Stuff you couldn't get away with in 2020

TheMysteriousGX

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Winter Soldier?
That was Hydra, a super-secret evil nazi faction corrupting the noble S.H.E.I.L.D. organization, the latter of which wanted flying murder fortresses for entirely legitimate and noble reasons, such as stopping space conquerers. (Any commentary that modern superheroes flirt with fascism was entirely unintentional)
 

Iron

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That was Hydra, a super-secret evil nazi faction corrupting the noble S.H.E.I.L.D. organization, the latter of which wanted flying murder fortresses for entirely legitimate and noble reasons, such as stopping space conquerers. (Any commentary that modern superheroes flirt with fascism was entirely unintentional)
Did it corrupt it or did it replace it entirely? I'm fuzzy on the details. I think shield never recovered after winter soldier
 

Terminal Blue

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Always Sunny in Philadelphia is more risque than most of the stuff that's been posted so far, and that's being made in 2020.

It's not the subject matter exactly. You need self-awareness, and to not keep hitting old shitty tropes.
This.

The idea that you can't make offensive content any more is so divorced from reality that I struggle to think where it even came from. It's entirely the reverse. There is, relatively speaking, far, far more media around today which could not have been made in the past than the reverse.

People love to hold up South Park, but South Park was nearly cancelled in its first season because it had a gay in it. Far fewer people give a shit about the "offensive content" in South Park today than did in 1997.
 
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Iron

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Always Sunny in Philadelphia is more risque than most of the stuff that's been posted so far, and that's being made in 2020.

It's not the subject matter exactly. You need self-awareness, and to not keep hitting old shitty tropes.
Always Sunny is beautiful and clever. well said
 

Mister Mumbler

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I recently caught up watching IASIP having missed the past 4 seasons or so, and man, they certainly ratcheted up the raunchy in the later years. Hope it's not an indication that they've run out of steam and are approaching shark-jumping territory.

I started the series over after finishing the most recent season, and you can definitely see a difference between then and now. They've lost some subtlety and cleverness in lieu of more in-your-face, shock gags. They went from a group of friends with some awkward quirks and a wealth of bad ideas to a gang of sociopathic heathens with no sense or moral compass. It's like every character has been Flanderized, but at least it was a slow boil involving SOME development over time; it wasn't like the writers saw how much people liked "stupid Charlie" in season 2, so they lobotomized him for season 3.

I still like the show, probably my favorite, but had I started the series around season 10 or 11, it'd probably not have held my attention.
I kinda agree on first part, though I think it's less "run out of steam" and more that it's both in it's 15th season now and is the longest running live action sit-com (which I admit still sounds like ran out of steam but then I am a huge fan so this isn't exactly unbiased), however I disagree on the second. This was always a group of borderline sociopaths, and the only reason they are not more like the guy from Nightcrawler is that they are too self-centered and incompetent for their schemes to work. Outside of the first season, which does feature them more as a bunch of wacky goofballs, they started laying down the fact that these people suck quite early, with season two having the gang: impersonating Islamic terrorists, burning down a building, getting addicted to crack for welfare, find out that Dennis had sexual misconduct with a minor, get addicted to "steroids", and running an illegal gambling ring in their basement complete with games of Russian roulette, and it only goes downhill from here (season three starts with Mac and Dee attempting to put a baby they just found in a tanning bed, Frank and Charlie become trash hobos and Dennis completely destroys an activist that belittled him and sleeps with his girlfriend).

I think this is why I like Sunny so much, and why it has both gotten away with so much for so long, is that there is very little ambiguity to the main characters. They are awful through and through, unlike say Rick and Morty that had to spend it's entire third season beating it's audience over the head with the message "Rick is evil and you shouldn't try to emulate him".
 
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Shadyside

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Outside of the first season, which does feature them more as a bunch of wacky goofballs, they started laying down the fact that these people suck quite early, with season two having the gang: impersonating Islamic terrorists, burning down a building, getting addicted to crack for welfare, find out that Dennis had sexual misconduct with a minor, get addicted to "steroids", and running an illegal gambling ring in their basement complete with games of Russian roulette, and it only goes downhill from here (season three starts with Mac and Dee attempting to put a baby they just found in a tanning bed, Frank and Charlie become trash hobos and Dennis completely destroys an activist that belittled him and sleeps with his girlfriend).

I think this is why I like Sunny so much, and why it has both gotten away with so much for so long, is that there is very little ambiguity to the main characters. They are awful through and through, unlike say Rick and Morty that had to spend it's entire third season beating it's audience over the head with the message "Rick is evil and you shouldn't try to emulate him".
I wish I saw all of this back in my grade school days. I only ever saw Scrubs, That 70s Show, Sabrina, and some comedy central shows.
 

Terminal Blue

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I think this is why I like Sunny so much, and why it has both gotten away with so much for so long, is that there is very little ambiguity to the main characters. They are awful through and through, unlike say Rick and Morty that had to spend it's entire third season beating it's audience over the head with the message "Rick is evil and you shouldn't try to emulate him".
I think the issue is that Rick and Morty doesn't ever successfully do that.

In the context of the show, Rick is always right. Rick always wins in the end, and almost always, he wins because of those precise qualities that we're supposed to not like about him. When other characters (particularly Morty and Summer) embrace those qualities themselves, they win. When they reject those qualities, they lose, or are shown to be naive idiots, and, typically, Rick has to step in and fix everything for them.

Occasionally, the show indulges the momentary conceit that Rick is sad, but Rick is never sad because he is wrong and his philosophy has failed him. He is sad because he accurately perceives the world as it really is, and because he is alone in being able to do so. It's a dumb person's idea of what being smart means.

It's Always Sunny doesn't just make its characters so horrible we couldn't possibly admire them, it also very explicitly shows that they are wrong. They way they live has not made them happy or successful. Their cruelty and selfishness is not depicted as some heroic egotism or the only rational response to an irrational universe, it's the deluded egotism of shitty, broken people who can't look past themselves, and that's just fundamentally less obnoxious.
 
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Silvanus

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Occasionally, the show indulges the momentary conceit that Rick is sad, but Rick is never sad because he is wrong and his philosophy has failed him. He is sad because he accurately perceives the world as it really is, and because he is alone in being able to do so. It's a dumb person's idea of what being smart means.
Eh, disagree there. In the two episodes that really dwell on Rick's unhappiness at the end-- Auto Erotic Assimilation & The Old Man & the Seat-- it's pretty clear that he's brought about his misery himself through his own actions in the episode.

In general I'd agree, though. It has Rick showing how much smarter he is than everybody else 9 times out of 10 without any redress. But later seasons seem to be shifting that a bit, with the S3 finale being a good turnaround.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I kinda agree on first part, though I think it's less "run out of steam" and more that it's both in it's 15th season now and is the longest running live action sit-com (which I admit still sounds like ran out of steam but then I am a huge fan so this isn't exactly unbiased), however I disagree on the second. This was always a group of borderline sociopaths, and the only reason they are not more like the guy from Nightcrawler is that they are too self-centered and incompetent for their schemes to work. Outside of the first season, which does feature them more as a bunch of wacky goofballs, they started laying down the fact that these people suck quite early, with season two having the gang: impersonating Islamic terrorists, burning down a building, getting addicted to crack for welfare, find out that Dennis had sexual misconduct with a minor, get addicted to "steroids", and running an illegal gambling ring in their basement complete with games of Russian roulette, and it only goes downhill from here (season three starts with Mac and Dee attempting to put a baby they just found in a tanning bed, Frank and Charlie become trash hobos and Dennis completely destroys an activist that belittled him and sleeps with his girlfriend).

I think this is why I like Sunny so much, and why it has both gotten away with so much for so long, is that there is very little ambiguity to the main characters. They are awful through and through, unlike say Rick and Morty that had to spend it's entire third season beating it's audience over the head with the message "Rick is evil and you shouldn't try to emulate him".
Don't forget the time Dee was genuinely offended that a reporter called her "surly white trash" after she called him a f*ggot for ordering a chardonnay...

I don't disagree with you at all. "The Gang" has never been a group of even remotely good people, but their ridiculousness really stepped up to eleven in the later seasons, sometimes to the show's detriment. I still love the show, but I prefer the earlier episodes when they were more focused and nuanced and not so flamboyant; it seems to be trying too hard at times. Also, I don't like the recent "gimmick" episodes, like the one where they turn black after a lightning strike while watching The Wiz, or the episode that revolved around texting at the zoo; those just came off as scraping the bottom of the barrel for "zany" ideas.

Never seen Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but you guys have convinced me to watch it.
You absolutely should; it's a fantastic show that flies in the face of modern cancel culture.
 
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BrawlMan

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Eh, disagree there. In the two episodes that really dwell on Rick's unhappiness at the end-- Auto Erotic Assimilation & The Old Man & the Seat-- it's pretty clear that he's brought about his misery himself through his own actions in the episode.

In general I'd agree, though. It has Rick showing how much smarter he is than everybody else 9 times out of 10 without any redress. But later seasons seem to be shifting that a bit, with the S3 finale being a good turnaround.
By that point for me it was a little too late. I did see season 4, but I have no interest in a season 5. Even without Rick, I still usually dislike Beth. Summer and Morty, I've lost reasons to care. You know something is wrong or right, when people like Travis Touchdown, Shinobu Jacobs, and Kratos have become better parents or people than Rick or Beth will ever be.
 
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BrawlMan

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Really, kids shows like Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Lab, and a majority of other shows from the '90s up to the early 2000s you definitely cannot do anymore. Especially Johnny Bravo. The censors werereally asleep during the 90s especially.
 
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ObsidianJones

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-Sharing a soda with your friends.

That was gross anyway, so maybe that's for the best.

-Hulkamania. Because Whatcha Gonna Do... When the Leaked Sex Tape comes after you.....

-And ironically enough, the movie PCU.

Whose whole message of "Stop over reacting and just conform with us and you'll be fine" was lost to me as a kid, because the central characters are painted to be cool and who we're supposed to conform with. I

know people will say "But Obsidian, they were right! Look how run amuck these groups made life to be NOW!! This movie was prophetic!"

Well, I invite you to think about the movie deeper.

The Gay club was actually just there to be a joke. And I don't even remember what Tom did to piss them off so they were chasing him. But I have to suppose the actual club would have been in the college for Proper Gay Representation and support. PCU was released in 1994. Matthew Shepard was killed in 1998 for the crime of being gay. It took years to get to where Obama signed into law basic societal rights like marriage and the rest, and Trump is trying to roll that back.

The Black Power club is talking about the systematic oppression of Blacks from the government. And it's played that it's so overblown and farcical. Cut to 2020 where this population has it record that Blacks are treated unfairly, have their 'crimes' lied about or overblown, killed and beaten with regularity, and a quarter of this population is ready to go to war over the fact that it's ok that blacks are treated like that, or that it's a lie and we should fight to the death over a lie.

The Womynist... Harvey Weinstein.

And the main student 'antagonists', the Cause-heads. Who held a peaceful protest and had meat lobbed on them because... Lulz, how dare you care about something when I don't. But put that aside, the environmentalists who cared about animals and the earth. And Gee, what a healthy world we have now. We're getting a fire season that might be a annual thing that has destroyed cities, sweltering temperatures that are killing populations of fish (also known as one of the most tapped food sources on this planet), the ice caps, and including ourselves... and tremendously dangerous storms that are getting what the fires can not.

But they weren't painted as cool. The Pit was. And then they threw a party that made everyone else conform not to care and that would make the world better.

... Only... if you look at the real world... Yeah, every one of those groups were damn right to try to mobilize change. The Pit's mindset of not caring has gotten us to a breaking point.

But again. Doesn't matter. They were so cool, weren't they?!

The reason it shouldn't be made again in 2020 is that it would be wholly insulting to try to pretend that these issues didn't need tackling way before we got to this point, and that we should just chill out and smoke a bowl and it'll be ok.

As much as people try to pretend that it's the worst thing in the world, getting responsible with your message and your responsibilities in the world isn't some horrible censorship trying to kill fun... it's what Adults do. We're supposed to be Adults. This world and this society is in our care, so we're supposed to the best for all of it, not just what we want to focus on.

Because throwing a fit because you don't wanna and it's not fair or fun is what kids do. We were supposed to grow out of that a while ago.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Really, kids shows like Ren & Stimpy rocko's modern life, Powerpuff girls, Johnny bravo, Dexter's lab, and a majority of other shows from the '90s up to the early 2000s you definitely cannot do anymore. Especially Johnny Bravo. The censors are really asleep during the 90s especially.
Let's not omit "Cow & Chicken" and the flamboyantly-implied homosexual antagonist Red Guy (from Bend, Oregon, of all places...) If you can't hear this picture, we can't be friends.

1600103146711.png

EDIT - from Wikipedia:

Controversial Espisode:
The second season segment "Buffalo Gals", first paired with "Cow and Chicken Reclining", was banned by Cartoon Network after receiving one letter of complaint from a parent about the episode's liberal visual and verbal innuendo about the titular biker group being lesbians. In the segment, the Buffalo Gals break into people's homes to chew on the carpet, a biker named Munch Kelly has a carpet swatch for a calling card, and when Dad freaks out over the Buffalo Gals in the house, Mom says, "They're not after you."[7] In addition, the Buffalo Gals play softball and talk about pitching and catching. Although it was only shown on air once, it was replaced by "Orthodontic Police" in future airings, including on Netflix streaming and reruns on Boomerang. The episode was also discussed on an installment of Rob Paulsen's Talkin' Toons special featuring Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss and voice actor Charlie Adler when an audience member asked why "Buffalo Gals" only aired once.
 

BrawlMan

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Let's not omit "Cow & Chicken" and the flamboyantly-implied homosexual antagonist Red Guy (from Bend, Oregon, of all places...) If you can't hear this picture, we can't be friends.

View attachment 899

EDIT - from Wikipedia:
Cow & Chicken and Ren & Stimpy are nearly one in the same. Most of the writers, and artists/background artists worked on R&S. That's why they're animation styles look so similar. Not to mention the crude humor. Ren & Stimpy is still way more nightmare inducing.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Cow and Chicken and Ren and Stimpy are nearly one in the same. Most of the writers, and artists/background artists worked on R&S. That's why they're animation styles look so similar. Not to mention the crude humor. The Ren and Stimpy is still way more nightmarinducing.
Yeah, R&S was good for some nightmare fuel...

 
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Mister Mumbler

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Really, kids shows like Ren & Stimpy rocko's modern life, Powerpuff girls, Johnny bravo, Dexter's lab, and a majority of other shows from the '90s up to the early 2000s you definitely cannot do anymore. Especially Johnny Bravo. The censors are really asleep during the 90s especially.
Yeah, with shows like Rocko and Ren & Stimpy that were made to see how much they could get past the censors would definitely not fly today, but more mature kids shows have been a thing with Regular Show:

And Gravity Falls (on Disney no less too):
 
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