Comedy in Children's TV/Cartoons

[shlug]

Taking a break from serious comedy discussion to discuss the comedic merit of children's TV shows and/or cartoons.

I always thought Rugrats was pretty creative with how it played with childhood myth and misunderstanding of adult affairs. The little sight gags at the start of the episodes again were imaginative as far as kids TV goes - I can't find any examples online unfortunately.

Ed Edd n Eddy had that subversive/meta episode which was entertaining to watch growing up.

I'm sure there are other examples I can think of which I'll add when I can remember them.

[dead-ced-dead]

Ed, Edd n' Eddy was what first jumped to mind, too. My mum disliked me watching it, because while none of it was offensive, there was a grubbiness to it that appealed to 9-year-old me. It holds up well too, by lurching between Rik Mayall-esque fights that real crunch to them and gungy kids humour.

[dissolute ocelot]

Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy was great especially for the first couple of seasons, a mix of misanthropy, stupidity, toilet humour, and supernatural tomfoolery, involving a girl who could give Wednesday Addams a run for her money, one of the great cartoon idiots, and a rather dim-witted personification of death. Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends was very quirky and offbeat, but could be both sweet and funny. And there's already a Spongebob Squarepants thread.

[idunnosomename]

generally I liked all the Cartoon Network originals: Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Sheep in the Big City, the original Powerpuff Girls all have very funny parts. Ed, Edd and Eddy was best when it had an intentionally constrained setting, lost it a bit when they went to school.

Rocko's Modern Life was by far my favourite Nicktoon. Not just because of them getting wanking gags in there, but because Rocko and Heifer were such endearing protaganists.

Then I loved madcap Amblin/Warner stuff like Animaniacs (of course) and Freakazoid! which you know the writers were mostly putting in weird stuff about American politics etc that they knew kids wouldn't get.

One thing that really made these 90s cartoons was the quality of the voice acting. How Charlie Adler, Jim Cummings, Rob Paulsen etc made so many memorable voices for many people, but few probably know their names.

[shlug]

Ed, Edd n' Eddy was what first jumped to mind, too. My mum disliked me watching it, because while none of it was offensive, there was a grubbiness to it that appealed to 9-year-old me. It holds up well too, by lurching between Rik Mayall-esque fights that real crunch to them and gungy kids humour.

I think the animation and art style lent itself well to that anarchic Rik Mayall-ness that you point out, it's not a comparison I've heard before but I can see the parallels in Ed's relationship and schemes with something like Bottom with Rik and Ade.

Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy was great especially for the first couple of seasons, a mix of misanthropy, stupidity, toilet humour, and supernatural tomfoolery, involving a girl who could give Wednesday Addams a run for her money, one of the great cartoon idiots, and a rather dim-witted personification of death. Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends was very quirky and offbeat, but could be both sweet and funny. And there's already a Spongebob Squarepants thread.

Bill and Mandy was excellent, I remember when it was packaged with the short lived "Evil" series which I'm glad they dropped in favour of going solo with "Grim". Similar to Courage in how it took dark themes and made them comical, might be a stretch to draw comparisons with League of Gentlemen but their settings were equally accommodating of the bizarre as Royston Vasey.

generally I liked all the Cartoon Network originals: Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Sheep in the Big City, the original Powerpuff Girls all have very funny parts. Ed, Edd and Eddy was best when it had an intentionally constrained setting, lost it a bit when they went to school.

Rocko's Modern Life was by far my favourite Nicktoon. Not just because of them getting wanking gags in there, but because Rocko and Heifer were such endearing protaganists.

Then I loved madcap Amblin/Warner stuff like Animaniacs (of course) and Freakazoid! which you know the writers were mostly putting in weird stuff about American politics etc that they knew kids wouldn't get.

One thing that really made these 90s cartoons was the quality of the voice acting. How Charlie Adler, Jim Cummings, Rob Paulsen etc made so many memorable voices for many people, but few probably know their names.

Agree on the Ed's being constrained to the cul-de-sac, there was something relatable about the microcosm of kids playing on streets and the little world they inhabited. Something like Recess did a much better job of developing that world within a world on the playground although I think it tried to be a bit too moralistic at the expense of actually being funny/comedic.

Some good suggestions so far in this thread.

[Pink Gregory]

The entire premise of Winnie the Pooh's Most Grand Adventure is that Christopher Robin leaves a note, explaining that he's gone to school.

Obviously, the denizens of the Hundred Acre wood can't read, so they bring it to Owl, who reads is as "S-C-H-O-O-L!  SKULL!", cue a perilous journey to a terrifying skull shaped cave in which the titular bear almost perishes in an ice cavern.

The fact that the film doesn't make any effort to disguise the misunderstanding is hilarious to me.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

We watched a few episodes of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men recently (well, last year, but who's counting?). I remembered it being great when I was a kid, but as a (nominal) adult I was expecting the odd chuckle at most, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it was still properly funny.

[Mister Six]

Apple and Onion is genuinely funny - especially in the second series, when it pretty much gives up any attempts to be even slightly educational and just has fun.

The Amazing Adventures of Gumball is brilliant in design and script, and has the kind of frenetic pacing that disguises genuinely clever writing.

And for the old timers - and assuming we can talk live action kids' comedy too - Press Gang still stands up amazingly well.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The Chuckle Brothers were quite funny.

[shlug]

Conscious most of the shows here are mostly American cartoons, I'll throw some British live-action examples.

Someone on CaB was singing praises for the Amelia Gething Complex which although not really my taste is an interesting children's comedy series that has a self-aware meta approach which I can see appealing more towards this generation of kids.
At least it shows some progression in children's comedy from the naffness of something like Chucklevision which when you boil it down is about 7 or 8 jokes repeated ad nauseum for 22 years. I have the vague recollection of a Chucklevision series arc of them alongside the Scarlett Pimpernel during the French Revolution which was just bizarre, I don't know how they managed to harmonise that with the greater Chuckle lore.

Equally crap comedy was a sketch show I remember on CBBC called Stupid which I think was only known for the reoccurring Devil Finger sketch which was a sort of cultural zeitgeist for about a week.

Conversely, Dick and Dom I thought was pretty good. For a child not familiar with the whole candid camera genre of public pranks, Bogies was genuinely hilarious the first time round. Once it got popular and imitated poorly it did lose its charm but some of their bungalow sketches were entertaining and anarchic enough to rival SM:TV Live at its peak.

[DrGreggles]

Conversely, Dick and Dom I thought was pretty good. For a child not familiar with the whole candid camera genre of public pranks, Bogies was genuinely hilarious the first time round. Once it got popular and imitated poorly it did lose its charm but some of their bungalow sketches were entertaining and anarchic enough to rival SM:TV Live at its peak.

Loved Da Bungalow.
Everyone on it seemed to be having so much fun - with the possible exception of the kids.

[mippy]

I was a big fan of Stupid despite being well out of their target audience, particularly for the sketch where a grandma pretended to die, and the scout leader that was taking his divorce badly.

It Was a schools programme, but KNTV was BRILLIANT - two teenagers who lived in "the last Soviet state to fall" trying to undrstand various philosophers through weird archive clips, and then singing a song about what they learned. https://vimeo.com/82206710

[idunnosomename]

The Sooty Show could be borderline experimental at times

[idunnosomename]

Courage the Cowardly Dog is just amazing for how it did all this weird mixed-media stuff, with early Parappa-style CG, stop-motion models, photographs etc with the cel animation (well, at some point it would have changed to digital scans but initially I guess it was painted cels?). lovely score too. brilliant show.

the Scouse alien ducks (who are NOT voiced by Ringo Starr, not sure how that rumour started) who berate their brother to "stop laying eggs" are really funny though

edit the Duck Brothers were voiced by Will Ryan who died Nov this year aged 72 which is sad. also was a bit bummed when I found out Ed Asner died this August, he was Sgt Cosgrove in Freakazoid, as well as Carl Fredricksen in Up. born 1929, had a very long career in acting and like Leslie Nielsen pivoted into masterful deadpan later on

[BeardFaceMan]

I really liked Round The Bend, it was like an Oink!/Spitting Image hybrid. One of those programs where my mum would overhear something and do a double take as she wandered past the room and would come in to see what I was watching. Puppets, cartoons, toilet humour, lovely fucking grub.

[RHX]

The entire premise of Winnie the Pooh's Most Grand Adventure is that Christopher Robin leaves a note, explaining that he's gone to school.

Obviously, the denizens of the Hundred Acre wood can't read, so they bring it to Owl, who reads is as "S-C-H-O-O-L!  SKULL!", cue a perilous journey to a terrifying skull shaped cave in which the titular bear almost perishes in an ice cavern.

The fact that the film doesn't make any effort to disguise the misunderstanding is hilarious to me.

This scene from the 2011 movie absolutely slayed me.

[idunnosomename]

only vaguely aware of that coming out, should probably see it. the animation on Rabbit is really good. Pooh is voiced by Jim Cummings of course

[Dickie_Anders]

There are episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender that are quite funny. Like the one where the good guys watch a propaganda play about themselves put on by the bad guys. Or the one where the evil princess goes to a house party and scares off all the men she's trying to pull

[A Hat Like That]

There are episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender that are quite funny. Like the one where the good guys watch a propaganda play about themselves put on by the bad guys. Or the one where the evil princess goes to a house party and scares off all the men she's trying to pull

Toph gets some great lines.

[shlug]

Another shameless self-bump but was proper giggling to myself at work today remembering this episode of Pingu from way back.

As well as just the general bizarre piss-based plot, I absolutely love the nonsensical speech especially when they're angry and bollocking each other. Love the animation and aesthetic of it as well. Just overall a great and unique kids show much to its benefit.

[mippy]

The bit where his pupils spin round in delight really made me laugh.

[idunnosomename]

Pingu is just brilliant animation. the nightmare episode with the reused walrus character is extraordinary.
but also Pingu is such a wonderfully obnoxious little cunt.
German creator, made in Switzerland, but I think a lot of its success was due to us. the creator died in 1993.

also was remembering an unusual cartoon mid-90s, Earthworm Jim, that was made by Universal for Kids WB, and aired on Channel 4 here. unusual in that everything else Universal made was kinda low-grade franchise crap, but Earthworm Jim was really fucking funny for how stupid and meta it was. also had Dan Castellaneta in the lead role, which is just about his only lead voice other than Homer (ok he did Doc Brown in the BttF cartoon, which was also Universal)

Doug TenNapel, the creator of EJ and main developer of the show, seems to have gone right-wing Trumper bananas like Scott Adams though.

[H-O-W-L]

I still think the first 3 seasons of Spongebob are solid gold.

[dothestrand]

Hey Duggee and Bluey, if we're talking very young kids' television. Duggee has included film references like Apocalypse Now and even featured a music group named Hot Cheep. Bluey is not only incredibly poignant, but the dad, Bandit, is one of the best recent comedy dads.

[jobotic]

Saw the episode of Bluey where they're waiting for the Chinese takeaway the other day - really funny.

There's always Horrible Histories, which has made me laugh out loud a few times. Sorry I've Got No Head was the only thing I've seen in which I liked Marcus Brigstocke.

[MojoJojo]

Steven Universe deserves a mention - Peridot and Greg both have some pretty funny bits.

https://youtu.be/A2ox1z9q6pk

(I can't work out to timestamp that on mobile, but the bits I was thinking of are all in the first minute anyway)

[Catalogue Trousers]

...also was remembering an unusual cartoon mid-90s, Earthworm Jim, that was made by Universal for Kids WB, and aired on Channel 4 here. unusual in that everything else Universal made was kinda low-grade franchise crap, but Earthworm Jim was really fucking funny for how stupid and meta it was. also had Dan Castellaneta in the lead role, which is just about his only lead voice other than Homer (ok he did Doc Brown in the BttF cartoon, which was also Universal)

Doug TenNapel, the creator of EJ and main developer of the show, seems to have gone right-wing Trumper bananas like Scott Adams though.

Yeah. TenNapel was also behind the equally wonderful if shortlived animation series Catscratch for Nickelodeon, about the adventures of three cats and their human butler and best friend. Loosely based on TenNapel's graphic novel Gear.

I used to have a lot of time for TenNapel (was even an FB friend of his at one point) - a lot of his comics like Gear, Tommysaurus Rex, Iron West etc are good stuff, and even the likes of Creature Tech and Earthboy Jacobus, with their respective Creationism and general America-Fuck-Yeah-ness are enjoyable. But then, his right-wing Trump-fellating fruitcakery became ever more obvious in his personal writings and his comics work. Sad.

But we'll always have Catscratch.

[Better Midlands]

I liked Dick & Dom too, I was far too old to enjoy "bogies" as much as I did.

[dr beat]

Much love for Pingu and yes the Sooty Show was inspired.

Also - Trevor and Simon, best thing about Going Live. I think they were part of the 80s Manchester comedy scene, and were pretty much given a free rein as long as they kept it clean. 

[tinner777]

Really enjoyed The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and the regular show is fantastic.