The Darkest Episodes of Kids Shows and Cartoons 

Mr meaty is basically the opposite of Spongebob, you wanna eat a krabby patty but you dont wanna eat the burgers at mr meaty.

I still cannot believe dark harvest was mentioned in a trial. That was extra scary.

The darkest episode I've ever seen was a Powerpuff Girls episode in which there is this alternate timeline in which the girls left and never came back, everything was decaying and I remember their teacher being very thin and old, and in despair about them abandoning everyone. In the episode the mayor is also implied to have died and the women he's always with was pretty upset at them?

Man, the early 2000's was a weird time for cartoons

The deep frying hands and eating them creeps me out as an adult. Like wtf how was this in a kids show?

Shocked you didn't include "Speed Demon" from the original Powerpuff girls, that episode *still* gives me nightmares because of the concept. Poor girls can't even go on vacation without risking everything going to hel- er, heck.

I definitely remember 'The Mask' from Courage the Dog. It was definitely haunting for me as a kids do to its more 'realistic' horror, but looking back at it now and after learning it true symbolism, I actually have deep respect and love for that episode.

There's also a disturbing invader zim episode when zim drilled out his new friend eyes and replaced them with a robotic ones, which made him chase things hallucinating them as zim , it's so disturbing since the boy was so innocent and pure he only wanted to be zim friend

I feel like the old stuff about staying anonymous and not giving out your personal information online should still be taught to kids The dangers of the old internet has only increased ten fold especially with how influencers and popular e-celebs keep on getting exposed Stranger danger still applies to the internet world That smart guy episode really creeped me out as a kid same with a Sister Sister episode dealing with a similar subject

Surprised that "BirthMark" from Teen Titans didn't make the list considering that Slade was tearing up Raven's Clothes in a creepy time stopped world & then showing her the end of the world on her birthday. When that episode aired it was much darker than anything 2003 Teen Titans had done before & even afterward (The End wasn't even treated as creepily) & keep in mind that the show took a short hiatus from new episodes after BirthMark.

Man, i remember as a kid in the 90's not being able to watch the VHS of Gumby on the Moon cause it terrified me. He like, died and had to be rushed to hospital. The music was creepy and the face on the moon was unsettling. Plus those dumb little aliens scared me sm.

8:35 theirs honestly nothing wrong with having a racist person In a kids show if it’s done well and has a good message. Honestly that’s probably one of the best places

Anime is cartoons. Different cultural origin, different intended audience, [anime] is still slang for [animation] which is what a cartoon is.

You should do a deep dive into the very weird creepy show “Crashbox” it is filled with creepy and disturbing episodes, I’d argue scarier than courage, it was a kids show in the 2000s and I rarely see anybody talk about it

If you ever want to see a really dark Episode watch Adventure Time Distant Lands Together Again, which deals with Finn & Jake's final adventure together after they pass away. It's incredibly heartfelt and dark

It really does feel like we're living in the sanitized age of cartoons I miss the Cartoon renaissance of the 2010s

Every time, I manage to forget what Courage sounds like when he speaks. It is a pleasant surprise every time.

Flapjack was well into the era of everything being safe.. is the crazy thing.

Dragon Ball Z is definitely considered a kids show in Japan. Kai and Super aired on Saturday mornings right alongside PreCure.

One Coarse Meal is nothing. You want a really twisted Spongebob episode, and one much more current? Ink Lemonade. Spongebob and especially Patrick straight up spend the entire episode scaring and torturing Squidward so he'd squirt his ink to sell it. It has probably the most psychologically dark scene where they put on a twisted puppet show in a dark, nightmare version of the Krusty Krab with Squidward confronting his elderly self still working at the same job as an old man. One Coarse Meal had Mr. Krabs RIGHTFULLY go after Plankton, a bad guy who has done various bad guy things. Ink Lemonade had Patrick and Spongebob show Squidward, a character they consider their friend, his own personal hell. Oh, and let's not forget about the HBO Max Looney Tunes Cartoons series. The one everyone was whining about Elmer Fudd not having his gun? The show that took that as a challenge and made the series FAR more disturbing than a cartoon gun could be? One episode ends with Tweety getting Sylvester neutered, and a despondent Sylvester slowly walks out the door, lies down in the street and has a freaking car run him over. Also an episode where Fudd makes a sandwich machine and gets mangled and deep fried alive, only for Bugs to get the last laugh eating a Fudd sandwich and spitting it out.

Weirdly enough, the episode of Flapjack that scared me most and sticks in my mind is (I believe these are just 1 episode but it could be two) is where an oil tycooner challenges Flapjack, K'nuckles and Bubbie to a race, which they obviously won, but for some reason, the giant black steel whale the tycooner raced with (it even has a little tophat) creeps me out. It's just this giant, black, dirty whale thing with glowing red eyes, permanent snarl and a segmented body, probably creeped me out not only cause it was the middle of the ocean, but the Flapjack universe's ocean. Constantly overcast with an old medieval style and dark green waters. I'm pretty sure there's also a scene (in the same episode?) where they're either in the tycooner's robot whale or something like that, and there's an aquarium with a completely unmoving dead looking shark that slowly floats around. Keep in mind, these are all in the Flapjack style, so it really unnerved me for reasons I can't even explain. There's also the episode where K'nuckles and Flapjack are on a raft, I'm pretty sure looking for Candy Island, and they end up drinking sea water. It goes full creepypasta with distorted audio, and the only colors are black with red outlines. I'm pretty sure they either reach Candy Island in a hallucination, or they don't and somehow wind up back at their docks. Absolutely incredible show, though.

I love flapjack when I was younger. The art style was definitely something else but it still hook me for some reason. But my siblings was definitely not vibing with the art style.

0:21 bro that Tapeworm episode did a number on me. I'm glad not the only one that thought that was creepy 😔🙏

Nah 5 year old me was absolutely freaked out by the Cell killing scene. It was a core memory 😭 I was never too freaked out by Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time or Chowder. But that scene, haunted my nightmares.

The Haunting Hour was a extremely dark kids show. For me the 2 scariest episodes were The Mascot and the Return of Lily D episode. The entire show is officially on RU-vid if you're interested.

The Batman Beyond episode with the villain’s Sneap Peak’s death. Basically, the dude had a belt that could turn him hollow so he could phaze through solid objects. At the end of the episode though, the belt malfunctions, and he starts to fall through the floor. Batman tries to catch him as he slowly falls through his apartment building, but by the time he reaches the last floor, it’s too late. Bruce theorizes that he’s going to continue falling until he reaches the centre of the Earth where he’ll stay trapped forever. That was a pretty grim “I have no mouth, yet I must scream” moment the left an impact on my younger self.

I love your videos but damn, I really wish someone would talk about different episodes from courage. There’s literally creepy stuff on every episode and all y’all talk about the same three episodes

"Return the slab..." "What's your offer!?"

I distinctly remember watching mr.meaty when it was still on air and having my mom walk by and ask why I was watching MTV

What scared me the most as a kid was the episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars with the zombie Genosians and Genosian brain worms!

As for the dragon ball statement, it actually is a kids show in japan lmao. The difference in cultural standards of the place and also era pretty much caused it to be seen as for older kids elsewhere tho, but in japan was very much a kids show and to this day it's current series Super still is!. Great video!

The scariest episode from courage the cowardly dog was the one with the moon (had to Google the name: spirit of the harvest moon) Like it legit gave me the worst nightmares, if the episode came on I just changed the channel. The only other show to instill that kind of fear into me was goosebumps because I had an acute fear of puppets and dolls (so glad I didn't see are you afraid of the dark as a kid)

The fact that Thomas the tank engine can jump from track to track, but there is episodes where, Henry got bricked up in a tunnel and wasn’t let out till next episode, multiple scraped engines and a diesel with a claw on his roof

That dude in Z learned that money couldn't save him from everything like it could before. He got Moss'd

The Animals of Farthing Wood. I think most folks who watched the show would remember the dead baby mice killed by the butcher bird, bloody bodies shown on screen... but what legit traumatized me was the death of Mr. Pheasant, after going back to a farmstead to try to rescue his wife Mrs. Pheasant and the snake, and... instead, discovered her cooked carcass, cooling on the farmer's wife 's windowsill. He couldn't see for tears, not just grief but guilt he'd been treating her badly, and either he couldn't see through the tears, or just didn't care, as he stood on the fence post and cried...and the camera pulled back to show the farmer lining up his shot.

I remember Dad from Codename Kids Next Door always used to scare me when I was young. Also the episode of SpongeBob where Squidward uses the elevator to travel through time, especially the prehistoric segment for some reason, always gave me the creeps. I also distinctly remember a skit on MAD when that ran on CN I believe, of a zombified Bambi if I remember correctly. Scarred me every time I saw it for some reason.

"Most kids shows these days are pretty much baby mode" Infinity Train showing gruesome murders in full detail on screen:

I chose a bad time to eat fried chicken while watching this.

The one episode of Courage that freaked me out more than any was the one with the Harvest Moon, little child me wasn't too happy seeing that creepy moon face late at night.

I missed the "dark but not purely for just cheap shock value"cartoon style

No one ever talks about how while the intent to teach people about protecting and saving the enviroment was good, Captain Planet was dead-ass fear mongering people.

My usual go to for a cartoon from my childhood that terrified me is the episode of The Real Ghostbusters called Dairy Farm. The undead rooster followed by arms coming out of the ground left a lasting mark. However an episode of a kids show that got me as an adult, was the Pokemon episode One Journey Ends, Another Begins.... They never had to my knowledge really had a Pokemon die in the show so for that to happen really hit. It would have regardless, the fact that I watched it the morning of a funeral for a friend who had been a teacher of mine in school and therefore was much like Stoutland was to Litten to me, made it particularly hard.

⚡️Honestly another Static Shock episode I remember was A crossover with Poison Ivy&Harley basically grooming a kid villain character to kill, that was pretty dark.

Honestly, nothing from the cartoons on here(excluding Flapjack) scared me as a kid, especially with Courage. But the scene where Cell slurps that guy, on screen in gruesome detail, like a milkshake gave me fucking nightmares! ((Also never saw Alf))

Remember that flapjack episode where it's insinuated that candy wife poisoned her husband and it keeps zooming in on her face until it's revealed so cooked with pickle juice

there was this old kids story that had an animation … it was about a witch and three children and it literally always gave me nightmares, she had a knife and would scrape it. there was one that was a grinch halloween special that’s free on RU-vid and it’s FREAKY.

Cell absorbing people on DBZ was disturbingly AWESOME!!!🤘💀🤘

I loved Flapjack! But I was an adult when it came out and was never really scared by anything in it. "Dark Harvest" never scared me either, I love morbid humor. And DBZ is 100% a kids show, it was originally published in a magazine for kids.

The cartoon/episode that totally dumbstruck me when I was a child was Stimpy's fan club episode of ren an stimpy. That was the first time I really got a taste of psychopathy/murderous insanity and it really stood out to me. Especially the "with these hands..." Scene. Lol, looking back, I watched a lot worse, including the infamous banned epi of rockos modern life the couple times it aired, but that one.. it just stood out to me badly..

I've got a few of Dark Episodes of Kids Cartoons and shows that are on my mind- Dark Awakening from Original Transformers Cartoon-Optimus is revived there as the Robotic Zombie, and he looked terrifying at the end. What the writers were thinking?! Phineas and Ferb Busted from Phineas and Ferb-Basically, a What If Candace busted the duo, and they got sent off to the school, where their imagination was being removed. Candace rescues them, only for the whole thing to be a dream. Where is thy Sting? from Transfomers Animated-An episode that has a body swap, and a near dead Transformer at the end.

As soon as you said Static Shock I knew exactly which episode you were going to mention. I remember nothing about any episode of that show EXCEPT the one where Richie got shot.

this might just be me, but I found Aladdin really scary as a kid. The Cave of Wonders absolutely terrified me, so did the dark colors from the opening. Again this could just be me lmao.

Was probably the same age as T.J at the time, and remember thinking something was fishy from the moment they started chatting & it got personal...aka meet up and whatnot. They knew videogames were the rage back then. Sonic was the biggest thing around, and many kids would flock to grab his games.

So many people talk about Dark Harvest like it's the only dark episode of Invader Zim. Like have you seen Bad Bad Rubber Piggy???

11:20 the final episode from Alf was one of the saddest moments in my opinion

The spongebob butterfly episode traumatized me & it's the reason why I hate butterflies.

"kid's shows nowadays are on baby mode" MARCY!!!

I'm glad you included DBZ on here because when I was little the scene where Cell is like transforming or exploding or w/e scared the shit outta me

Growing up on these shows kinda desensitized me to disturbing imagery, so I cannot truly be afraid of these things. Your point still stands, though.

dbz kai on nicktoons was crazy i cant believe they showed nappa (i think) just wipe out a whole entire city that scene destroyed my 1st grader brain lol

That smart guy episode is a remake of an old Different Strokes episode. The DS episode is far creeper.

Maybe it wasn't really dark but I used to be sooo scared of the bus episode from Spongebob. When he's stuck in like a deserted town at night?? And he always manages to miss the bus

Imperfect Cell was terrifying to me as a kid but god damn it,he's my favourite form of my favourite Dragon Ball antagonist. He just added an element of horror not often seen in Shonen

I think kid-friendly shows can still get away with a lot of stuff nowadays I guess I can mostly only speak from the 2010s since I havent watched many newer ones But shows on Cartoon Network like Steven Universe and especially Adventure Time had some very intense content Besides, shows in the 80s were often very censored, and the 90s were much less obv but they still had some harsh restrictions in some places, like they often couldn't say "die" for instance.

I remember a cartoon, can’t remember the name. Some superhero show that came on later in the night. The villain of the episode was selling performance enhancing tech that ended up causing someone to have a graphic heart attack on screen. That’s stuck with me ever since.

I recall an episode of Arthur where Binky has a dream sequence where Mr.Ratburn get eaten alive by a giant grape, pretty brutal for PBS Kids.

I remember the episode of courage where the mummy with the plagues creature thing scared the living hell out of men idk why the Medusa hair threw me over the edge too

During the late 80s, there was a cartoon called brave star, and they aired an episode called D price. It was similar to the captain planet drug episode, but it was darker and a lot more shocking. It was the first time I’ve witnessed someone die in a cartoon, and it wasn’t implied that literally. The episode is available on RU-vid.

I cannot ever find Freaky Fred scary or creepy. He gets off to shaving things. Weird? Yes. Creepy? Nah. Not even a candle to Ramses, or major villains like Katz or Le Quack. But I was also, like, 29 or something when I watched Courage for the first time (only a few years ago, never grew up with it).

Cell from DBZ was nightmare fuel

Technically anime are cartoons. 1. Anime is short for Animation. 2. In Japan, everyone calls anything animated, anime.

Mr. meaty was f***ing terrifying

I don’t remember the episode but my older sister got really scared during an episode of scooby coo. It gave her nightmares and so we had to watch Dennis the menace instead at that time slot which upset me.

Most of the shows I watched growing up were very mundane and innocent, they never really tackled heavy topics, but they weren’t dumbed down either. The worst that could happen would be someone accidentally breaking something or getting stuck outside somewhere. I was just really sensitive as a kid, and wanted everything to just be wholesome and peaceful. I refused to watch Thomas because of how often the characters were ‘upset’. While I wouldn’t call this grim dark or anything, it was really depressing. ‘Go West Young Meowth’ was the only episode in Pokemon I actually cried at. It tells us about Meowth’s backstory of how he was a stray, and he taught himself to speak just so he could impress a female Meowth, who just called him a freak for his efforts.

I actually bought a ALF dvd collection and watched all the seasons and I have to say it was worth binge watching with my partner, we both loved the show

Courage and flapjack were 2 cartoons that, out of all the ones i have watched, were always wild af

i remember the Drangon Ball show not being for kids, here in Denmark (i dont know if we still have it) but we had "morning TV" for kids that primarily was for kids and i remember South Park and Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon and Courage on there ^^

Anybody else think Z'skayr/Ghostfreak from Ben 10 was pretty creepy? He only appeared in a few episodes of the original series but he was pretty intimidating and genuienly succeeded in his goal for a few minutes before being killed. Until Alien Force brought him back for some filler.

as i never had channels like cartoon network during my childhood, we'd go borrow VHS and DVDs from the library and i loved watching DBZ, but after i told my mum that someone threw a dog off a cliff, she didn't let me watch it again

I love Invader ZIM. I personally know some of the voice actors!

I love Courage, but to me the freakiest episode is “Harvest Moon” no one ever talks about it and the ghost? Used in it is way more scary as its a realistic mans head with black eyes.

The Alice Cooper episode of The Muppet Show scared me when I was a kid. It's far from your typical Muppet episode. It starts with Alice Cooper popping out of a coffin and singing his hit song Welcome To My Nightmare while surrounded by skeletons and cobwebs. Even worse, he's backed up by a band of bizarre Muppet monsters known as The Vile Bunch. Some of the band members include an alien named Chopped Liver who resembles a literal blobby mass of internal organs, a plague doctor-esque creature called Silver Beak, and an unnamed shark drummer. Throughout the rest of the episode, we witness plenty of other strangeness. They show Beaker being strangled by a giant germ, William Tell shooting his son in the head with a bow and arrow, a bunch of creepy-looking anthropomorphic stalactites complaining about having a toothache while eerie music plays in the background, Kermit being tormented by a moving skull candle, Miss Piggy being cursed to turn into a bird monster, and Alice Cooper convincing Gonzo to sell his soul to Satan. I'm not even kidding! There was also another Muppet show that scared me a little bit. It guest starred a group of mimes called The Mummenschanz who perform some of the most bizarre acts. They never speak or even show their real faces, simply using uncanny-looking clay face masks instead. Outside of those freaky and non-Muppety guest spots, there was also a sketch where an eel sang a song called "When I'm Not Near The Fish I Love" that always made me cry. It's certainly not scary but it wasn't the silly Muppet stuff I was used to either. So yeah, I think it's safe to say that I always avoided those two episodes growing up. There was an additional episode that bothered me. The opening number was performed by Judy Collins and it was a beautiful song called the Leatherwing Bat. For some reason, I would always burst into tears whenever I heard that song. I have no idea why but it somehow struck a cord with me emotionally. She's not singing about death or anything sad like that. I guess it was just the beautiful music or something.

I’m surprised they didn’t bring up graveyard shift from SpongeBob that episode used to creep me out and gave me nightmares. Especially when the hash slinging slasher got off the bus and showing the spatula. Nosefartu flinging the lights and smiling at the end and turn the lights off.

Was 7 when I saw the king Ramses and your not perfect episodes of courage the cowardly dog. Couldnt sleep alone for 3 days.

I was thinking. What if cell injects something into his victims body to soften them from the inside? Similar to how actual bugs work. It'd make sense as to why they can just be slurped up, bones included.

Im surprised you didnt talk about Wormy from spongebob

Honestly the whole babying thing of shows is debatable cuz some Disney shows aren't babying and Honestly cartoon network starting with Steven universe still manages to show some disturbing stuff. I mean it still a traumatic stuff to show. And even tho it's trash teen titans go did some disturbing things too.

Perfect video right before bed thanks source

The scene from dragon ball proves that cell was more scary then he was later on when he reached his perfect form he looked more cool and handsome compared to his to other forms but he was more scary when he was imperfect

Pretty sure there was an episode about cults in the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers.

The Invader Zim stuff makes more sense when you realize the creator made adult oriented comic books and Jason Stiff snuck in intense stuff.

I'm in love with the light show backdrop. I thought that Cell episode was me mixing up two shows in my mind. Thanks for the information. Great video.

There's an episode where Darkwing Duck dies in a motorcycle accident, GOES TO HELL, and as a kid that's where I shut it off. Turned it back on for the next episode, and saw the Devil come out of Darkwing's oven. .... it took me getting the DVD's MANY many years later to actually watch the episode total. Where Darkwing ends up as a ghost, Tony Jay voices death to bring him to justice, and Ghost!Darkwing has to rescue Gosalyn from being murdered by Megavolt. Then there is the just straight up banned episode "hot spells"

Are you still going to continue the lost media iceberg series?

Heads of beef episode and King Ramsay’s curse were the creepiest for me in Courage

Oh my god I remember the moment with cell, my older brother used to watch dbz a lot and I saw that episode and was mortified for weeks

What's the point of having children if you can't traumatize them with innocent looking kids shows. I was traumatized regularly as a child and it never did me any harm! Apart from crippling depression and an overwhelming sense of dread but that's normal right?

Hey, you actually included some stuff I either don't see mentioned often or didn't even know about props!

Was I they only one who didn't get scared by King Ramsey?

I kind of remembered my mom freaking out when she saw the tape worm episode. When Mr. Meaty had reruns airing on Nicktoons back in 2009. So this would’ve been around April.