So what are your favourite cartoons?

[Yeahduff]

Blame Viacom.

Cartoons make me miss cable.

[McDuffies]

EDIT: We would also like to mention our nerd rage on the topic of Cartoon Network playing ANYTHING that's live-action.

Yes!! I realize that network drift happens and all, what with History Channel airing programs that are history only in that they happened a few months ago before a camera, and The Learning Channel only tenuously attempting to provide us with education, but live action shows on Cartoon Network would be like if Comedy Central suddenly started airing National Geographic documentaries, or if E Network decided to show golf tournaments. It just ain't right!

I blame MTV.

Or abc family airing r-rated shows.

[IVstudios]

Pretty much all my favorites have all been mentioned already. Adventure Time = Awesome and Young Justice looks like it has potential.

I'm also liking Bob's Burgers, though the writing and animation are pretty weak. The show's entire entertainment value currently comes from the voice acting. Hopefully the rest will get better as the show evolves.

Also, I too used to like Sponge Bob but have lost interest in it. Though not for the oft mentioned post-movie drop in quality, but because of the shows total inability to utilize it's setting. I know it might sound kind of picky, but the thing that bothers me most about the show is that it largely ignores the fact that it is set under water. The constant use of things like fire and snow, while almost never utilizing things like 3 dimensional movement and weightlessness. Does it sound too nerdy to care about that kind of thing?

[Jim North]

The fact that they're underwater but have/don't have these things is one of the overarching jokes of the entire series and is pointed out on many occasions within the show itself. It isn't an inability to utilize its own setting, it's a conscious choice on the part of the creators to defy the setting for comedic effect.

Whether or not you actually think this is funny or not is another story entirely, of course. Personally, I think some of their best jokes have come from specifically going against the very setting they're in.

[IVstudios]

That may be how they intended it, but it rarely came across that way to me. It always seemed less "Hey, let's have a snow episode because it would be funny to show snow under water" and more "Let's do a snow episode because I came up with some jokes that are about snow."

[Jim North]

As I recall, the beginning of the first snow episode showed that the snow came from icebergs breaking up as they floated past Bikini Bottom, pretty much pointing out the premise. But, y'know, there's only so many ways you can go "HEY SNOW UNDERWATER GET IT!" and still have it be funny, so after the weird thing has been established and joked about, naturally they would just skip mentioning it explicitly again in future episodes and move on to whatever new snow jokes they may have come up with. The basic premise just speaks for itself after a while.

EDIT: Okay, now we may be getting too nerdy.

[Bustertheclown]

I'm also liking Bob's Burgers, though the writing and animation are pretty weak. The show's entire entertainment value currently comes from the voice acting. Hopefully the rest will get better as the show evolves.

Really? I haven't seen it, but I have high hopes for it. Loren Buchard's track record is pretty awesome (he doesn't get the credit he deserves). I suppose he isn't helped by the fact that he's now working for Fox, which has developed a "type" that its cartoons must fall within.

EDIT: We would also like to mention our nerd rage on the topic of Cartoon Network playing ANYTHING that's live-action.

Yes!! I realize that network drift happens and all, what with History Channel airing programs that are history only in that they happened a few months ago before a camera, and The Learning Channel only tenuously attempting to provide us with education, but live action shows on Cartoon Network would be like if Comedy Central suddenly started airing National Geographic documentaries, or if E Network decided to show golf tournaments. It just ain't right!

I blame MTV.

Blame Viacom.

Discovery Networks have been really pissing me off in that regard lately. Firefly on the Science Channel? Seriously, fuck you, Discovery. Don't even get me started on the horror show they've made of TLC.

EDIT: Okay, now we may be getting too nerdy.

Just relax, and let it happen. You know it feels good.

[McDuffies]

Spongebob is utilising it's setting quite a lot, however not in the physical way (upward motion and all that) but in cultural. Everything around it is pirate-themed, merman-themed, sea-food themed, or anything associated with sea. Underwater setting is there to give it's society a specific colour to what is basically a workplace/character/absurdist comedy. I'm fine with it because the cartoon sets it's own rules and sticks to them, and if fire is inexplicably burning underwater, that's a nice piece of absurdist comedy. If anything, it's mostly overexposure to underwater-themed running gags that makes the show lesser these days.

[Warren]

I've really been getting into Regular Show lately. It's pretty trippy, in a way that Sifl and Olly was so many years ago.

[Yeahduff]

That looks pretty awesome. Looking forward to it the next time I stay in a hotel.

[Lostmind]

I'm also liking Bob's Burgers, though the writing and animation are pretty weak. The show's entire entertainment value currently comes from the voice acting. Hopefully the rest will get better as the show evolves.

So true, the jokes often fail but the way the voice cast present them is genius. Their acting gives the characters that certain charm missing from the writing (none seem to be clearly defined to me.)

Everything around it is pirate-themed, merman-themed, sea-food themed, or anything associated with sea.

That's what turn me off of the show. It just seemed too much pirates, mermen, jellyfish; especially after those Johhny Depp pirate films. Those guys were everywhere and last thing I wanted to do was watch a show where they played a large role.

[[geoduck]]

If I limit it to current stuff, I enjoy Futurama and The Venture Bros, although the latter's overt and cheerful celebration of failure does wear at me at times.

[Killbert-Robby]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Yup. Of course, I'm just waiting for them to cancel it too, or put it on hold, or completely change it. I don't trust you anymore, cartoon companies! Every time I hand you my heart, you stomp on it! WELL NOT THIS TIME, YOU HEAR ME?! MLP:FiM WILL LAST FOREVER! OR ELSE!

.... I used to wonder what friendship could be...

[MormonConvent]

We have three people drawing...so what I know is that we're big fans of Freakazoid, Gargoyles, the Aladdin series, Magic School Bus and Avatar: The Last Airbender!

[Jim North]

.... I used to wonder what friendship could be...

. . . !

. . . until you all shared its magic with me . . .

[McDuffies]

What do you guys make of the new Mad magazine cartoons?