Adult Cartoons Over the Years

That would mean cartoons with mature, R Rated content. Such an assessment is not an accurate one because not all adult cartoons are bawdy. Rather, they simply employ an approach that makes them appealing to adults as well as children.

Now, there are cartoons and animated series which are decidedly for adult audiences South Park would be an obvious example of this.

• The medium may be an animated one but the concept of the program is assuredly not for young audiences.
• In many ways, South Park builds upon the "semi bad taste" humor that debuted in the 1990s with BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD.
• This is not to say either program were banal. They simply took a more adult oriented approach and sought an older audience.

You could say that the Simpsons was the series that launched the return of adult cartoons to the air.

• Those that remember the history of the program realize its origins were born of the somewhat forgotten 1980's series THE TRACY ULMAN SHOW.
• Originally presents as snippets on her program, the characters of The Simpsons moved on to their own program after Ulman's program's demise.
• To say THE SIMPSONS proved to be more popular than the Ulman show would be an understatement of massive proportions.
• THE SIMPSONS still enjoys a high level of popularity to this very day and such popularity also contributes to the success of KING OF THE HILL which also holds a place in the history of adult cartoons.

The concept of anime and cartoons for adults is nothing new.

In fact, you could trace the origins easily to the silent era and the early talkies. The character of Betty Boop was notoriously ribald for her day although there was a certain sense of subtlety associated with her cartoons.

• In many ways, the cartoons contained mostly slapstick humor for the kids and then added some over the top humor for the parents that may have accompanied the young ones to the show.

Such an approach was common in many of the Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s.

• Many of these cartoons - while definitely not classified as adult cartoons - would weave in a lot of "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" humor for the older attendees of screenings.
• Perhaps this is why so many adults will continue to watch Warner Bros cartoons while those made by Disney become quickly forgotten.

In the 1960s, the Flinstones held the mantle as the last prime time cartoon television series before THE SIMPSONS debuted. And yes, much of the Flinstones' humor drew from popular culture.

• So large was the adult audience for THE Flinstones that it was sponsored by Winston Cigarettes. However, the humor of this program while charming did not have the same depth of THE SIMPSONS which leads the program to be a bit more dated.
• Subsequent incarnations of Flintstones cartoons were strictly aimed at kids.

Everyone likes to watch adult cartoons over the years would indicate the audience for adults is somewhat small.
• In some ways, that is good because it promotes a high level of quality as opposed to the oversaturation of the market. And quality is always better than quantity.

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