Why is it so bad when a cartoon references a meme, or uses slang?
It feels forced and awkward. It's like when a parent tries to speak like young people so that their child will think they're cool.
Because memes are a cancerous, very minimal effort form of comedy and using one in a show that's main appeal is supposed to be comedy shows that the writers are either running out of ideas, or just talentless hacks
>>84427811
Because it breaks the illusion that they are special things only meant for "us".
For memes:
- Unless it's purposefully done this way, it's usually outdated as fuck
- It's lazy. It's relying on the creativity and popularity of someone's else's work instead of creating new content that it good enough on its own to become a meme.
- "Sup my young parsons, I too am so on the go that I drink my yogurt from a tube."
Pretty much this
>>84427871
This. The entire "joke" is "Hey, I get that reference!". That, and they age rapidly. By the time a cartoon gets to air any meme they wrote into it will already be dated, even if it was brand new when they wrote the episode.
Slang is only bad if it's not used in a natural-sounding way, which it often is.
Slang is fine if used correctly and probably sparingly. At worst it'd just be dated but if done correctly people probably won't notice in the future/understand it's a comic from 20 years ago but it's still readable.
Memes in the sense I feel you're using are usually based in very recent pop culture and unless they transcend the very short lifespan of memes it would make no sense to a person who wasn't around/paying attention in that very small window.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it.
It's just the same thing with Zack Snyder and his religious references: when you rely on these things to prop up the quality, you're doing it incorrectly.
Memes and shit are great when they're subtle/small elements of an already functional scene or episode. Otherwise, you're just saying, "Look! It's [subjectively funny thing X]! Isn't that hilarious!!!!?!?!" Or, equally bad, "Look! It's [subjectively deep thing Y]! Wow, it really makes you think, huh!"
>>84428070
I thought this was an edit for years
>>84427811
If you use something current, there is NO guarantee that it'll be remembered outside of that era and the only enjoyment out of the reference is "Oh hey, I saw that a while ago", and it doesn't stand the test of time.
Referencing stuff from the 90s, 80s or just way way long back works because of its "timelessness". Generally everyone knows the story of the Trojan Horse, or understands the saying, that'd be a meme, or generally everyone says "what's up", that's slang. Kids shows like Adventure Time or Randy Cunningham did a decent job at avoiding this by using its own slang, which made it set in its own setting and makes what they say stand in for whatever actually is current.
If you reference something recent and your work isn't meant to be reflective of the time it was made in, then it poorly dates it. Referencing this kind of thing isn't immediately lazy, like all things it depends on how its written and what its purpose is in the context. Sometimes it's purposely dated on to laugh at it, and/or to show how things were, sometimes it's done because the writer figures it's an easy shot at "humor".
Since its the most easy comparison: Compare all the references the original Powerpuff Girls has to various things in varying media to the references in the new Powerpuff girls to memes and current shows.
>>84428070
I don't know what meme is there on this page.
>>84427855
first post, best post
>>84428251
lolcatz
>>84427927
>creativity
>popularity
>work
>memes
One of these things is not like the others
