When you’re a kid, it’s easy to miss a lot of things while watching your favorite TV shows. While adults pick up on innuendo, jokes , and even some disturbing elements, most of this stuff just goes over kids’ heads.
So, looking back on shows we loved growing up, we start to see that a lot of things were kind of messed up.
Here are 10+ television shows we loved as kids that are actually not appropriate.
*Dexter’s Laboratory*
Dexter’s Laboratory is another Cartoon Network series that had moments not suitable for all audiences.
At one point, Dexter’s butt is shown on screen, for example. Dexter is also overall a rather creepy child, and the family dynamic isn’t positive overall.
*Tom and Jerry*
While many of the entries on this list are of older cartoons, we are starting off with a true classic.
This entire series is a sequence of slapstick comedy against a cat, and the premise is about a cat trying to kill a mouse.
While this might happen in real life, the fact that Jerry is so smart and sentient makes this disturbing.
*Teletubbies*
This is a series for really young children, and many parents have pointed out that it kind of creeps them out.
First of all, why is there a baby that’s also the sun? Also, the Teletubbies themselves are very childlike yet don’t have any adult supervision.
* Cow and Chicken*
The inappropriate nature of this series is made apparent in the title song.
The lyrics go, “Momma had a chicken! Momma had a cow! Dad was proud! He didn’t care how!”
This seems to imply that the human mother was sleeping with farm animals. Yikes.
*Thomas & Friends*
Many people on the internet have noted that this series isn’t just a fantastical world where trains are alive.
There is one particularly disturbing episode where a train named Henry gets placed in a tomb forever as a form of punishment, and there are other disturbing scenes, too.
*Aaahh!!! Real Monsters*
Given the animation style of this series, it’s easy to see that it’s meant to be somewhat creepy.
In a way, it’s like Monsters, Inc. as the three main characters are training to become experts in scaring people. But, because of the animation, it comes off as much scarier.
*The Wild Thornberrys*
The idea of being able to talk to animals is something many children dream about, but there were some messed up things on this show, too.
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Since Eliza Thornberry can talk to animals, she learns that they all have feelings and thoughts on par with humans.
She’s also not allowed to tell anyone her ability, so there’s only so much she can do to help them.
*Looney Tunes*
The characters from Looney Tunes are iconic classics, and people have been watching their antics for generations now.
However, these stories were pretty messed up. They were often rather violent and centered on things like Wile E. Coyote trying to eat Road Runner and Bugs Bunny almost getting shot by a hunter.
*The Ren & Stimpy Show*
There are a lot of elements of this show that weren’t very appropriate for kids.
From the fact that Ren and Stimpy once have to take a bath with an adult couple to all of the animation sequences showing body horror moments.
It’s hard to see how this ever was allowed for children.
*Boy Meets World*
Boy Meets World isn’t necessarily messed up, but it did get aired to a younger audience than it probably should have.
This is especially true in the later seasons including the episode of Cory and Topanga’s honeymoon where a lot of innuendoes are included.
*Rocko’s Modern Life*
It’s not uncommon for children’s media to include innuendo and jokes for adults to pick up on, but Rocko’s Modern Life did this quite a lot.
Just one example is the fact that Rocko’s favorite game was “Spank the Monkey.”
*Adventure Time*
Adventure Time was a series that many adults loved, and this makes sense because it doesn’t seem like its audience is really children.
The main character, Finn, is abandoned by his father for one thing. Plus, the premise that he’s the only human alive after a nuclear apocalypse is pretty intense for kids.
*Pinky and The Brain*
While the fact that the Brain spends all his time trying to take over the world is strange enough, the really screwed up part of this series is the fact that the two main characters are lab experiments.
During the day, the Brain and Pinky are left in the lab to be subject to all manner of experimentation.
*Courage the Cowardly Dog*
There are many Cartoon Network shows that have weird elements, but this series is the creepiest of them all.
Courage spends all of his time protecting his two owners from monsters and aliens, and they never really appreciate him. The mood of the show and the creatures he fights are scary enough to freak out adults, too.
*SpongeBob SquarePants*
SpongeBob might be one of the best-known and most loved cartoons ever, but it definitely doesn’t seem like it was just made for kids.
One thing most children don’t notice is how SpongeBob is basically stuck working a minimum wage job with a horrible, greedy boss. There are also some scenes of somewhat graphic animation with creepy things going on.