Cartoon Industry thread - Showcasing the Spergery of the Animation Industry

It was before ratburn got reroactively made canonically gay like the one writer tried doing with bert and ernie before frank oz stepped in and said "no you fuckhead i made them they aren't gay" in much more polite words.
To be fair, I think Bert and Ernie's whole thing was "friends/roommates that bicker like siblings" and that was it.

On the other hand, Ratburn was always kinda fruity and into performing arts and stuff, lol. He definitely fits more with the gay stereotype than Bert and Ernie. That being said, I don't think it was necessary for the staff to answer if he was gay or straight, though. His whole shtick was "strict but fair workaholic teacher."
 
Fred Rogers and Art Garfunkel were the only ones who worked if you ask me lol. Maybe Yo-Yo Ma as well.
I wanna say it was like The Simpsons where originally they tried to fit the characters into the original artstyle, and then eventually it turned into caricatures with animal ears (or yellow skin, in The Simpsons' case).
 
IMG_7195.png


Cartoonist wants to be breastfed by Elon “Roman Salute” Musk. News at eleven!
 
If we’re still on the subject of celebrity cameos in Arthur, Neil Gaiman looks pretty damn uncanny.
View attachment 7083957
Also did not age well, depending on how you feel about the allegations. I think he’s a weird prick either way.
Semi related to the topic but the Neil Gaiman fall from grace has been delightful to see, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
 
Francine and Brain are characters on Arthur, which the thread is talking about. Everyone in the Arthur universe is an animal, but some animals are black people (like Brain's family, I think, because they celebrate Kwanzaa.)
L-R is Muffy (monkey,) Brain (bear,) D.W. (aardvark,) Buster (rabbit,) Arthur (aardvark,) Francine (monkey,) and Binky (dog.)
View attachment 7082879
The promo pic doesn't do the actual colors justice, in the show Francine and Muffy (both monkeys) are very different colors:
View attachment 7082880
But I don't think it's meant to imply Francine is black, since her family is canonically Jewish:
View attachment 7082885
But fwiw I always assumed Francine and her family were black and Jewish, like Sammy Davis Jr. I'm not sure off the top of my head if there are any characters in Arthur with the afro-textured hair, though, which I guess would be the only actual way to tell if a character is supposed to be black in Arthur.

Edit: There was a black celebrity guest in Arthur! Joshua Redman, a black saxophone player, is Francine's distant cousin...and a cougar...and looked like this:
View attachment 7082889
yeah idk how anything in Arthur works
I believe that Francine and her family were described as Ethiopian jews at one point, but this was retconned at some point to them being from Poland i think?
There is an episode where she has a nightmare about her family as baboons.

Also, i think that Mr. Rogers was the first ever cameo on Arthur?
 
I believe that Francine and her family were described as Ethiopian jews at one point, but this was retconned at some point to them being from Poland i think?
There is an episode where she has a nightmare about her family as baboons.

Also, i think that Mr. Rogers was the first ever cameo on Arthur?
Poles are honorary Africans
 
If we’re still on the subject of celebrity cameos in Arthur, Neil Gaiman looks pretty damn uncanny.
View attachment 7083957
Also did not age well, depending on how you feel about the allegations. I think he’s a weird prick either way.
Neither has neil, so essentially you could dub the entire episode over replace the word “neil gaiman“
honestly he could just be any gothic/horror writer/artist over 30 in this context
The Beavis and Butthead reference slays me, holy shit I can't believe they got away with that episode.
They referenced it twice, and hulk hogan (in human form), and the sopranos those 90’s man
IMG_8910.webp
IMG_8911.webp
Also, i think that Mr. Rogers was the first ever cameo on Arthur?
the same network, probably very easy to get him, and similar teach kids morals theme
 
Last edited:
Arthur is weirdly a show that went damn hard with its references sometimes, plus it also was a kids show that wasn't just saccrine drivel. It rarely pulled a punch.
Take, for instance, the weird 911 type story where the school has a small fire and the kids all have different reactions to it.
When Ms. McGrady had cancer (i think that one was pulled due to Lance Armstrong being in it).
Two whole episodes on the stock market that are actually pretty handy for understanding it.
It did get kinda bad and woke after it changed to cheap flash animation, but the show had new writers by that point too. It still did some good topics though, and having a gay marriage be covered is pretty ballsy for a PBS show.
 
Back