The Evolution Of Cartoon Dads - Eddache 

Something that makes me happy is the reduction of violence in parenting. Even as a 22 year old, pretty much all my friends were smacked at least once as kids. Now, my friends are becoming parents and the idea of smacking their kids is incomprehensible. I'm hopeful for kids in the future living with gentle parents and no violence whatsoever ❤️

The _stupid, irresponsible father_ trope is much older than Homer Simpson. It goes back as far as Fred Flintstone at least, but I agree that Homer made it so inescapable in pop culture that several almost direct clones came up like Peter Griffin and American Dad.

One of the best examples of the Boomer Dad is Hank Hill, now he may be stubborn and generally naive to the changing modern world. But he is a man of principle and despite the fact he dosn't always understand his son Bobby. The two of them manage to reach some common groud and one usually teaches the other. Honestly, the KOTH episodes focused on Hank and Bobby are usually the most wholesome in the show.

As a father I am regularly drawn out and occasionally animated.

bluey is such a good show and it’s great to see it getting the praise it deserves.

Millenial non-parent here and the first time I saw Bluey was in a hospital waiting room at like, 4am lol Gotta say while watching it as my boyfriend screamed from the bathroom due to the painful kidney stones he was dealing with, that it was a pretty damn good show and made me wish I had parents like Bluey has while I was growing up.

BLUEY 😢😢😢 that show is genius, and I concur, many dads in animation were like “he ain’t that smart but he’s at least trying with the bare minimum” from what I watched as a kid, I’m glad the future generations are being exposed to better examples and future parents are taking notes.

i’m not a parent but i’ve babysat children who love bluey before and i’m shocked at how much i genuinely laugh at jokes. and the highest rated episode on imdb absolutely deserves it. good show

Bluey is such a breath of fresh air when it comes to preschool shows as everything feels genuine. Nothing feels forced or in your face and it just such a calming and fun cartoon that I will sit down and watch every so often when my younger brother is watching it.

It would have been interesting to see you potentially dive in to how Gen Z may be showcased as fathers in future media.

Bob from bobs burgers is probably my favorite cartoon dad mainly because he can be pretty wholesome but also blunt/honest when he needs to be. it's helped by the way the show often shares screentime between the whole family instead of mainly focusing on the kids or whatever specific character in a certain episode.

It's worth noting that the Golden Generation (parents of Baby Boomers), feel they spoiled the Baby Boomers. There's an interview from the 1970s of these parents, discussing how they feel they gave their children too much in a desperation to make certain they didn't suffer the way they did, both at the hands of their own parents, and through events like the Great Depression and World War 2.

I didn't know this show was about "why Bluey is great", but I'm here for it. I like to watch a few episodes sometimes. I look at it and go "Wow, these children will NOT grow up with deep mental scars that will never heal and leave them fighting mental illness for the rest of their lives." That idea of a family like that warms my heart.

As an Australian, Bluey is so important to me and I adore how everyone’s portrayed in it. I occasionally watch the show with my kid sister, and Bandit and Chilli remind me so much of my own parents, not just because of cultural similarities but how they act, given they’re about the same age as my own

I grew up with young gen X parents, who where great parents. When I was old enough (like 8) they made me stay up late because I kept begging them, and when I did, I realized "oh, this isn't that fun" and so, I never had a required bedtime anymore, and had to kind of figure it out myself, they never forced me to do anything that wasn't extreme, they just said "sure, you can stay up late, but do know it's not that fun as you think." Which made me learn the consequences, i didnt even had to trick my mom to buy me movies for older kids, she just said "sure, but its pretty scary." , and in my opinion, that was the best parenting they could give me (:

Bandit is definitely a late Gen Xer. Given that he was 10 years old the year Double Dragon came out (1988) in the 80s, which is directly referenced in the episode, he would be about 44 now.

My family and extended family are all to aware of bluey. So when my Uncle walks up to his guy friends and here’s them all saying “Maaannnnn, every time I watch that show I feel like a bad dad by comparison” he interjects and says “are you guys talking about Bluey? :)”. And they all said yes 😂

why did i start crying at your summary of a bluey episode about a bird dying. and then about you collecting rocks with your son. i think im just crying about dads now. i love my dad

1:19 Silent generation mostly fought in the Korean war and onwards because oldest Silent was 17 in 1945. You probably meant their predecessors, the Greatest generation, who fought in WW2. For example, Abe Simpson (at least originally) was part of the Greatest generation.

I think Bill from Big City Greens is a very well done and complex TV character. he is a bit oafish and stubborn, but he balances that out with genuine intelligence and care for his family. (Also disability representation, because of his missing finger)

I’ve come to very much appreciate how Bandit is a pure mixture of the past and the now, not so stern to use old tactics but also very open to learning and growing with the know of the old which I can appreciate, not only that with the generation growing from these lessons from Bluey it could really rise to be a new format that’s not overly judgemental on how parenting is. It really makes me want to be similar to Bandit too.

I'm 20 years old with no kids, and I watch Bluey every so often maybe its because my mental health has gone down the tubes in recent months and Bluey is the only thing keeping me from losing it completely

Now this is the content I’ve been waiting for, gotta love some eddache.

Its so incredibly sweet hearing how bluey changed your thinking when your kid picked up a rock. I'm glad that turned into a great moment

I'm so glad you brought up Bluey as an example for writing parent characters. More people need to see it. I literally just finished all of the episodes that are available here in the states and loved every bit of it, primarily because of how well the adults are written, and I'm not even a parent myself.

Every voiceline and appearance of Rik put a big goofy smile on my face. Don't ever think you're not enough of a father, Eddie. You can always do better, but that doesn't mean you aren't already doing great.

Bluey makes me feel better as a dad. Unlike other shows for kids where parents are perfect role models that know all the answers, seeing Bandit and Chili mess up and admit faults to their kids makes me feel valid. I won't have all the answers or know what I'm doing. But, it's Gotta be done.

I'm 22 and I watched Bluey for the first time when it was just on TV. And I found myself emotionally invested in the show.

This just feels like a Bluey appreciation post and I am all for it

So glad to see Bluey examined in such an intricate way. It's one of the best kids cartoons in recent years and as someone about to turn 18 I relate so much to both the kids and the parents.

Not gonna lie, Bandit Heeler is probably one of the best cartoon fathers in my opinion.

My dad was a boomer and I always felt like he was doing what he could. He grew up without a dad of his own and he was always a bit distant. His biggest problem was that he was terribly depressed but never learned how to rely on others or ask for help. Ended up dying pretty young due to complications of alcoholism. My brother is a father of 3 incredible boys and is an amazing dad. I just wish their grampa got to meet them. I know he would be proud of how his son has done. I just hope more older folks realize what he couldn't, that its okay to need someone else, and that its okay to be vulnerable around people that care about you. We're human, and everyone needs help sometimes.

Bandit is my hero, and DELIGHTED he gets so much love. Exactly what a modern dad should (hopefully) look like. I try my very best to be like him every day for my two lads. Cracking content as always.

13:43 THIS. My mom has NEVER admitted a mistake or even said "sorry" to me for something she did, and it has absolutely made it seem like she doesn't care about me. When I tell her that she's hurt or upset me in some way, all she does is play defensive or victim-blame me, which has sent the message that my emotions, feelings, or opinions are irrelevant to her.

We all know Richard Waterson is the #1 dad when it comes to Cartoon Fathers

That story about your sons rock collection almost made me cry tears of joy, as someone with a bad relationship with his father that was just so beautiful and inspires me to be better than he was.

Thank you so much for this! I'd love to see a similar video on teachers - they always seem to get the short straw in animation

Bluey is a good show for both kids and parents since it has a message for both parties. In the episode yoga ball kids learn how to speak up for themselves especially if someone is hurting them and parents learn how to recognize when they play too rough with their kids.

The Fresh Prince’s ‘How come he don’t want me?’ scene was honestly therapeutic for me, and I’ve always vowed that if I ever become a parent, I don’t want to repeat the mistakes of my dad.

Bandit is easily the BEST fictional dad EVER.

7:13 A unique thing which Australian parents sometimes have to do is protect their kids from magpies during spring and teach them to protect themselves. I think that’s what’s going on here

Bluey is the only show that can consistently make me both laugh and cry. Usually in the same episode

Bluey is sooo good. I don't even have children - but it's just so clever and heartwarming...

im too old to be a kid and too young to be a dad but bluey looks fun to watch. well animated too. which is weird to me somehow.

"He said 'Smell you later', but he never smelled me, again!" - Nelson Muntz.

It warms my heart to see that you love Bluey as much as I and many others do. Even though I'm not a parent, it really changed the way I interacted with my friends and relatives

I think it’s important to note that one of the reasons Bluey portrays parents in a more positive light is that the show is first and foremost aimed at children, so the characters need to be good role models. Cartoons geared towards older audiences (such as the Simpsons and bobs burgers) can afford to make their characters less sympathetic for the sake of comedy.

my dad's exactly like bob, I appreciate his sarcasm as well as his caring personality so much lol

As someone who is in that weird limbo between mellinal and gen z, I also look up to Bandit. I've done a lot of baby sitting with my fiance and we've used some of the skills we've learned through Bluey while doing so. That is almost a comfort show for us as well as educational TV for aspiring parents.

Can’t wait to see how us Gen Z will be at parenting

“26 years in the jungle and I still became my father.” Jesus Christ, that hit me hard

I feel even happier that I got my niece a Bluey jigsaw puzzle for her fourth birthday! Looks like she's picked an exceptionally wholesome show to get invested in :).

Great video! Personally my favourite portrayal of a dad in a cartoon is f is for family. I love how nuanced he is, going through arcs throughout the seasons, realising the mistakes his parents made and coming to terms with how he has to stop falling into them himself.

Yes we all need a parent like Bandit and Chili. They don’t yell at their children a lot and they play games that teach life lessons.

Bandit Heeler is implied to be a Gen X dad.

I can't think of a father character before Bandit in media that was not just regarded as a good father but also straight up aspirational.

I watch my nieces regularly and they love bluey. I watch it even when they aren't with me, it's so fun and it has amazing messages for all ages. Even the grandparents love it

Coming from a loving but mentally unstable home, I saw how each generation in my family affected the next. My grandparents loved my parents but due to the times and parenting approaches I could see how that impacted how my brother and I were brought up. My brother has kids and I see how his parenting is as well and the same goes for my husbands family so we made the decision not to have children. It's not that we dislike children but we don't want to negatively impact my children like our grandparents, parents and ourselves. The generational trauma stops with us. Instead we put the effort into our nieces and nephews instead. I have a lot of hope that the future generations will be better than the last when it comes to parenting. Seeing this video and reading the comments makes me believe that it will keep getting better :)

That neglect part of free roam parenting is kinda American thing in my country of the Netherlands. Kids around 12 are allowed to take the tram alone and I personally already went alone to Rotterdam when I was 13 (FYI I don’t live in Rotterdam)

50s dad eddache's accent is so cursed

I had no idea a kids show for gen alpha would have so much deeper meaning, thanks for the insight.

He still hasn't come back with the milk

Bandit one of the best out of this line up for sure🙌

Bandit and Greg (from SU) are, to me, the 2 best dads in cartoons.

bandit is clearly the best animated dad

God I fucking love this channel. Literally the best content on RU-vid, covering actual good topics in an interesting way.

We went from traumatized authoritarians to mostly detached and self-interested to attachment issues to... _holy shit, parents can have empathy for their children and treat them like human beings_ Let's hope that last one sticks, yeah?

I'd love to see a Bluey episode about disabities. The kids meeting a disabled kid and learning to play with them and making their games more suitable for them. Hell yeah

I feel like I should give Bluey a watch.

Bluey is great, but it still points out what should be, not what is. I'm a teacher, and I still see parents grappling to juggle quality with quantity time. I will see 20 Doofenschmirtz dads each year, 15 Bob Belchers, 10 Homers, 5 Butterscotch Horemen, 1 Peter Griffen, and zero Bandits. FWIW, I'm in a mid-level Australian school.

As a cashier in a grocery store I don't go a day of work without some kid screaming their head off or running around. Freedom is great. But respect for others should be taught, too. I remember my siblings and I acting out in a store as kids. My mom put her finger to her lips, and we knew to stop. Not because we'd get smacked, but because we were being disrespectful. It wasn't a playground, and we weren't the only people there. Respect.

Absolutely love Bluey! My favourite quote of Bandit is when he's the playing the prize claw - 'Magic claw has no children. His days are free and easy!' 😂

Not screwing up your kids is not an easy task. I'm a gen X, our parents themselves had super strict parents who never let them do anything so our parents basically let us do whatever we wanted which were both good and bad, we did learn to be independent but we might not be as great getting orders from our boss at work and sometimes lack a bit of disciplines. So when we became parents a lot of us became helicopter parents that might be the worst generation parents in a long time, micro managing kids were not a great idea and neither was "helping the kids a lot with everything". Eddie's generation have their issues too, the "everybody wins" mentally set the kids up for a whole lot of disappointment when they grow up. In short, every grandparent generation since at least Plato's time complains about the young generation and every parent generation find some new way to screw up the kids. The key is probably to avoid extremes, extreme freedom is bad for kids and so is extreme discipline. If you help your kids too little that will screw them up but if you help them too much they will grow up as pretty helpless. Just be there for your kids when they need you, teach them how to solve problems instead of solving it for them and keep them in line but not too much and don't try to protect them from the world too much and they will be fine. Any parent will make mistakes, all humans do.

This was a very intriguing video to say the least. I'm not a father myself (I mean, I'm only 22 after all), but I do hope to be one some day and I really want to be there for any children I may have in the future. And this video definitely provides a lot of food for thought on the subject.

I didn't think that Bluey part would make me cry, and I've never been near that situation.

Preschoolers Cartoons now: Deep messages and life lessons Preschoolers Cartoons 10 years ago: What does green look like?

I do love that an Aussie show is making it big in the wider world, it such a rare thing too see know fays

My kids love Bluey and I love watching it with them. So many scenes have made me cry happy tears, and both parents continue to inspire me! And the topics discussed are a great segue for discussing them more deeply with my kids :)

The worst Fathers in cartoon history is Timmy Turners dad and Peter Griffin, but Peter does care for his family more then Timmy’s dad

Video title: Evolution of Cartoon Dads Second half of video: talking about Bluey And honestly, I'm not mad about it. It's a brilliant show.

Seeing Bandit on a thumbnail always makes my day

I'm a simple man, I saw Bluey in the thumbnail, I click. Watching this show with my little nephew has been an absolute delight. Thanks for bringing some attention to it. There's not much of it on RU-vid.

From angry to stupid to relatable.

I don’t have kids of my own but I hope to be a good dad one day Bandit is a great example of a dad I hope to become in my kids early years of their life

son picks a rock dad praises his son 1h later rock collection

0:45 don't say It don't think It don't say It don't think It don't say It don't think I-

Not me getting emotional over what a good dad a cartoon dog is.

I always remember the parents I looked up to the most in media was Little Bears'. It was one of my favorite shows growing up, but looking back at it, the level of patience, support and understanding they show for not only their son, but his friends as well is truly admirable. I think Father Bear is another amazing example of a cartoon dad. Always taking him on adventures, instilling strong family values, and teaching about a hard days work without forcing it onto Little Bear. Able to pass down morals and knowledge to Little Bear without talking down to him. Him and Mother Bear are able to be an example of the type of person they want their kid to be without talking down to him. While those 90's cartoons for small children aren't as nuanced as the writing for Bluey, I do believe they set the groundwork on how to write good parents. Unfortunately, I feel like the parenting style of Bluey's and Little Bears' folks could only truly work in the world shows like that take place in. Where everything is peaceful and no real conflict or evil exists. So while it's okay to strive to be like Bluey's parents, it's best to just use them as a reference and not something to base your entire style off of. Remember, It's okay if your kids aren't happy with you all the time and to learn some harsh truths.

Can confirm, Bandit is 100% my parental template

I’m not a father, but I am an uncle. I really want to be the best figure for my nephew and niece and show them down the best path. I remember watching Bluey with my nephew loved how it showed parenting and how they interacted with the kids.

This video is the most I've ever seen of Bluey, but that balloon popping scene cut like a knife. I had no idea that show was that serious at times.

Oh my god the playtime as therapy thing hits hard. When my grandma died and I was like.. four?? I played funeral with my barbies and mimicked what the dudes at the actual funeral were doing lol

This is your best video of all time, I just sent it to my dad and it said it actually moved him, it doesn't really apply to him anymore since all of his children are basically adults including me but he said he really empathizes with you and says you're doing fantastic

Homer has been retconned as millennial in latest seasons while his character is still clearly not. It creates a weird whiplash when they try to show Homer use internet when clearly of era before that and partied outdoors

Okay this is the second time an Eddache video left me on the edge of crying thank you eddie this video is great

this is rly interesting & a good analysis. my dad was born in the 60s, and i was born in 2001, so there was a pretty big gap in our generations. i always saw parts of him in those strict & even abusive cartoon dads, but shows like bluey made me kinda long for "better" times. it was either or with him; good mood or bad mood. i rly agree that capturing the essence of "dad" is hard with fictional characters. theres only so many dimensions yknow.

0:45 GET OFF MY HEAD GET OFF MY HEAD.

You got me to watch Bluey, I’m a college student and definitely not going to be a dad any time soon but damn is it a good and interesting show to watch. It reminds me of what it was like growing up and also what I hope to be like someday. Also, as someone with Gen X parents who were definitely a bit apathetic- I just realised how accurate that was, haha!

I first got hooked on Steven Universe, which completely rerouted my life, because the first episode I saw was a Greg episode and he reminded me of my own fantastic Dad. My Dad also, unfortunately, has clearly had his own self image and confidence colored by the bumbling stereotype because he refuses to believe he's good at parenting and is a workaholic in both his job and stuff around the house (my mom is disabled) and never even takes into account his own health. It's heartbreaking. I know there's other factors, but it definitely had a hand.

My sisters and I are all adults, none of us have kids, the closest any of us are to bring kids is my youngest sister was 17 when we "discovered" the show but we all love bluey for all the reasons said here. We just love how well written it is. I swear I'm a wife and kids away from actually being bandit.