Kids' cartoons

Saturday mornings channels don't really show much for children anymore. When I was a kid, I used to love waking up and watching the various cartoons and children's shows. I have viewed some of them online or on the cartoon network and am surprised at some of the adult content that is hidden in the scripts and imagery. I guess they do that so that parents can enjoy the shows they are sometimes forced to watch with their kids. I know it's not a Saturday cartoon, but the Simpson's is an excellent example of this. Students in my classes are really shocked to find out the various historical references presented in the show. Some of them after learning a subject in class often remember a cartoon they saw that had similar concepts. This year a student brought up an episode of Sponge Bob when we talked about the Bubonic Plague. One thing I hope that students remember after being in my class is a statement I use regularly: history is everywhere.

Sometimes, it is not history that is hidden in the cartoons. Sometimes it is sexual imagery or, as Dave Chappelle shows in the video below, possible drug-use.