They’re raunchy, they’re funny, and they’re vulgar and sometimes downright gory. Let’s have a look at ten cartoon shows you definitely don’t want to watch with your kids on a Sunday afternoon. These shows will make you laugh, or will make your stomach turn, but they continue to entertain a large number of viewers worldwide.
1. The Simpsons
Probably the longest-running show in our list, The Simpsons presents the adventures and misadventures of a middle-class family in small-town America. This show has it all: political and social issues, family life, environment, pop-culture. It’s been running for so long that the phrase “the Simpsons did it” was coined to describe a gag or theme in other cartoon shows that had previously been used by the Simpsons.
2. Futurama
From the creators of The Simpsons comes this space-age cartoon show, set in the year 3000.The main character is a pizza delivery boy that accidentally gets cryogenically preserved in 1999 and wakes up in the far future, where aliens, humans and robots co-exist and where a delivery crew (complete with space-ship!) goes through the most absurd, yet funny mishaps you could think of.
3. South Park
They’re everybody’s favorite foul-mouthed elementary school students! Set in South Park, Colorado, this is probably one of the most controversial TV shows ever made, attacking US and world politics, the media, pop-culture, current issues and stereotypes, all through the mouths of children.
4. Beavis and Butthead
Although not completely animated (often containing takeouts of music videos), this show certainly has a place on our list because of the toilet humor and language used throughout the show. Teenage misfits Beavis and Butthead have been the idols of an entire generation of young metal-heads and are still a pop-culture icon to the day. Their comments on music videos and the mishaps they go through are as funny as they are offensive, which is what the creators of the show intended in the first place.
5. Family Guy
Absurd, vulgar, sometimes completely senseless; those are only a few words that can accurately describe this show. You have to have a special sense of humor to be amused by the shenanigans of Peter Griffin and his family and friends. Yet another show set in small-town America (this seems to be a favorite of cartoon sitcom creators) that raunchily presents, in a well-exaggerated fashion, the life of the middle-class American. Yes, and a talking dog; there’s a talking, highly intellectual dog in this show.
6. American Dad!
From Seth Mcfarlane, the creator of Family Guy, comes this comedy show about a xenophobic, intolerant, super-patriotic CIA agent and his family and friends. The pattern is predictable and pretty much the same as for Family Guy, but the episodes tend to be slightly more political than the latter. Oh, and did we mention there’s an alien and a talking fish in this one?
7. Metalocalypse
This is a great little show that takes a funny, sometimes gory approach to the underground metal scene. Presenting the life and times of death-metal band Dethklok, the cartoon is a must-see for every die-hard metal-head out there. And if the humor doesn’t convince you, the hair-raising metal tunes on the sound track surely will!
8. Brickleberry
This one’s for the connoisseurs of the genre. It presents the story of a team of rangers from Brickleberry National Park; if bad language, xenophobia, racism and intolerance turned into comedy do it for you, then this is the show you should be watching. We like to think the show was created to criticize aforementioned behaviors, but we’ll leave it up to you to decide.
9. Drawn Together
Designed as a parody of multiple reality shows, Drawn Together is an animation where a group of superheroes and cartoon characters live under the same roof while participating in a Big Brother –like reality show. The adventures, misadventures, sexual innuendo, gore and absurdity that ensue are a source of humor…if you’re into that kind of thing.
10. Happy Tree Friends
Gore is the main theme of this cartoon show where fluffy, seemingly innocent animals slaughter each other or die in horrible accidents worthy of a Final Destination film, all over the length of just a few minutes. The sound-track is obsessively catchy, and the gore scenes are somehow…funny. This show is not for the faint of heart, though.
