I'm sure I don't have to tell you that there are plenty of cartoons that are not for kids. Some people will see that a show is animated and assume that it's like the Saturday morning cartoons we grew up with - geared toward kids. However, anyone who has watched South Park or (to an extent) Family Guy, knows this isn't the case. Teenagers, maybe, but not kids. As fun as Spongebob and the like can be to watch, sometimes we grownups want something just for us. If this describes you, here are a few cartoons that are not for kids you may not have heard of. For the purposes of this article, I'm including shows that use claymation or mixed media as well as your standard cartoon. I'm mostly thinking of series as opposed to movies since that's what I watch most often. Some are no longer running, but you can usually find reruns online.
1 Ren and Stimpy
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Despite the fact that it started on a kids' network, Ren and Stimpy is definitely on the list of cartoons that are not for kids. The title characters are a dimwitted cat and a mentally-altered chihuahua who were very adept at toilet humor and crude innuendo. It was really more geared toward teens, which I suppose is why my best high school friend and I would call each other by their names and recite some of the sketches. I don't normally get into gross-out humor but I still love the “Happy Happy Joy Joy” and “Log” songs. There's an “adult party cartoon” version on Netflix but, frankly, it was stupid.
2 Aqua Teen Hunger Force
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This Cartoon Network offering consists of three human-sized fast-food items and one crude and chauvinistic neighbor. While we get a kick out of it in my house, there is a very good reason it's on “Adult Swim”! For instance, one of the characters tried to get into another's Ouija board game by filling his neighbor's pool with piranhas and diving in. Another episode has the neighbor dressed up in S&M (I'll leave you to look that up) gear trying to pay a prostitute with a big jar of pennies. I'm sure I don't have to go any further to convince you this isn't a kids' show.
3 Wonder Showzen
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This is a spoof of PBS kids' shows, complete with yarn-sewn puppets and random animated skits. I'm not going to go into too much detail because I don't want to spoil anything, but my husband jokingly claimed that it was “the most f*ing disturbing thing [he's] ever seen.” It's not slasher-movie creepy, but it does appeal to a particular brand of humor.
4 Robot Chicken
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Yes, I know this isn't a cartoon, but stop-motion counts as animation. It's a creation of Seth Green with help from Seth MacFarlane, which should tell you up front that it's not kid-friendly. It's 15 minutes of “channel-surfing” using clay, action figures, food - pretty much anything they can think of to act out silly and very adult-oriented sketches.
5 Shin Chan
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I found this on anime-esque show on Netflix when I was bored and flipping through the cartoons. Yes, I admit to liking cartoons. Shin is that kid your parents didn't want you to hang out with - rude, vulgar, no sense of propriety or manners, you get the idea. It's not as weird as some of the others, but still funny.
6 Squidbillies
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Like I've said before, please know that not all people from Georgia are like this. Like the name suggests, they're basically a family of cartoon squid who hunt, wear flannel and tell coarse jokes in Southern accents. It's strange to say the least.
7 Archer
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This FX late-night show is basically James Bond on steroids. The title character is an oversexed spy who works at an international agency located above a laundromat run by his mom and takes bizarre cases using even more bizarre gadgets. The voice actor who plays Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) also does the voice of Bob from “Bob's Burgers”, so the two shows sometimes cross paths. I love “Bob's Burgers”, so I get a huge kick out of this.
As you can see, “cartoon” does not necessarily mean “kid-friendly”. I left anime (with the exception of #5) off of the list because I'm not very familiar with it, but what I have seen is definitely geared toward tweens or teens. This doesn't mean that kids should never watch it so much as that sometimes cartoon fans like me like to see things with a more mature theme. These shows are definitely off-center, so view at your own risk! What about you? Can you think of any cartoons that are not for kids? What are some of your favorites? Are there any shows you'd recommend? Discuss!