Discontinued, disavowed, but not destroyed. He knows it will destroy him.ġ965–Quisp with Quisp, he-who-returned. He wasn’t the first, but he was the lamplighter, the leader, the paragon, and he will be the last, in the end.ġ964–Lucky Charms with Lucky the Persistent Irish Stereotype. He became addicted to the pursuit of chocolate perfection, and thus became imperfect.ġ963–Cap’n Crunch with Cap’n Crunch, the Superman of breakfast mascots. ġ954–Trix with the Trix Rabbit, who will only earn his name when he finally steals a bowl from those awful children.ġ956–Cuckoo Puffs with Sonny the Cuckoo-bird. Soldiers were making large, busy families. Supermarkets were full after a long period of rationing. The googie period was the period of insta-meals. ![]() What makes an obvious target? Breakfast cereal. So these writers are working on a googie era parody show. His episodes were written by Richard Pursel, Vince Calandra, Chris Recardi, and Bob Camp. So don’t associate Powdered Toast Man with John K. ![]() After all, he was just the creator, he wasn’t always the writer, and when he was he was frequently a “collaborator.” Quite a few of the writers on Ren and Stimpy hated his guts. He was envious of the success of his father and the success of the period, yet at the same time he hated how both his father and society would condemn him for being a worthless monster, so he’d copy the googie style but dirty it up, unable to innovate, only able to debase what was already created.īut let’s not associate Ren and Stimpy with John K anymore than we need to. John K associated the googie period with his father. No, not grooming children, the other one. Why did it parody that time period? It’s because John K embodied that overwhelming compulsion of overblown animation celebs– The Ren and Stimpy Show was a parody of that magical late 50’s, early 60’s period, that Incredibles period of silver age superheroes, I Dream of Jeannie, googie architecture, and UPA cartoons. Both very, very dangerous, because when you combine stupid with powers, you get stuporpowers. Then you get Powdered Toast Man, the sparkling, farting, crouton-shooting superhero from The Ren and Stimpy Show and Really Really Big Man, the cross-dressing, nipple-lashing, blue-skinned superhero from Rocko’s Modern Life. So who do you get when superhero parody meets gross-out?īut what if you wanted someone with a cartoon? Preferably someone from the same network as another parody superhero so they can fight? Finally, in1997, you had Captain Underpants who kind of capped off the wave of parody superheroes with a lighter, more child-friendly take. So prevalent were parody superheroes that even legit superheroes like Space Ghost got in on the act. ![]() In 1991, there was the Mask in comics, and in 1994 a softer, less-homicidal version made it to theaters. In less mainstream circles, there was the Maxx in 1993, the surreal hobo-superhero who was also a rabbit. There was the Tick, the mighty god-king of superhero parodies, was first written in 1986, but his popularity took off like a rocket in 1994 when he got a cartoon in 1994, the same year that brought us Earthworm Jim. What a lot of people don’t get looking back on the XTREME decade was that quite a lot of it was tongue-in-cheek. The 90’s were also the decade of the superhero parody. It was as if the human noosphere understood that in a few decades childhood would transition from outdoor fun and bruises and developing a functional immunity to days spent languishing in front of screens and wanted the gross, disgusting aspects of childhood to go out with a bang. ![]() It was the decade of slime, bathroom humor, babies adventuring outside, Miss Frizzle saying it was time to make mistakes and get messy, and stuff they wouldn’t dare make today for cartoons like Ren and Stimpey and Rocko’s Modern Life. It wasn’t just grunge rock and slacker culture, kids were weaned on a diet of gross-out. Really Really Big Man’s Really Really Disturbing Powers And Abilities.Powdered Toast Man Powers And Abilities.
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