The downfall of TGWTG or Channel Awesome

while throwing it all in and going for getting cancelled once and for all – ignoring the oversaturation of nostalgic media in an eternal cycle of remakes where nothing ever truly goes away, I think animaniacs, as a whole, is just not very good, nor is is suited for our time

I see a quote by a nameless former colleague of mine float around a lot as evidence of his cringe approach to comedy, namely that all comedy is rooted in the misery of at least one party, and the trick is to always be “punching down.”

Animaniacs embodies this ethos in a way that I don’t find particularly clever – almost all of the jokes are about how the kids are smarter than the adults in their lives. Almost all of the humor is rooted in the unhappiness of whoever is getting pwned this week

And while that of course draws from its inspiration of the comedy of old Warner Brothers cartoons, it’s also so quintessentially 90’s in that this was a decade where the consequences of media were rarely challenged outside of Tipper Gore putting parental warning stickers on CDs

That sense of humor flew back then in the same way South Park would ten years later; it was a reflection of a smug sense of superiority, but I just don’t think that’s where most viewers are nowadays, except for the ones that want the same old shit from 30 years ago.

I’ve become fascinated with the “cringe culture” that’s popped up around said nameless colleague’s content, and it feels to me rooted in the fact that most viewers now view the the cruel internet humor of the early 2010’s as, at best, unfunny, and at worst harmful

The bugs bunny “clever rapscallion gets one up on The Man” style humor just feels kind of primitive now, in the same way early 2010’s YouTube humor now feels cringe. We’ve moved on, so I suspect people aren’t going to enjoy new animaniacs as much as they remember enjoying the old

anyway, obviously not a big deal, but I’m not looking forward to it and since it’ll probably end up being pretty toothless since most geopolitics will be off limits and I don’t think the comedy has aged well. but maybe they’ll surprise me and have a fresh approach who knows

But let me just put it this way – I think there’s a reason the Animaniacs clips that have endured are the songs and clever plays on words, but not the skits themselves. Hopefully they’ll play to that strength.

Pinky and the Brain was never funny tho *SMOKE BOMB*

So, Lindsay just posted a thread about how Animaniacs was always Bad, Actually™️ and it has the same level of depth and understand of the series as Doug’s review of Sailor Moon.