Is "being mean-spirited" a valid argument when it comes to criticizing a cartoon?
Yes.
>I don't like this show
>Why?
>It's meme-spirited
Well it worked for Wonder Showzen, Mr. Pickles, Brickleberry, Family Guy, American Dad, and South Park.
>>81865412
Yes and no.
If it's a legitimate issue that breaks the feel of what the show is aiming for then sure. But if it's about like, misanthropic esque humor when again that's the style of writing its going for it's redundant. Especially when you know the humor/style preferences of whoever's making the critique. Humor is subjective after all.
>>81865412
It's a valid reason for why you don't want to watch a show. Even if the show isn't objectively bad.
If we're supposed to see the main characters as good people but they're clearly fucking assholes, then yeah, because that actually ruins what the show's going for.
Otherwise, no. Mean-spiritedness might not make it your kind of show, but on its own it shouldn't be an actual problem.
>>81865412
Being mean-spirited is a great lesson for the kids. No matter how nice you are, there are people who will be assholes to you, and you just have to accept that and don't let it bother you.
In my opinion there's good mean-spirited and there's bad meanspirtidness.
Good meanspiritdness usually involves a certain degree of equity between victim and perpetrator. Yes, Bugs Bunny is an asshole to Elmer Fudd, but Elmer Fudd is hunting Bugs for sport, so you can only feel so bad for Elmer. Another good example is "Its Always Sunny In philadelphia", where all the characters are assholes who constantly abuse each other, but their all assholes and they all regularly abuse the others. Something like Malcolm in the Middle is also good, since the characters are constantly making stupid impulsive decisions, but ultimately they do care for one another despite the exchange of shit.
Bad Meanspiritedness is something like "Allen gregory", where half the cast is assholes, and the other half are pushovers. Instead of seeing enemies, or even friends giving each other shit; your seeing 2 people abuse 2 other people. and unless you handle it perfectly slapstick stops being funny when it becomes something more akin to domestic violence
I think when people say something is "mean spirited", they mean "I have no reason to like the characters who succeed nor to dislike the ones who lose; the show is specifically making me want something and actively refusing to give it to me"
>>81865648
Essentially this. There's no inherent problem with a show when it's mean spirited, in fact you can have a show where every single character is a piece of shit and it can be highly enjoyable.
The problem happens is when for some reason or another, you want the audience to believe that the characters aren't pieces of shit and that you should be seeing them as the heroes.
Catdog was a problem in this regard because we're supposed to see Cat as this stick in the mud jerk that deserves everything he gets while Dog was supposed to be a lovable goof but Cat actually wasn't anywhere near as bad as the writers were trying to make him out to be(a lot of times he never even did anything wrong) and Dog was someone magically immune to consequences while causing endless shit for Cat.
>>81865412
Not really. I still don't like this show.
>>81865412
If somethings to mean-spirited I won't want to watch it. Yes, I guess.
>>81865675
If I had a kid's cartoon, one of the morals of the week would be "if anybody tries lecturing you about how being mean is natural and you have to accept it, that person's probably a dick".
>>81865969
Sort of the Squidward-effect in where we pity and sympathize with Squidward because he didn't do anything wrong and is just being tortured by Spongebob and/or Patrick without reason. There were some episodes early on were it was more balanced but later on Squidward only came of as a victim, morose, sad, and cynical for his torturous life.
>>81866125
Even as a dumb kid I hated Dog as and pitied Cat.
>>81865675
>>81866322
To follow up, the next lesson should be if someone is a dick to you and won't stop when you talk to them about it, be TWICE the dick back.
What you think ignoring people works in real life? They'll go fucking harder, fuck your moral high ground it's not like they go home and weep about their guilty conscience if you go that route.
The only thing that actually fucking works is to retaliate. You'll get in trouble whether you do or not with today's bs political climate in schools, make sure that they get theirs.
>>81866599
yeah, lots of cartoons frustrated me that way. Then some shows have a weird thing where they know how to properly right often-wrong comedic male characters but totally fuck up the females (Simpsons)
>>81866542
I blame the post movie episodes for this mostly.
Before the karma WAS actually fairly balanced because Squidward usually did some shit to deserve what he got, like pretending to be on errands while trying to make Spongebob man the Krusty Krab for the whole day, or pretending to be dead and being mean in general.
Afterward the movie, Squidward would do nothing more or less than appear and would then get endlessly shit on.
mrenter is such a pussy
what the hell is his problem
>>81866744
*after the movie
>>81866760
he does nothing all day but watch cartoons
no seriously he makes a living off of his videos
>>81866683
Female characters in these kind of shows are the worst of all, they have idiot immunity on steroids except we're also supposed to believe that they're all so smart and wonderful and that
they deserve the world despite being massive bitches.
>>81866683
Could you give me an example of one? I thought Lindsey Neagle (business woman) was pretty well written as a wrong character.
>>81866845
True. I geuss more main character's wife, daughter, or mother. Lisa, Marge, etc never really suffer consequences for the shit they do
>>81866834
Yeah man, IDK if its the message their delivering but it seems to be the most passive-aggressive condescending "feminism" giving to message "Women are wonderful and deserve your respect even though their terrible and do everything wrong"
Also, all the episodes where author insert characters where they have to learn the world is unfair specifically to them and everyone hates them for no reason but they just have to accept that make me roll my eyes at the creators.
It's a valid reason not to LIKE a cartoon. I mean I'd call you a pansy for it, but, hey, some people are pansies.
>Character is deformed
>Everyone hates him no matter what he does
>There is a group of thugs who beat him daily for his deformity
This show was ficking depressing.
>>81867219
what show
>>81867238
Catdog
Is this the modern Tom and Jerry?
>>81867400
>The series ran on Nickelodeon until May 18, 2001, with all episodes of season four (except for the made-for-TV film CatDog: The Great Parent Mystery) unaired until June 15, 2005.
>Modern
>>81866125
>Dog was someone magically immune to consequences
This. If Dog runs around breaking everyone's shit, guess Who's getting beaten by the angry mob?
Don't know why, but it was my favourite Nickelodeon show as a kid. Anyone else liked it too?
>>81867400
Modern Tom and Jerry is Oggy and the Cockroaches.
>>81865412
What's some examples of being mean spirited?
>>81868156
Karma being practically non-existent.
>>81868156
Teen Titans Go?
>>81869865
So the real world is mean spirited?
>>81869908
Of course.
