally subjective foul language https://www.biblestudytools.com/interlinear-bible/passage/?q=Matthew+26%3A74&t=kjv https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G2653/katanathematizo.htm https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/omnuo.html), “Risen” and “Paul: Apostle of Christ” (the latter was an excellent movie, by the way) had references to prostitution, “God’s Not Dead” had a lot of alcohol consumption and wall-to-wall displays of unhealthy or even abusive familial and romantic relationships, “Silence” had brief graphic violence and depicted temptations of apostasy (I saw a number of people condemn that film unfairly because they thought it glamorized its premise when it really did not), and “Hacksaw Ridge” had a very good anti-war/pro-humanity message (too often overlooked in the name of ‘patriotism’ or bald xenophobia) but absolutely should have received an NC-17 rating for its violence – I’m not convinced “The Passion” didn’t deserve that as well. Yes, these adult cartoons are usually much more crude and much less piously minded than this (I did think Ned Flanders was a rather interestingly complex character), but I hope we’re not holding completely different standards for religious stories versus secular ones.
-As a teen myself, I really don’t have a problem with adult cartoons unless they begin disguising there shows as kid friendly or has kid friendly characters such as the new Adult’s Swims Learning With Pibby, which is just disturbing (to me at least), and Adult’s Swim Robot Chicken, which uses familiar characters including Scooby Doo and Thomas train in sometimes disturbing situations.
-Well there’s a reason I don’t usually watch adult comedy animated shows…Not only do they mock Christianity and anything decent and good, but instead celebrate crudeness, immoral sexuality and anything that is against what Christian’s stand for. Im sure they would have no problem with homosexuals (an outright blatant disregard to the clearly biblical and traditional narrative God so clearly designed) or anything woke/jokes about white men. So yes i think I’ll pass on shows that clearly only want to celebrate Liberal obviously agenda filled anti God anti Christian woke ridiculousness. I don’t believe I’m homosexuality, bashing white people (or any race) or crazy feminists views. Instead I think I’ll stick to scripture which is the only truth and not what the world thinks. I do not believe in lies and refuse to pander to what this world considers “important.” It’s Gods truths that are important and only Gods truths.