Creepy Cartoons and Kid's Shows!

So a friend and I were talking about cartoons we watched growing up. We were 90's kids so that meant we saw the inception of Nickolodeon, The Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. Those were the days!

We got on the subject of how new networks ended up airing just whatever they could because they didn't have a lot of original content yet.

This was our first exposure to a lot of the classics, Loony Tunes, Hanna Barbara etc.

But then our conversation took a spooky turn when we got into what cartoons scarred us for life due to their indiscernible creep factor.

I give you Gumby.



Man this was some freaky stuff for me! It was like watching a trippy horror movie moreso than a cartoon for children.

Gumby was always getting into weird and dangerous situations. He usually ended up with monstrous clay creatures wanting to maim him for no apparent reason. He really got put through the wringer a lot. I guess that's what you have to do with clay! But it affected me in a weird way.

Combine all the weird and malevolent situations and wanton destruction shown in animated clay violence, along with the usually bizarre sound effects and foreboding music, and you have pure nightmare fuel!

Even looking up examples to illustrate for this thread, I came across a scene of Pokey getting utterly flattened by a rolling pin and Gumby racing to grab his friend's lifeless corpse--racing becauase that pin was still rolling around!

Jeez! What a show!



What cartoons or kid's shows left you feeling disturbed?






Soulless robots running amok beep boop destroy!


Pokey gets flattened without remorse


I'm just kidding, I don't have any friends

Despite being a massive R.L Stine fan and having all the Goosebumps & Fear Street books he wrote, the Goosebumps TV show was, in hindsight, creepy AF to watch. That, Are You Afraid of the Dark & Ghostwriter were my favorite shows as a kid in the 90's, if not a little cheesy.

My oldest found Goosebumps on Netflix and...well...it's way creepier than I remember, and not in the good kind of spooky way, I'm just not sure how to categorize it because nothing quite fits.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

1979 UK version of similar stuff. I loved it, I was 8.
I still like it.

Gumby
Johnny Quest
Space Ghost
The Herculoids (now that was a strange one)
Mr.Magoo

All good....

a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

I think the creepiest kid thing the UK churned out was Jigsaw. I stumbled on clips on YT a while back, that requires mental bleach.

Anyone remember these guys?

a reply to: Nyiah

LOL! I'd forgotten Noseybonk. How the time flies...


It does seem somewhat penile now. Ahem...as a child you view things differently I guess. Bonk can mean sex in British slang. Don't get me started on Captain Pugwash!

a reply to: Disenchanted1

I don't think that was aimed at kids though was it? Wasn't it part of Adult Swim or something?

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: Disenchanted1

I don't think that was aimed at kids though was it? Wasn't it part of Adult Swim or something?

Your post is titled creepy cartoons & kids shows. I remember this from a show called AOTS Attack of the show).

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha


Check out "Queer Kid Stuff" on YouTube! Want to talk creepy?

Watership Down.

So many people watch it thinking it'll be this cute show about fluffy bunnies, and then there is blood and death and this monster rabbit tearing out throats!

Scars people for life.

It's awesome.

originally posted by: Gothmog
Gumby
Johnny Quest
Space Ghost
the Herculoids
Mr.Magoo

All good....

Herculoids was indeed strange.

the late 60s Fantastic Four was another. very adult in music and plot. really weird stuff going on. i have a vague memory of some guy turning himself into a sea monster with some gmo ray and finding some huge whale with arms--he called it a leviathan or something--and he made it rise up and play Godzilla in the city.

the same era Spiderman. the one with the action-is-his-reward theme. that had some strange stuff.

a reply to: ElGoobero

A lot of the old Hanna Barbara stuff looked like it came straight out of an acid trip when you get right down to it.

a reply to: ketsuko

Never heard of it. But I think I found it in full on youtube.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: ElGoobero

A lot of the old Hanna Barbara stuff looked like it came straight out of an acid trip when you get right down to it.

What, Like Jabber Jaw?

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: ElGoobero

A lot of the old Hanna Barbara stuff looked like it came straight out of an acid trip when you get right down to it.

What, Like Jabber Jaw?

Jabber Jaws
Speed Buggy
Captain Caveman
Josie and the Pussycats
Hair Bear
Great Grape Ape
Laff Olympics

So many ...

Space Ghost. Yeah, he's some kind of Intergalactic cop like a Green Lantern or some #...BUT he prefers to travel around with a couple of young teens and their space monkey while seeking out evil.

Herculoids...
Man, I don't have enough weed.
Dad and son wear loincloths, Mom and sis wear little else on Planet Australia (since everything wants to kill them), hanging with strange rock apes, a flying dragon thing, a six legged rhino that shoots rocks out its horn, and Gloop and Gleep...best left indescribed.


It took me until I was an adult to get that Huckleberry Hound was a gay Southern gentleman.
But then again, I was also 37 when my now gf explained to me why Bugs Bunny using the term "cotton picking hands" was racist.

oh gawd

originally posted by: ketsuko
Watership Down.

So many people watch it thinking it'll be this cute show about fluffy bunnies, and then there is blood and death and this monster rabbit tearing out throats!

Scars people for life.

It's awesome.

Incredible movie.
One of the better book to movie adaptations.

Someone needs to do Animal Farm now that technology and animation are sufficient to do it justice.

I had a love hate relationship with Ren and Stimpy and also Rocko's Modern Life.

-Alee