I find this so funny because one of the most iconic shows of all time is our great meme lord and savior, SpongeBob SquarePants. Those first three seasons still have a legacy of being among the best and most timeless comedies of all time that can be enjoyed by literally anyone. All it ever tried to do was be funny, not “dark” or “adult” or “edgy” and god damn did it do that well.

Comedy seems to have the most staying power while also being the most unappreciated aspect of many things, but particularly of children’s media. And people try to spin it as if a lot of these shows are funny specifically because they were able to sneak naughty jokes past the censors or get away with putting dark comedy in a kid’s show. But being “dark” or having adult jokes isn’t what makes a lot of kid’s media memorable; it’s just that they can be really funny and have great characters. The jokes don’t need to have adult shit to be funny, either.

Like, I don’t love Gravity Falls or The Amazing World of Gumball because they have occasional dark moments or some jokes that would go over kids’ heads; for me the selling point is that the characters are entertaining and the comedy just gels with me.

Even when it comes to shows like Billy and Mandy, which probably cemented my love of horror comedy at a young age, I would say the show was more “so stupid it’s funny” than “dark and gritty” outside of its first season. Like, I’d say it’s less “dark” and more ridiculous than anything to have a Blacula stand-in refuse to suck scorpion poison out of the Grim Reaper because vampires don’t suck, they scrape and lick. Like it’s literally so fucking dumb… Grim is a skeleton, why is he being affected by poison in the first place!? But damn is it funny.