"You watch that?! It's a kiddy cartoon!"

[HYHYBT]

This seems appropriate here:

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

[Andara Bledin]

....Mongo...I think I love you. Is that weird to say?

Not at all. That was a brilliant post.

My mother was one of the older generation that never stopped playing. She watches cartoons, plays video games, and enjoys toys just as much as my brother and I do, and as a result, neither of us were raised with the expectation that being an "adult" meant that you had to have some pointless bias against anything that was enjoyed when one wasn't.

^-.-^

[firecat88]

....Mongo...I think I love you. Is that weird to say?

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

One of the things that I've noticed is that we are living in a series of generations that have learned that just because we grow up and take on more and more responsibilities in our adult lives, we DO NOT have to give up childish things.

Take a look at the stereotype of the father figure from the 1950's. This is a stereotype that lasted on sitcoms as far as the early 1980's and possibly the '90's in some rare occasions.

But you have this stereotype of the father coming home, sitting down with the news paper and a pipe, eating dinner. maybe playing catch with his male child and/or ignoring his female child (since as a man he obviously can not relate and therefore passes her off to the mother), spouts off some parental advice and then goes to bed.

This is an image that many people grew up with and this is how they thought their lives should be. These are often times the people who look at us and say "That's something a child does. A grown adult doing that. For shame!"

But they are also the people who are unhappy with their lives since as far as they are programmed, the only joy in life is to work their asses off at a job they barely tolerate until they're old enough to retire, spend a few years fishing, and end up in God's Waiting room hoping their children remember to visit once before they snuff it and that the nursing staff doesn't put too many cigarette burns in their arms out of spite.

Well maybe not that bad, but you get the point.

But more and more you're finding people born in the '60's and later (with a number of more enlightened people born earlier on also included) that managed to realize that we DON'T HAVE to give up the things that gave us joy simply because we're adults.

Yes we have families to support. Yes we have jobs we must do to earn money. Yes we have to pay taxes. But we have realized that there is nothing that is stopping us from having fun. We can still watch cartoons. We can still futz around with Lego's. We can still invite friends over and watch bad movies and poke fun at them ala MST3K style. We can still whip out the gaming console du jour and play games. We can invite over the nerd herd and play Dungeons and Dragons.

Yes we have our responsibilities as adults, but gorramit we don't have to drive ourselves into drinking or prescriptions of valium. We can still PLAY.

And that is no bad thing.

[lordlundar]

Of course, that's now bringing up the mental image of a vampire Spidey feeding on the crooks like an actual spider instead of leaving them for the cops to arrest. I don't know whether that would be an awesome comic book or a horrifying one.

Well, there was the man spider story. That came pretty close.

[Ipecac Drano]

Search for SMBC theater - they do a load of skits. That one's just a guest one they did for others.

Some good stuff.

Rapscallion

I liked what I had seen!

[Rapscallion]

Search for SMBC theater - they do a load of skits. That one's just a guest one they did for others.

Some good stuff.

Rapscallion

[Ipecac Drano]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZLd_tSRIBE

Those poor guys were just born in the wrong decade.


I can still find comfort in my 1970s upbringing.

[Rapscallion]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZLd_tSRIBE

Rapscallion

[Teysa]

I don't watch cartoons all the time, but sometimes they're just fun. I agree on the books too. Every one in a while, I like to go back and reread a childhood favorite. Many times, I appreciate them more as an adult.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I couldn't agree more; I own a lot of books aimed at children. I loved them as a kid; why should I stop reading them just cuz I'm now a grownup?

[firecat88]

I will happily admit that I'm an avid cartoon watcher. I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, Invader Zim, Spongebob, and Phineas & Ferb (and MLP:FiM. I will admit, I love that show). However, I'm just as happy watching Myth Busters, Cash Cab, Mystery Diagnosis, Doctor Who, and Supernatural as I am watching those. I never really get told 'That's a kiddy show!' about the cartoons I watch, though, because I'm careful to watch those when no one's around so I don't *have to* hear that.

The criticism I've received is for books I read. My taste in books is as random as my taste in TV shows. One week, I'm reading Percy Jackson, the next I'm reading Dresden Files, the next I'm nose-deep in a romance novel. One particular incident that happened in my first year of college comes to mind, though.

I had run out of books that I wanted to read one week, so I just grabbed the closest one I could find. It happened to be my favorite book from the My Name Is America series. Thinking nothing of it, I simply take it to school with me and pop it open throughout the day. My last class of the day was art, and I had plenty of time to kill, so I opened it up to keep reading. At one point, I was approached by a girl in the class. She and I had never spoken before this, and haven't spoken since.

Her: *in the snottiest tone possible* Uh...you realize that book's for kids, right?
Me: Yeah, and?
Her: It's for children.
Me: I like it, so I'm reading it.
Her: *looks at me like I've got three heads and retreats to her table*
Me: *keeps reading until class starts*

[HYHYBT]

I think that after watching the first episode of Elfen Lied, where several people get torn apart in a matter of minutes, not to mention the nudity, they'd change their mind.

Well, that depends on who you're talking about. Some people would say "oh, I guess not all cartoons are for kids after all," and others would instead go with "What deranged sicko would make such awful stuff for children!"

(Surely somewhere in the history of Spider-man there's been a villain that started off something like that. Eat the bad guys... then one day, there aren't any around when you get hungry... if not in Spider-Man then I know it's been done somewhere. Probably several times.)

[Ipecac Drano]

If done by the right writer, I'd have to concur.

I might give it a shot. I have written and illustrated a children's book.

[Andara Bledin]

I disagree. If entertainment does not provide stimulation, why do people not relax by just staring into space?

Have you ever just stared into space? It's doesn't allow you to not be stimulated as much as cause you to stimulate yourself. Most people can't meditate without training.

The idea of empty, mindless cartoons as an escape from intellectual stimulation is not false. They serve as a distraction from higher thought. Bright colors, loud noises, and sometimes funny, juvenile situations... all help keep the intellect working at minimal levels.

Let's go with "awesome".

If done by the right writer, I'd have to concur.

^-.-^