Cartoons Are Adult Animated Sitcoms/Series inherently flawed?

[Ikagura]

I don't care for the core but constant pop culture references get on my nerve for some reason

When it's a recent pop culture reference it will make the show age worse and if it's an old one they often do some of the most mainstream references just so most of the audience would get it... a callback to an obscure movie or show would be daring at least...

 

[Moreno909]

Mhm, the more grotesque the better :p
That's still all fiction

South Park, Simpsons, Family Guy, etc are not my experience at all, but I also grew up on much worse stuff on the genre (plus "aimed at adults") like this:

For the bad and for the good.

Fudêncio is amazing

Post automatically merged: May 24, 2026

When it's a recent pop culture reference it will make the show age worse and if it's an old one they often do some of the most mainstream references just so most of the audience would get it... a callback to an obscure movie or show would be daring at least...

My impression when a show is constantly making references is that the writer lacks creativity and confidence in their own work, and that’s why they resort to ironic references to other works.
The Vamp Killer comic I read has a lot of that problem

 

[Ikagura]

My impression when a show is constantly making references is that the writer lacks creativity and confidence in their own work, and that’s why they resort to ironic references to other works.
The Vamp Killer comic I read has a lot of that problem

I forgot what this comic was sorry.

As for pop culture I noticed how awkwardly it was done like when Rick was making a whole sentence about the szechuan sauce for the Mulan movie promo (when an actually serious event was happening in the meantime) which people misunderstood and a random reference to the Dreamcast which had nothing to do with the plot nor the joke is really jarring...

I also feel like dramatic moments are kind of ruined because people largely prefer to repeat the same jokes over and over and the actual series also goes even more in that direction that it kills any stakes or any actual subplot...

 

[Moreno909]

I forgot what this comic was sorry.

As for pop culture I noticed how awkwardly it was done like when Rick was making a whole sentence about the szechuan sauce for the Mulan movie promo (when an actually serious event was happening in the meantime) which people misunderstood and a random reference to the Dreamcast which had nothing to do with the plot nor the joke is really jarring...

I also feel like dramatic moments are kind of ruined because people largely prefer to repeat the same jokes over and over and the actual series also goes even more in that direction that it kills any stakes or any actual subplot...

I meant Vampblade.

But this comic makes the same mistakes you just mentioned: too many references and jokes at moments that could be dramatic.

 

[Ikagura]

I meant Vampblade.

But this comic makes the same mistakes you just mentioned: too many references and jokes at moments that could be dramatic.

People often say it's Whedon's fault and while I don't fully agree (it's partly because of the zeitgeist and pop cultural references have been done way before Buffy was a thing) I can see that some writers are assuming that making a pop cultural reference for a joke will always work...

It could work for a bunch of teenagers or young characters that were often on TV (or the computer for the more recent series) not for adult characters...

On a side note I've watched Inside Job and while I liked it I found it jarring when they did cultural references for the sake of it... Maybe except

Spoiler

that one episode where they're in a small town stuck in the 80's and Reagan was ignorant about 80's movies so she watched them all at once then made a ton of references.

The swearing was also annoying because it got overdone imo...

And I've continued with Common Side Effect which is more serious and while there are some swearing (from a character being angry or surprised) they're still uncommon enough.

 

[Mechablade-X]

I think Primal from the creator of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Lab is a better animated show for older audiences that is not the typical shows you think of.

 

[Ikagura]

I think Primal from the creator of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Lab is a better animated show for older audiences that is not the typical shows you think of.

I've seen several short scenes from this show. It's in my "to watch" list.

Thanks for telling me it's made by Samurai Jack's creator by the way.

 

[BigTony]

Most of them suck especially nowadays but I think early adult swim stuff was good shows like Space Ghost, Venture Brothers, and Sea lab 2021 were great. I feel like a lot of cartoon writers are just shitty obnoxious people that want respect that they don't really deserve shows like Rick and Morty, mordern South Park and Bojack Horseman are great examples of this.
The only show that's still going that I still consistently enjoy is American Dad it's not trying to prove anything it's just entertaining.

 

[Ikagura]

And I've continued with Common Side Effect which is more serious and while there are some swearing (from a character being angry or surprised) they're still uncommon enough.

When I saw the first episode I was almost appalled by the character design (which has big heads like chibis while retaining some realism which gives some uncanny vibes).

It's not "ugly" compared to many of them but you can see what I mean

I also dislike how Adult Animation are often associated with "fugly art style" and "bare minimal animation" compared to "kid shows" that may have a more creative look and a smoother animation.

I do agree that even kid animation have the flaw of having the "bean mouth" trend since the 2010's but I can pardon it if the characters are unique looking (like Gumball or the gems from Steven Universe).

 

[NeonKnights]

Idk, I thought Dr. Katz and Home Movies were pretty good.
As far as anything not anime, the last adult animation I watched was "The Red Turtle" and that was some time ago.

 

[BrawlMan]

Not inherently flawed, but the longer most stay on, the less interesting or more aggravating and boring they get. It's why I can't stand later seasons of Family Guy, Simpsons, South Park, and Rick & Morty especially. They either rely too much on pop culture, spinning the same characters over and over again without them growing/resetting them, or just go extra on hard on the edge lord/"fart sniffing nihilism" shit, and think that's all they need to be "smart and witty". I tend to not bother with most animated comedies from the West, because they're either just copying SP or R&M whole sale (thankfully, the few R&M clones pretty much died off fast, or went into their own direction), or way past their prime. Say what you will about Smiling Friends, but at least the creator of the show did not want it milked and did not want another case of character developing for the worst or have character derailment and bullshit retconning.

Before anyone brings up Archer, it suffered similar problems later in the show's life. Every time the show changed its name, the quality dropped, and certain characters like Lana can fuck off. I know I stopped caring when the first name changed happened, and they went to Miami. It was nothing more than dumb gimmick after dumb gimmick.

I tend to gravitate towards animated action shows from the West, because they either ironically have better story telling/writing compared to most sitcoms, and don't take themselves too seriously, or know how to have fun without being overly preachy, or acting as if violence/nihilism is the only answer. Some of these shows can get dark, but they don't self-indulge, nor act as if they have all the answers.

Most of them suck especially nowadays but I think early adult swim stuff was good shows like Space Ghost, Venture Brothers, and Sea lab 2021 were great. I feel like a lot of cartoon writers are just shitty obnoxious people that want respect that they don't really deserve shows like Rick and Morty, mordern South Park and Bojack Horseman are great examples of this.
The only show that's still going that I still consistently enjoy is American Dad it's not trying to prove anything it's just entertaining.

The early adult swim days had its ups and downs, but most of the adult comedies from the start actually cared about writing more than shock/gore humor, or learned to lean into the absurdness and weird. Though this got worse, and started to become problem post Robot Chicken.

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

Culture has a bad habit of over correcting for one extreme with another, as what is subversive and post modern becomes the modern status quo. Animation in the United States was stigmatized as being a lower for of art for children and weirdos. I think this was especially true during the 80's when cartoons being used as toy ads were being cranked out in greater quantities and far more blatantly. Couple that with sitcoms often being very tame to appeal to network television, and a growing number of youth who want something counter culture, and you have a breeding ground for something designed to be contrarian. The Simpsons was a step in this direction, being a subversion of sitcom and animation tropes while poking fun at American culture, as if to say "real life isn't as perfect or clean as Full House or the Waltons. Get over it."

This in itself was already pretty subversive, but it didn't take long for the still semi family friendly Simpsons to become the new mainstream. I think that's when the new breed of animated sitcom appeared in the 90's that was more blatantly shocking and vulgar, as if the writers were telling the world "Oh you think animation is for kids? You're letting your kids watch the Simpsons because that's still too friendly for you? SUCK MUH DICK!!!!!!!! HOWS THIS FOR A KID SHOW YOU DUMB MOTHER FUCKER!!! SHOVE A CACTUS UP YOUR GOD DAMN PUSSY!!!" So we get shows that are trying their best to be full of gore, cursing, sex, everything that would mark something as rated R in an attempt to be subversive of what is expected of animation.

But that too eventually became pretty mainstream, as most people don't really find South Park or Family Guy that offensive anymore despite what internet rage baiters might have you believe. Plenty of people find those shows funny and sometimes clever in their critiques of culture, but they're still pretty low brow. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but it didn't help gain animation more prestige.

Fast forward to the 2020's, anime has filled the role that American cartoons don't tend to occupy as much and has gone from being seen as for weirdos in the 90's and 2000's to gradually becoming mainstream. Many anime are simply telling stories the way a well written movie or television series might, but with the advantages of animation, rather than trying really hard to prove how for kids or not for kids it is. We're also seeing a gradual rise of western animation, especially from indie studios like Glitch productions, that also fall in this in between space of prioritizing art direction over hard demographics, leaving the latter to the marketing department.

About fucking time.

 

[WitchDetective]

What I think has happened is that adult comedy has become a market that has a seriously waning demand and has creators that instead of choosing to make new and refreshing series, choose to make the same tired show they did before but with a new cast or art style. If you peruse Netflix you'll find the same breed of show right after another. Adult animated sitcom comedy show with lots of profanity and shock humor built into almost every line because they think that if they curse enough, it'll amount to a joke or offend. The reason they're able to do this is because Netflix has little to no censorship and actually getting a show on there seems comparably easier to TV. Examples could be Brickleberry, Paradise MD, Hoops, and The Prince. These all feel like they were made in a lab because they probably were in the sense of using data from audience screenings to make the same show over and over again for marketability.

 

[DieDieDanmakuDoll]

The concept of an adult animated sitcom isn't the problem so much as the executives who practically run on a mandate that everything must copy the big three or no greenlight. the few adult sitcoms cartoons like god the devil and bob were pretty good because they could have their own identity and tackling of adult topics is what i'm saying and for some reason even after most adult sitcom cartoons floppe the execs don't get the audience want something different from family guy. at this rate it isn't even family guy's fault as much as the bizarre deafness to what audiences been saying for almost as long as youtube existed and every adult sitcomesque cartoon that did something different like smiling friends actually did take off. the real mystery are why the execs won't move an inch on this since money is hardly an incentive when this strategy's rate has proven majorly unsuccesful.

 

[DjQuick2008]

take this lol

 

[dizzypixel]

yep its all just doomer bait for people who just traumadump and suicidebait if they don't the validation they are looking for honestly thats what all western adult cartoons really are honestly for nihlistic doomers by nihlistic doomers.