Cartoons Were NEVER Made for Kids.. 

Adult Swim was genius because right after Cartoon Network they would play King of the Hill. An adult show that was for adults but wasn’t nearly as explicit compared to other shows. Kinda like the Simpsons. It was a perfect transition from kids shows to adult shows because it basically gave Parents an hour to tell their kids to change the channel before Family Guy came on.

You've completely transformed your channel man, you've broadened your audience while still being successful and doing what you love, respect. (Especially with videos like these talking about tv and movies)

You forgot about Toonami. Which aired right when kids got out of school and fundamentally introduced japanese Anime to us. So when adult swim started airing anime it helped blow the whole channel up on adult swim. The toonami run is one of my fondest memories.

My father used to watch cartoons with me when I was a kid. He would get up early on Saturday morning after a week at work

Re-watching spongebob nowadays is quite the experience because you start to pick up on so many things you missed as a kid

I remember when I was young, my mom would NEVER let us watch Adult Swim but one night I convinced my grandpa to let me watch it when I was staying the night and we laughed so hard to an episode of family guy together it became a regular thing. I would be begging to stay the night with him all the time so we could watch the forbidden cartoons.

Censorship is the dumbest shit in existence today. Kids shouldn't be subjected to graphic images or verbal assault on TV, but they can get unlimited access online.....smh

You failed to mention a timeless classic. Samurai Jack

As a teen back in the day watching AS was my time. No lights, everyone is asleep, and I get to watch adult cartoons. It's also when I discovered G4and shows like Cinematech: Nocturnal Emissions and Spike TV. Mtv really pushed much of my lowbrow humor into my adult life. I still miss that feeling of watching something late at night knowing I wasn't supposed to. I feel that apart of my childhood is now gone.

I remember a lot of episodes of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Flapjack, Chowder, Amazing World of Gumball, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, and Code Name Kids Next Door having very adult material which made me hesitate watching those shows, but they definitely appeal to me more now that I’m older. I would love if Cartoon Network created a steaming platform with Adult Swim but I think they have a deal to stream with HBO Max atm and I don’t want to pay for content I’m not going to watch

Toonami definitely opened the door for a generation to dive into Japanese cartoons

"Bluey" is a children's cartoon that is fun to watch as an adult (relatable, with a little innuendo mixed in occasionally)

*Its crazy to me cos my parents are into different things* My mother is into stuff like “LOTR” and “Harry Potter” and my Dad is into stuff like “Star Trek” “Star Wars” and pretty much anything Sci-Fi.. I tell my mother “Oh if you like this - you’ll probably love Arcane” and the response is always “Why would I watch a cartoon?” But my Dad literally just watched anything and I remember him saying “Those Clone Wars cartoons were great - did you see those when they were on TV” I think animation just gets shit on by association with kids movies and that’s crazy to me.

Never thought I'd hear the day where someone says Billy and Mandy was soft cause it was anything but that. 💀💀💀

Omg I never really realized how iconic the second wave of Cartoon Network cartoons were. Regular show, gumball, flapjack, apple and onion ughhhh bangers

Big miss that Toonami wasn’t at least mentioned. Bringing over the animation from Japan, that didn’t really have a age demographic, was something special at the time. You could be any age and enjoy Dragon Ball or Gundam Wing and YuYu Hakusho.

As a 90s baby, I'm thankful that Ted Turner introduced me to a ton of old cartoons that I probably would never have seen if it wasn't for him. Growing up to find out that Scooby-Doo and Jonny Quest were as old as my mom was mind blowing lol

As a GenXer, they had to have a lot of cartoons in the '70s and '80s because our parents were never home before and after school and we needed a babysitter.

I still remember a line from the Looney Tunes episode with Babbit and Catstello where Babbit says "Give me the bird!" and Catstello states "If the Hayes office would let me, I'd give him the bird!"

I still rewatch animated shows that I used to watch when I was younger, (dexters lab, courage, regular show, adventure time, gravity falls,etc) when I look back at cartoons it brings me back to my childhood

I remember using the "cartoons are for kids" way of thinking to trick my parents into letting me watch certain shows. My cousin and I also used that for the Summer holidays when we found out that cool anime shows were shown past 10 pm too ( on some German tv channels). We had a lot of fun watching those shows. Part of why it worked was also the fact we used to watch anime on a daily basis so all I had to say was " it's like the shows we watch during the day" and it worked every time.

Where is ben 10 in all this history

The golden era of cartoons actually ended in the 2000s I thoroughly enjoyed my child years

As a 90’s kid, this is basically a synopsis of 80% of what I watched from my youth, through my teens, and into adulthood, to today. I gotta say, it was an awesome time to be growing up, and it has definitely shaped my interests and humor. Now all those old shows are so spread out across multiple streaming services that it’s impossible to just turn on the tv and watch such a great selection. Instead you need half a dozen different subscriptions, and you don’t get the same variety that we used to, it’s more a binge style of a couple shows at a time. I hardly ever watch tv anymore, and when I want to watch either a new or old show I usually just find where I can watch it, get the subscription for a month, and binge it before the letting the subscription lapse. I’m kinda surprised you didn’t mention WB but I guess they were much more kid friendly and fit less with the theme you were going for, even though they had stuff like Animaniacs which definitely had adult humor subtly placed where kids wouldn’t get it.

the grind has not stopped, holy shit pat just how can you pump out this much amazing content. your growth has been absolutely insane, hope you're doing good!

I'm nearly 40 years old now. But I remember back to my mum being horrified and researching up "Adult Swim" thinking I was watching pornography or something like it. She never stopped being offended by the term, adult swim. I think it's genius and for decades I've tried to explain it to her.

The entire "Betty Boop" image was stolen from a black woman by the name of Baby Esther who never was given any compensation let alone acknowledgment.

I think animation is at its peak when its aimed at a teen audience like regular show. Not to much in any way from kids to adults, perfectly balanced and there's something for everyone.

I love your videos man. Like I’m fully addicted 🤦‍♂️

20:05 "These are shows you escape into" Never did a quote feel so real to describe how Adult Swim was. It really felt like some world that my family didn't know about, my friends didn't know about, you just tuned in and were in this world of your own. Like discovering new lands that no one else around you had. This was life changing for a misfit nerd like myself XD

This was a great video. It speaks volumes that you were able to cover so much ground in just 20 minutes

I studied Multimedia design between 2016 and 2018 , and we had an animation module as well. I have to say that this video could've definitely made the entire course way more fun and informative, the research in this video is remarkably accurate.

My aunt used to judge me for watching cartoons. Even when her kids would catch me watching them they'll judge me for it lol. When you think about it, most kids don't even like cartoons since we're living in a more digital world. All they wanna watch is tiktok and youtube videos. I also find it weird whenever people get judged for wearing shirts of cartoon characters but people don't bat an eye when people wear sports shirts or shirts of athletes ? Why isn't it considered "childish" when people are into sports ? People started off playing sports as kids yet it's socially acceptable for them to be into them as an adult. I love live action shows, but cartoons just hit different for me. I love shows like rugrats, scooby-doo, looney tunes, ed edd n eddy, the powerpuff girls, johnny bravo, american dragon jake long, foster's home for imaginary friends, hi hi puffy ami yumi, kim possible, tiny toon adventures, animaniacs, life as a teenage robot, the boondocks, south park, lastman, spongebob, the fairly oddparents, drawn together, danny phantom, class of 3000, totally spies, teen titans, jimmy neutron, the fairly oddparents, dexter's laboratory, jackie chan adventures, and the proud family.

The Animaniacs did a great job of making a kids show that was still very fun for adults to watch...many little innuendos and adult jokes throughout the entire thing.

I was born in 1990 and its nice to have relived all this. I remember having to choose between Nick and Cartoon Network when we got our TV provider setup. I picked Cartoon Network, I believe it was around 1996 and all those new cartoons were coming out. I remember Adult Swim coming out, watching Inuyasha before bed. I think Home Movies came on after and I wasn't a huge fav when I was younger, so that show would make me fall asleep. Waking up at 2am to Girls Gone Wild commercials. Good times.

You explained that so well and it was just nostalgia the whole time. Thank you for all of you work!

gotta give tracey ullman her props for letting matt include the simpsons as shorts on her show before they made a full episode for fox. i remember watching them on her show and being SO excited when they finally had their own. love your channel, keep hitting us with interesting content!

Adult Swim was so formative for me growing up, I obviously loved CN but at night I felt like I was watching something I shouldn’t be watching. Now anime is one of my favorite forms of media thanks to shows like Cowboy Bebop and Inyuasha.

Some of the best memories I have of my dad were watching Ren and Stimpy, South Park, the Simpsons and family guy. I was in elementary school and it was really fun for me to be watching these adult humor cartoons with him. My grandparents scolded him for letting me watch these raunchy cartoons so it was kind of a cool rebellious time with me and my dad staying up late on a school night to watch adult swim together. Seeing these cartoons will always make me think of my dad and smile. I miss him a lot.

You forgot to mention Fritz the cat from 1972 which was one of the most iconic adult animated movie at the time.

Gotta add in some corrections: Adult Swim didn't introduce the US to anime (it definitely introduced us to Cowboy Bebop). There was an already existing, anime-heavy block of time on Cartoon Network called Toonami, which existed since the mid-90's. Toonami also aired many Gundam shows, including Gundam Wing, G-Gundam, and Mobile Suit Gundam. But also aired Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo!, and more. AND on top of that, Toonami had a block late at night called "Midnight Run" where they would air, usually uncensored episodes of Gundam Wing.

I love cartoons. Watched them as a kid and still watch them into my 40s.

I was a 90s kid (born 1984) when I was really into toons. I still watch them now and me and my friends quote random lines from stuff like Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Lab so often it is insane. God knows how many times we have just randomly sent voice text saying 'Ommelette du fromage!'.

When i was probably 10 years old i had my barber cut Bart Simpsons face in the back of my head with my fade, i was the coolest kid in my town for about 2 weeks. It might not have been made exclusively for kids but we loved it too, Bart was the coolest.

Fun fact: every cartoon I’ve seen had adult jokes that I was aware of

Ngl, I think we can have more adult animations in the streaming world. As you said, with streaming apps, there are some bound to only produce one type of content, but I’ve also heard from many folks that there is too many streaming apps so they don’t bother with it. If anything, we’ll just have to see where the future of tv and these streaming apps go before we can settle on something for longevity.

Old cartoons were crazy better cause people didnt care. Now parents are just over protective, and the worse part is they got a reason to be. Well not mine, mine are just 90s and 20s parents mixed together

'Liquid Television' was the absolutely greatest non-music production that MTV ever showed! Why haven't we gotten a complete series release??!!

I remember my mom always telling me when I was a kid “Hey they didn’t make Looney Tunes for you, they made it for me… they just made it to distract you” haha 😂

The adult swim bumps were special because it made it personal. You could imagine whoever you wanted speaking to you through the tv almost mocking you for watching adult swim. It felt like you were joking around with your friend in between shows. In the same sense they were also so laid back that it felt natural whenever they came on in between the chaotic shows that were airing.

The flapper character came out in the 20s and betty boop was almost an anthropomorphic poodle

I'm watching from Australia 🇦🇺 . As well as alot of the major cartoons mentioned in this video , I remember watching " Drawn Together " about 20 something years ago ( in my 20s ) . It was unashamedly ( very ) adult humour . The world could do with it being brought back . ♑️✍️🇸🇯🇦🇺

For me, King of the Hill is the most impactful adult oriented cartoon. So many amazing comedy moments, and basically a step by step guide on how to live your life financially responsibly. The way all of the characters play off of each other, and the way Arlen feels so real and grounded was awesome. Not to mention I’ve lived in Texas my whole life so a lot of the day to day moments are really relatable to me.

I remember sneaking to watch adult swim and cartoon network because I was scared my mom would be mad. But as I got older me and her watched it together lol. It did take me a while to understand the adult jokes.

The fact you made a 20-minute video on adult animation and never once said the name Ralph Bakshi is amazing.

I can remember, when cartoons had certain something, I can't think of the right word, but I remember a certain cartoon, had something that, mid-teens and older, would get. I can't remember the name of the episode, other than it was a Bugs Bunny/Road Running show. The premise of the episode, was that Bugs and Daffy, had to race, each other, to get a prize, at a certain and Daffy did something, so he thought, he could win the race, Daffy shoved Bugs into a telephone booth and shut him in, after a moment, the phone starting, Bugs answers the phone, the caller asks Bugs, a mathematical question, to which Bugs answers correctly and the caller asks Bug, how he knew the answer, Bugs answers, "Rabbits know how to multiple.", so unless ones know biology and the rumours as how well rabbits breed, anyone else might not get what Bug is saying.

You basically just summed up my last 4 film history classes in college in a much more entertaining and digestible way. I had to make a whole Cartoon Network for a media industry class and we made a version of adult swim suited for the streaming world we see today. It was a lot of fun and It was so dope seeing this after all of that. seriously man keep it up. This was awesome.

Much respect for this one Patrick. Cool to see the original intro from Adult Swim. Most people don't even remember that a lot of it was specifically pool themed when it started.

I'm running out of content you've made so far 😅😅😅 your vids are awesome appreciate the time you put into it

Good job good job this was a blast from the past i watched this video actually happen growing up and your timing impeccable you earned my sub

Even as a kid growing up in the '90s I wondered why some of the cartoons I watched seemed to have adult jokes and themes. Ren and Stimpy was targeted to kids but in retrospect it isn't kid friendly. Haha!

I saw an old interview once with Friz Freling one of the prime creators of the old WB cartoons where he said the cartoons weren't written for kids. They were written for themselves, which is why they were so good. Once I became older I could find things in those cartoons I missed as a kid.

A study released a few years ago revealed that a lot of us who grew up in the 70s actually learned classic music and even opera and orchestra music from Bugs Bunny cartoons! "What's Opera Doc", for example and the representation of Leopold Stokowski! Pretty cool, huh!

There were cartoons in the 60's and 70's Bullwinkle and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home as examples with humour for adults.

So happy to see Pat Cc evolve in his content 🙌🏽

Cartoons made my childhood. There were so many iconic cartoons when I was a kid

This is the best cartoon documentary I've ever seen in my entire life. 💯

How did you completely miss The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964)? A groundbreaking show that was ostensibly made for kids, but packed with jokes that only the adults would get, and witty social satire.

As someone who genuinely loves animation as a medium and who tries to explain to people this exact thing, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'll drink some water to ya.

I think there's gonna be a pretty sizable shift from TV viewers to RU-vid, so it would be cool to see some more adult cartoons use this platform to release shows. Something like athf or similar would easily work as a 10 minute RU-vid series.

what an awesome presentation and wave of nostalgia at the same time, well done man

Dude I love your content, I feel like you should have a separate channel focused only on movies/tv show topics. I have really enjoyed binging them. Thank you for your work :)

I find watching cartoons way more appealing and interesting and more hilarious as an adult. Ed Edd Eddy is definitely a reason to go re-watch your childhood. It’s just so much more fun to watch them being older and understanding the formula! 😇

Woah. What a trip down memory lane when you rolled out the Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and MTV shows. I forgot how many cartoons I loved growing up. I'm 26 now and feel like I cant watch more than 3 shows at a time lol

I got away from cabel TV for one reason and one reason only.... I HATE COMMERCIALS!!!!!! commercials are so freaking annoying and repetative.. and they are everywhere. i will pay extra for NO commercials.

Very enjoyable to learn te history and backstories, well done

This has got to be one of, not just my favorite Patrick Cc vids but one of my favorite RU-vid videos I've ever watched. This is a fantastic time capsule. I'd only argue that Toonami introduced most Americans to anime but adult swim popularized it by showing that there were more genres of anime than shonen/shoujo and giant robots. Absolutely great work man!

I was born in 1980 and grew up on most of the older cartoons and still look to some of the newer ones (Family guy) to de-stress. I have heard many a people especially men say "cartoons are for kids"...pity they dont know 🤦🏽‍♂️. But I love the way u explained and broke it down. I remember when cartoon network came on the scene and I loved it but noticed it changed over the years (even with adult swim) but wasn't sure y...so thanks for answering 5hat question for me. I appreciate this vid as an adult who loves cartoons old and new...mostly old ☝️😁

Dude you nailed this. It’s so hard to describe culture through times if you weren’t there, but you nailed every single bit of it

Bro i found your channel last week and ive been binge watching since. I love the non biased approach and the random "stay hydrated" and "drink water" snippets. Youre a bad ass and multiple times now ive grabbed some water to stay hydrated 😂

This is a great doc and a great watch… But I think you’re undermining Toonami, they sometimes showed some risky programming AND they was the ones who brought anime to American audiences. Also, in the 90s: Space Ghost actually started as regular CN programming. I remember around like 97-99 seeing SG, Brak and Mortar in the early morning before the reg shows come on.

Love the videos you make Pat! you make great in depth videos on yt that practically no one does and thats why I love your videos man. Keep up the good work and strive!

What about Batman, Superman, Teen Titans,Kim Possible and Japanese Anime series.. I honestly can't imagine how TV would've been without these..

Ted turner was cooked in that interview 😂😂

My family still has cable mostly because my mom & grandparents like a lot of shows that aren’t on streaming. Since it’s not really in our budget to add more monthly payments to the already pricey cable bill, we don’t have any streaming services. That’s why I’m actually so grateful that Adult Swim still exists. It’s such a nice feeling at night to watch a bunch of my favorite shows that aren’t shown anywhere else on TV. Not only that, but all of the little bumpers and jokes they put in between shows makes the channel feel way less corporate, and like they actually care about their audience. It kinda sucks that all the other channels I grew up with aren’t the best anymore (Nick and CN are lokey garbage now), so I really appreciate that AS has stayed the same for all these years. Thx for the 🔥 vid Pat!

Even thought I was born in 2006 yet I grew up with Scooby Doo Where are you ? , Popeye , Yogi Bear , Flintstones, Thank you Cartoon Network and Boomerang!!

As a Moroccan who grew up into a cable channel MBC 3 a channel who do an Arabic version of Nickelodeon shows like sponge bob etc … and I discovered cartoons network in 2015 which was an absolute blast and also many parent in Morocco let their children watch tv as stream services are expensive

"Dad's Trophy" - Dexter's Laboratory

Im so glad I found out about adult swim, If it wasn't for them I would've actually never found out about many show's like cowboy bebop, rick and morty, flcl (fooly cooly), futurama, etc.

the "cartoons are for kids" attitude is entirely a western precept.. in many places animation is respected just as much as any other medium. because at the end of the day, that's what it is. it's a story telling medium like any other, you can use it to tell children's stories, or you can use it tell mature stories. it's not predisposed to any single genre of story telling. it's just that in the west specifically, alot of childrens shows used animation leading to this idea.

Absolutely beautiful video, so happy to watch every minute. Hard to fit so much into a quarter of an hour. Thank you!

God, I never felt more existential dread from seeing my childhood and what I have watched growing up just all pass by me in the span of 23 minutes, thank you for the memories.

Grew up in the 2000's but almost my entire childhood was cartoons, nostalgic af

Man the 90s cartoons were everything to me in my childhood. Cartoons and cereal wrapped in a blanket on a snowy day without a care or plan for the day. Because you know you are going to be sheltered and feed for the next few years lol.

another classic, you do not miss bro!

I remember coming home from school and watching Hannah barbara cartoons and loving it. Then one day, i sat down to watch some cartoons. turned on the tv, and it was cartoon network. All my cartoons i watched were gone. Then i found out they still played all the cartoons i watched on a network up north at the lake. So i stopped watching in the city's. Till my dad sat me down to watch DUCK TAILS, TALE SPIN, DARKWING DUCK AND THE RESCUE RANGERS. That got me hooked. Till i seen a episode of gargoyles. That did it for me. I was all done watching cartoons. Every now and then i catch myself searching for some of the old cartoons to watch. That's how i stumbled on this post. Great content. It gives all of your viewers something to reminisce about. 👍👍

Holy Patrick Cc dont let off the Gas pedal Quality Videos man Keep It Up

Thank you for so properly articulating the history of animation. I'm so glad to see someone give as the accolades they so deserve.

I salute you for the research you did. This episode is so well written it absolutely amazes me.

5:55 that is cap.. Them early 2000's cartoons were fire