I've recently rediscovered the cartoon series Animaniacs. I was a massive fan of this show as a kid, so I was very excited to discover that like all good (and otherwise) things, there are a bunch of videos of it on Youtube. After watching a few of these as an adult though, I can't help but feel there was more going on in these cartoons than I realised as a child. Here's a video with a few examples of what I mean:
Yeah. Somehow I get the feeling that jokes like these wouldn't make it past the censors these days, and if they did the production company would immediately be lynched by the combined forces of Mumsnet and the Daily Mail. To be honest, I'm amazed some of these ("Finger Prince") were ever broadcast at all. And yet, for all the shock factor we feel at the idea of children being exposed to this kind of filth (helpfully highlighted by Yakko's cheerful "Goodnight everybody!" so you know you've missed something), I would submit that it hasn't done me any harm, and that I was able to continue my childhood blissfully unaware that I'd even seen anything wrong. What's more, I now get to re-watch some very well-written cartoons (also something of a rare breed these days) in the knowledge that I'm getting more out of them as an adult than I ever did as a child. The modern obsession with sanitising the lives of our children will deprive the next generation of the fun I've been experiencing over the last few days, and I think that's a real shame.
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