5mo ago

They haven't made too many family-friendly cartoons about an abusive husband in a toxic relationship since they stopped making The Flintstones.

18 comments

Seth MacFarlane respectfully disagrees.
But as always, Simpsons did it first.
- Homer is an abusive father, is he really an abusive husband though?
  
  At least a dead beat one imho.
  
  Emotionally maybe?
- I wouldn't call either of those family-friendly. The Simpsons more so though.
  
  Flintstones was mostly for adults. It was prime time. Hell, they advertised cigarettes!
  
  I’m not sure about now, but very much in the 90s. I wasn’t allowed to watch them growing up.
The Flintstones was originally an adult-oriented cartoon, and became seen as family friendly as time went on and more things became available on TV.
Its role was closer to the Simpsons when that was new, which also became more acceptable for younger people to watch over time.
I can’t remember Fred or Barney being abusive. It was a clone of the Honeymooners, so they were not the brightest bulbs in the lamp.
- Isn't the most famous honeymooner's memes:
  One of these days, Alice! BANG! ZOOM! Straight to the moon!
  Not taking about rockets, he's threatening to beat his wife
  
  And the joke is that it's an utterly empty threat.
The Jetsons?
- I don't think George was abusive, just someone dumber and lazier than Homer Simpson. Then again, I barely remember anything about the Jetsons.
Make Family Shows Toxic Again.
/s
The absolute only part of the Flintstones I remember was everyone having to keep Fred awake because they mixed his xray with the pet or something. To this day that's what my minds eye sees when i sleep too little.
Was it really that common though? There were a couple shows with that trope but only a handful were popular. It's kinda like the popularity of "Westerns" which is pretty low these days outside of isolated ranching shows like Yellowstone etc.

18 comments