How is humour used in animated children TV shows and have the shows in general become more mature over time?
Matthew May
13009605
ANIM2015
When it comes to humour in animation, especially in animated TV shows, there seems to be a variety of ways one might go about this. In the past there where an abundance of shows that had there humour on the more silly side, of course it’s only natural that there be humour from something silly, but with shows like ‘Tom & Jerry’ and all ‘Hanna Barbera’ cartoons they would elaborate on this by including over the top slapstick and having gag related dialogue being said from one character to another, such as humorous insults or witty phrases.
These could be related back to very early television and films, such as films staring Charlie Chaplin, who is famous for his slapstick in films, actions back then where more important than ever due to films around the time unable to record audio so it would only make sense to over exaggerate actions in a way to convey humour. And it’s this type of humour we would see in shows like ‘Tom & Jerry’ whose main characters don’t talk but can convey humour from their actions, like facial expressions, body gestures or the over the top violence they inflict on each other. Thanks to animation in ‘Tom & Jerry’ they were able to go beyond basic slapstick and inflict damage to each other that in real life could potentially be fatal but in the show characters reactions where played out in humorous ways, such as the character becoming dizzy and seeing stars, giving out a funny yell when they are injured. Because it’s an animation the characters could easily get back up and keep on going even if an anvil landed on their head.
In ‘Hanna Barbera’ shows such as ‘Scoody Doo’ their source of humour did not focus entirely on slapstick humour but also included dialogue with characters portraying humour in that way. Scoody Doo himself would be considered funny with his dialogue due to how he pronounces each word with an ‘R’, and his best friend in the show ‘Shaggy’ is the one that normally say wise quaking jokes, but their actions also have a part in it as well since they are essentially the cowards of the group and humour is shown with them screaming in fright each time they see a ghost and would instantly run in the opposite direction.
In the 90’s shows like ‘Animaniacs’ and ‘Ren & Stimpy’ carried on with slapstick humour and witty dialogue. For both shows each episode was different, different setting with a different scenario which with the help of the characters resulted in hilarious outcomes, but what needs to be taking into consideration is that even though these shows were for a child audience they would every now and then included jokes that would only be noticed by an adult. It was not uncommon for shows around then to include the occasion adult joke that would normally go over the heads on children, only for them to realises as they themselves grew older. ‘Ren & Stimpy’ is a type of show that contains off colour humour, it’s a show that tries to be funny by being dark at times and often becomes adult with sexual innuendoes and often gruesome violence. It’s mature with it’s humour in a sense that at times it hard to believe that it’s a show for children and that many people would find it inappropriate to class it as such.
Censorship has a massive impact on humour with animated shows, being how children shows are meant to target a very young audience, what they could get away with in terms with content and humour needed to be suitable for children. So humour in these shows were dumbed down, they were not as witty as before because they wanted to make sure that their target audience would indeed laugh, shows like ‘Spongebob Square Pants’ who carried on with slapstick humour and contained jokes and gags that would seem to bland for a older audience, they would would be considered terrible shows to watch by more mature audiences since they basically focus on toilet humour, sure they were made to appeal to a young audience but the creators would believe that children would not be smart enough to understand more complex jokes so the humour in the show were dumbed down so mach just to get a cheap laugh from anybody.
So humour in animated shows were designed to fit a particular audience, depending on the age range of the audience would effect how witty, complex and mature the jokes were. Adult shows like ‘Family Guy’ and ‘South Park’ were meant for an adult audience so their humour were often far too mature and inappropriate for children. So jokes would often be around mature elements like sex, drugs, satirical elements on current affairs and any other elements deemed taboo or inappropriate for a younger audience. They would also contain humour that would leave the audience thinking “did they really say that’ because these shows wanted to leave a sting impact and would often focus on recent affairs to do that, either with political debates, global issues or anything that has been big on the news, these would often be to dark for people to make fun of or be used in a satirical sense.
Nowadays some believe that just plain silly children cartoons are dying out, and that people are favouring cartoons that as well as have humorous elements also contain weighted themes, much like seen in more adult shows but on a more tolerable level. It is believed that this is because the creators wanted to attract a mature audience saw well as a younger one. They are trying to appeal to teenagers, thusly getting rid of the stigma that cartoons are just for kids.
If we take into account of shows like ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Legend of Korra’ and ‘Steven Universe. They are shows that aim for a young audience, appealing to children, but what is sup prising is that the writers include heavy story elements that would often not be associated with a children's animated TV show. This is different from the past where the writers included hidden adult jokes because mature elements are not included just for humorous effect but to give a more, deeper and impactful story.
If we take ‘Legend of Korra’ which is in fact a sequel to ‘Legend of Aang- the last Airbender’ which came out few year prior, ‘Korra’ is a first of it’s kind because it can be considered a drama as well as a children’s cartoon. Each season has an over arcing story and each episode is mean to progress the story in that arc, which is different to other cartoons which are episodic, meaning each episode is a different story.
This show contain themes that relate to elements beyond the capabilities of children, the show focuses a lot on political elements and often relationships between characters. It is these elements that attract a mature audience, because it’s a show that doesn’t contain simplistic jokes or a dumbed down story line but a show like ‘Legend of Korra’ has great quality animation, fast pace action scenes, and most importantly themes people could relate to.
Another reason why a mature audience maybe attracted to a show like the ones listed, is that some of the weighted themes a viewer might find related able, take the show ‘Steven Universe’ the titular character has never met his mother and only seen her in pictures and videos and is only able to understand her view the perspective of other people. This could be relatable to people who are in the same situation, either with their mother or father, but this show doesn’t entirely focus on this element because the actual story of the show isn’t about that, but when episodes about Steven’s mother does come into play it is built up by showing not just Steven and how he feels not being able to see him mother but how other characters who have met her are suffering with loss that she is gone. There are other elements that are shown when certain characters are given more character development, such as how certain characters feel insecure about themselves because of where they were born, or how it’s revealed that they are in a same sex relationship. These elements would not have been ideal to show children but are themes that teenagers and young adults could relate with, and mixed in with the show’s humour and it’s silliness that attracts a child audience the age rate of the show increases mean more viewers and the increase popularity of the show.
Nowadays it could be considered that humour in animated TV shows is now being changed from the classic slapstick and silly gags we have seen in the past to humour that tries to coordinate itself with heavy themes in most modern day children animated TV shows. There are still chows can could be related back to the classics, such as ‘Teen Titans GO’ which happens the be a spin off show from it’s more serious predecessor, comparing it to it’s serious predecessor it’s about a group of teenage super heroes from the DC comics, when the original series came out it had combinations with both funny gags as well as serious elements, but the spin off ‘Teen Titans GO’ gets rid of all seriousness and instead becomes a show much like ‘Animaniacs’ where each episode is full of jokes and gags and slapstick that is meant to bring laughter to it’s audience. Though this displeases many of the original fans since most of the character’s personality are changed to fit this new show and everything they loved about the original show is removed.
I believe children animated TV shows in modern times have expanded on the traditional humour he have seen from shows by ‘Hanna Barbera’ and shows like ‘Animaniacs’, of course there are ones that still use the same techniques in humour and in writing but it terms with popularity and what people actually want to watch it seems that shows that have weighted themes and even go beyond what children want to see and take into consideration of the potential of a more mature audience with teenagers and young adults, shows are being created to combine an even amount of both funny and seriousness, to attract the attentions of little children and keep older audiences invested and make the show seem a lot smarter than what the stigma of children animated TV shows that people often associate them with, which is that children’s cartoons are nothing but dumb shows if watered down humour and that their only intention is to get cheap laughs out of children. As it’s been clear, creators of recent shows have developed entertainment that even though can be shown to young children but even if the parents of these children are present they themselves could also enjoy the humour and story, making the show appeal to a greater audience than just one particular group.
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