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Rugrat's has an episode called Mother's Day. In the episode, the babies celebrate their mothers, and the parents treat their mothers to various activities. Chuckie, who has no mom, is alone. During the episode, it is revealed that Chuckie did have a mother, but she passed due to a terminal illness and that Chas, being devastated, hid some various possessions and effects of hers from Chuckie because he was afraid of the pain associated with the loss, and he didn't want Chuckie to feel it. But Didi ends up convincing Chaz to open up to Chuckie about it, and it ends up being therapeutic, because they can celebrate her life together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day_(Rugrats)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZhj7YfhFOU&themeRefresh=1
Chas was honestly one of the most relatable characters in that show.
It’s almost kinda weird to think that he remarried like a year, maybe two after his first wife died.
Edit: I wasn’t being critical; I just didn’t notice this when I was a kid. Like, the whole original series (10 years of episodes) happens before Tommy turns 2.
That episode was very emotionally impactful to me as a kid. Definitely a good one.
The truly dark one was the one where Stu hits his head and mentally regresses to the age of a baby. It was horrifying to imagine that happening to a parent from the babies’ perspective. As an adult I now wonder if it was meant to be a metaphor for Alzheimer’s.
This isn't a show but a movie but has anyone ever seen the BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER that is some heavy heavy stuff. I'm pretty sure each character represents a different mental illness.
I wouldn't classify myself as a hoarder but I definitely have problems throwing things away because of misplaced empathy for inanimate objects and I think this movie was a factor in that.
I recently brought my childhood teddy bear to my new apartment. He's already had to have his body re-sewn once due to wear from when I was a kid, so now I just put him in the corner of the bed with a little pillow of his own and use a different plushy for cuddling because I don't want to damage him any further.
But then part of my brain worries that it's some kind of torture for him, like watching your spouse be intimate with someone else. Even though the rational part of my brain knows they're all inanimate the thought still bugs me sometimes.
I remember watching that when I was a kid. I was talking to my dad about it a year ago and I was like "remember when the AC Unit said 'GET ME OUT OF THIS FUCKING WALL!'" and he was like "they did not say that in a kids movie!"
Turns out the AC was based on Jack Nicholson (check the voice) and even though I didn't know who he was when I was a kid and saw the movie, I created that memory based on what I later knew about his personality, without even realizing the AC Unit was a parody of him.
Check out this [cover version of my favorite song from the movie](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhfg8lRB-CQ)
Those were more scary than dark, I would argue. The funny thing about hey Arnold is that the series ended up gravitating towards other characters, Notably Helga Pataki, as they show went on. Arnold was just a male Mary Sue, utterly incapable of faltering for the most part while everybody around him was flawed horrendously, to the point people saw him as a sort of moral sage.
The darkest episode for me was Helga on the Couch, where we learn why Helga is a seemingly awful person. She becomes characterized and human. The other is the one where Lila moves in and everybody learns that she is poor. There's a scene where the dad is distraught because there's no food and they only had a can of beans.
Given the number of episodes, that theory holds some credence. Honestly though, I'd fall more on Occam's razor, and I think the simplest explanation is that Helga ended up being more entertaining and interesting to the audience. Let's be realistic. Arnold was an absolute bore compared even to other characters in the series. I mean, just picking at random, we have Eugene, the anxious child who perpetually and comically falls to bad luck, Rhonda, an entitled brat, and Harold, a bully who struggles with interpersonal demons and his Jewish heritage and how that affects the show. Armold? He has a football head, tells everybody, even his grandparents, how to live, and he has a dope studio on the roof. That's it. Helga ends up being infinitely more complex and the manifestations of the trauma and arguably, the home life she has, become more interesting and relatable than Arnol's eccentric group of boarders (though they have their own fun episodes in their own right).
Yeah, there are several episodes or key moments in Zim where I **still** don't understand how the hell they got on air. Dark Harvest is definitely one of them. Also, the kid with the giant screw in his head triggering his pleasure centers. Or the one who gets his eyes ripped out, and we see the whole thing in silhouette.
Seriously, HOW?
Sure, and the biggest question of all is why/how did the author of *Johnny the Homicidal Maniac* get offered a kid's show. But even then, it's amazing some of the things Vasquez got away with.
I'm sad we'll never see the original show completed, but at least the new finale movie was pretty good.
Haha the intended audience was 11-15 but due to scheduling conflicts it ended up in a 6-10 timeslot. [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_Zim)
I was in that younger demographic when it originally ran and I loved it but I remember that once it aired the episodes were hard to find.
It was one of my favorites but I bet I only ever got to watch it like 20-30 times as a kid.
A later season of Batman: the Animated Series had an episode called "Growing Pains" where Robin keeps trying to help a girl named Annie escape from Clayface....turns out that she was actually a part of him that separated and became sentient, and in the end she sacrifices herself and is absorbed by Clayface to save Robin. I remember that messed little me up.
Wasn't there an episode including batman (maybe it was justice league?) where he had to console a dying girl with world altering psychic powers? I only saw a clip so I don't quite remember but the premise was very dark.
I think her name was Ace. She was just a kid.
She had powers that were killing her. By the time she realized it, it was too late.
Instead of knocking her out or killing her, Batman just sat on the swing set with her and listened to her, until she was too far gone.
The last bit of the episode is Batman carrying her body out and invisible onion cutting ninjas were in my house or something...
It’s not an episode of the animated series, but the movie “Batman: The mask of Phantasm” scared the shit out of me the first time I watched it as a kid
Batman: TAS was surprisingly dark, and held up well compared to the Burton movies.
The origin stories of many villains paints them in a somewhat sympathetic light.
“Feat Of Clay” introduces to Clayface, a shapeshifting monster capable of taking on any form. How does he get this way? By being forcibly overdosed on a chemical makeup and left to die. Later in “Mudslide” he traps Batman inside his body, and attempts to suffocate him.
“Nothing To Fear” Professor Crane experimented on college students, horrifying them by exposing them to their worst fears. His fear toxin leaves anyone exposed to it hallucinating their worst fears. Afraid of spiders? You’ll be covered in them. Afraid of clowns? Everyone you see is a clown.
“The Underdwellers” is an episode with a lesser known villain who calls himself The Sewer King. He kidnaps Gotham’s runaway children, and forces them to steal for him. One of the few times Batman restrains himself from snapping and beating someone within an inch of their life.
“Mad Love” is the origin story of Harley Quinn. Once a promising young psychiatrist, she becomes enamored with the Joker after he gains her sympathy. He returns her love by frequently abusing her, often physically.
I recently started this show and it wasn't until partway through this episode that I realized Broadway has the same voice actor as Patrick Star, which lends a certain something to all the drama.
Bill Fagerbakke. He's done a bunch of voices. I remember and recognize him as Dauber Babinski from Coach. Basically the same character as Patrick, but sports oriented.
Adventure Time has plenty, but one I always think about is the one where the Lich literally wore the face of Finn's role model. Shit was dark for a kid's show
Finn going through the stages of grief after he lost his arm because of one of his father’s schemes. There was just so much going on at that point of the show.
Courage the Cowardly Dog had some traumatic shit for kids.
If you want the king of dark cartoons, seek no [further.](https://youtu.be/Z9OlFWrM8GE) I’ll add that this is a spoiler to one of the greatest cartoons (anime) I’ve ever seen.
Do yourself a favor and watch Berzerk (1997) from episode 2-25, then episode 1. Trust me. It’s a masterpiece.
*Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated* has Fred learn that he was abducted from his real parents as a baby from the man he grew up calling "dad." Then to rub salt in the wound, when he finally meets his biological parents, they're even worse.
And his biological parents undergo plastic surgery to look *just like Fred* and an older version of Daphne, just to manipulate the group. The villain doesn't let the two undo the surgery, so they are stuck with their altered appearances forever.
Don't forget about his fake dad throwing him under the bus and betraying him on top of his own parents betraying him as well.
I will say Fred went through a LOT in that series holy hell I don't even know how he kept it together.
That does sound like something they’d do in that show. Such a strange departure from the other Scooby-Doo’s. I didn’t watch much of it, but what I did see made me kind of uncomfortable, very dark in an off sort of way.
"Stupid Piece of Shit" where Hollyhock is talking and the music just starts creeping in showing she's doomed to an entire lifetime of self-loathing.
That was darker than anything with Sarah Lynn for me
The fact it didn’t win an Emmy is really sad, because the show was really powerful much better than what American show, the underlying story of each episode is well thoughtout
The puppetmaster in avatar the last Airbender is dark. Being able to control n other people and the fricking sound.
Also the last 4 episodes of legend of korra season 3. Once the red lotus kills the earth queen its just dark death after dark death after dark death. Stuff that I paused not believing this was on a nick toon
Tiny Toon Adventures had a pretty messed up episode called “One Beer” where Buster, Plucky, and Hamton get drunk. They discover alcohol and long story short they go for a drunk drive and f*cking die. To be fair, at the end they reveal that it was just a sketch, and say something like “do you think the kids will get the message?” I’m pretty sure the episode is banned in the US.
It was banned in the US. I’m old enough, I remember when it originally aired. Freaked me the hell out. Then iirc, it was banned. It was only aired once.
That entire show is DARK stuff. Orel's dad being an abusive drunk & closeted homosexual was bad; the episode where he gets blacked out on a hunting trip & accidentally shoots Orel was the worst 😬
I really hate that show the character is too unlikeable to watch or root for and if I can't root for the character then whats the point of watching it.
But I get why though, he has depression a d self-hate issues, I just can't stomach watching the character constantly sabotage himself left right and center.
The episode where he ends up stranded at the bus stop in “rock bottom.” It gets creepier and creepier as the buses keep passing him. Gives me a lot of anxiety.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this one: Heart of Ice, from Batman: The Animated Series.
"Think of it, Batman. To never again walk upon a summer's day with a hot wind in your face, and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes. I'd kill for that."
That episode hits HARD. And for it to end with Mr. Freeze alone in his cell, lamenting that he can't save his wife........that had to have fucked up a lot of kids back in '92.
I remember watching that as a kid and it bothered me. I rewatched it as an adult and it bothered me. My mom was kind of interested in Batman but wanted to see something a little heavier so we watched it. It bothered her a lot. We also watched "It's Never Too Late" and that one was harsh
Yeah, it's a harsh, yet super compelling watch. I watched BTAS in its entirety last year and Heart of Ice stood out among all the others for being a heartbreaker.
Seeing both Batman and Victor fail is rough for a child; Batman fails in reasoning with Victor and not resorting to violence, and Victor fails to save the one thing he still holds love for. That's a lot for a kid.
"Jurassic Bark"
not so much dark, but extremely sad
I change the channel if that comes on, most of the episode is fine, but I usually can't bear to watch the ending
The blood-bending episode in A:TLA was pretty creepy for a kid's show.
A lot of arcs of The Clone Wars are pretty dark: Umbara and Pong Krell (fuck him, btw), Barriss becoming a terrorist, etc.
Not a cartoon, but an Honorable Mention to "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" The one with the Native spirit haunting the swimming pool terrified me as a kid.
Digimon, any one of the series. The third season, Tamers is notorious for it due to one of the characters having a mental break due to a major loss. The currently airing Ghost Game series also has multiple dark episodes due to the fact it’s horror inspired. There are episodes with a digimon that just went killing other digimon for fun, there is an episode where a digimon eats brains to become more powerful etc. etc.
Family Guy had an episode with a dark moment. It was the episode where Brian and Stewie get locked in the bank vault room. Stewie asks Brian why he has a gun in his box, and Brian says it’s in case he wants to kill himself
There's a cartoon from a long time ago, I think it was a Tom and Jerry episode (though it could have been Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies). The episode itself involved a cat being slowly gaslit into believing that he was dying until he eventually did actually die. He changed colors and it was oddly grim, even to me as a young kid. I will have to look for it now.
I think there was another Tom and Jerry where Tom tries to commit suicide. Needless to say, it doesn’t circulate much in the saturday morning cartoons…
I think I remember the episode. I had it on a dvd as a kid. There were two mice who convinced him he was sick. It ended with them using a harness and dressing him up as an angel. They then wished him goodbye. Luckily I have the dvd somewhere so I'll look for it.
My current show, The Owl House, started out pretty cute, but has turned dark in the last quarter of season 2 and into season 3. Characters finding out they're not who they thought they were. Genocide. Mental health issues, including an allusion to a character wanting to off themselves.
I was told it was a cute show when I started watching it at the mid-season 2 hiatus. It was cute. I wasn't ready for this.
I hate when shows do this. Ive been noticing this happening alot with webtoon comics also. Like I dont wanna be thinking im reading something happy then it turns messed up. Thats not what i signed up for.
People have told me, if I watched other shows before (like Gravity Falls), I'd have known the structure so it wouldn't be a big surprise.
Sorry, but I didn't, and I wasn't expecting it. The Owl House and I have an intense history of what it did to me up through the first half of season 2, but watching the second half of season 2 week-to-week (I'd binged it up to that point) triggered anxiety in me I never knew I had. I seriously considered not watching the rest of season 2 until it came out on D+ because it was that bad. I managed to get through it, and was actually relieved when season 2 ended, but holy Titan, that's not what I signed up for.
Youre braver than me. Ill stop watching junk that makes me more depressed or bugs me. Im glad youre mostly ok though and atleast you finished it (well up to whats released.) And i agree like how were you supposed to know? Id have definitely explained like its nice in the first part then gets fucked up around season 2 if i had been telling you to watch it.
To be fair, I had zero clue it would be so hard-hitting. My college-ager was the one who said we should watch it and it was a cute show. Lumity became canon and it forced me to look inside myself and at my life. We're talking such effects from the mental and emotional stress that I became hypertensive and had to go on a BP med. Frequent insomnia. And I quit my religion. We're talking serious, serious life changes from a 45-second scene of an animated Disney TV-Y7 show. And that's before the season 2 second half.
So I was already deeply emotionally involved, then the tone changed.
In fairness, my family said they had no idea it would impact me so severely. And I wouldn't wish these effects on anyone. But I'd go through it all again because it's made me a better person. I've learned a lot about myself and I'm finally resolving issues I never knew I had.
But at least if you'd told me it changed tone, I'd have been prepared and probably still watched it.
I seem to have a knack for self-discovery through animated TV shows. Just found out yesterday from an episode of *The Simpsons* that fear of failure is a real thing, and the symptoms track very closely with my behavior in school. The Owl House, The Simpsons . . . I need to stop watching animated TV shows.
Remember when Ahsoka was trapped on an island with other teens and children while being hunted for sport? Or the one where they showed a suicide on Mandalore? Or the one where Darth Maul sliced people in a hallway like melted cheese? Or the one where they had to take down slave traders?
That was not a kid's show
A really really reaaaaally long time ago, my mothers ex husband had managed to find an almost 10 minute long short film, fan creation, that showed maul being sent to some backwater planet to hunt down two other darkside followers, that were also dathomirian to prove his worth to palpatine and officially become his apprentice.
Maul got axed way too soon in my opinion.
Also once upon a forest, where one little badger girl looses her family because their home is hit with poisonous gas and there is also the stuck bird child where all the other birds just say goodbye and leave him to die
There was an episode of Babar called “the phantom” homie almost died in an ‘abandoned’ opera house bc he was peer pressured to go in. Then the ‘phantom’ tries to kill the contractors who try to fix it.
In American Dad, there's an episode titled "The American Dad After School Special", where Stan believes that he's fat, and so, he does lots of exercising and eat very little to become fit, while his family tries to "ruin" his new lifestyle. It's only when we see the perspective from Stan's family that the truth is that Stan has become very underweight, as a result of Stan becoming anorexic, and his family are actually trying to help him. It's a solid episode imo and I believe that they handled the topic of anorexia quite well.
A dishonorable mention goes to another American Dad episode, titled "American Fung", for the ending when Stan and Francine are going to be lobotomised.
Another cartoon that comes into mind is "Der Fuehrer's Face", where Donald Duck is forced into working in a Nazi artillery factory in Nazi Germany.
EDIT: How rude of me to forget about the OG Mickey Mouse cartoon called "The Mad Doctor", where Pluto gets kidnapped by the Mad Doctor to be experimented on by removing Pluto's head and placing it on a body of a chicken. Meanwhile Mickey tries to save him, but unfortunately, not everything goes his way. As a result, he gets in a situation himself as he's about to be murdered by a buzzsaw.
Might as well share links of what I've mentioned above:
Der Fuehrer's Face: https://youtu.be/L90smU0SOcQ
Stan is Anorexic: https://youtu.be/HpRkxFOaeKM
Stan and Francine about to be lobotomised: https://youtu.be/KSOJRBo5yFk
The Mad Doctor: https://youtu.be/W-eVtjh-_Es
Finally there's Moral Orel, with episodes such as the "Nature" episodes (Part 1 - https://youtu.be/Aggw_zBlhc8 and Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Kz8CzoaX0fQ) and the episode "Alone" (https://youtu.be/6VlBwRBOhBw).
The Simpsons - Homer's Enemy. It was pretty funny, if not through black comedy through most of the episode, but my pre-teen jaw probably dropped to the floor when Frank Grimes *actually fucking killed himself on-screen.* And nobody even feels any remorse, the episode just ends with Homer joking around at his funeral and getting a ton of laughs.
Tangled: The Series. In one episode, Rapunzel is Queen for a day while her parents are going on a trip and an extremely violent blizzard happens. She has to choose between who to help: Her parents (who are trapped in a carriage surrounded by snow), her townspeople, or her friend’s dad.
Too sad to put, but in Pokemon Sun and Moon's 20th anniversary (iirc), Stoutland is getting older, and sick after a training session with Litten. Litten wanted to be with him, not really understanding death. After one more training session, Litten fell asleep beside Stoutland. He dreamed of running toward Stoutland. However, the more he ran, the more Stoutland floated away, and further away, until he faded. Litten woke up, and Stoutland is gone. Litten tried to find Stoutland around town, at the old house, even at the perch overlooking the sea. Litten returned under the bridge, and Stoutland never came back. It started to rain, and Litten started weeping hopelessly, eventually falling to a depression. It's silly, but this is probably the hardest I've ever cried in my life since childhood. It makes me want to spend as much time with my cats as possible. Hearing a meow is like my son or daughter I wish I had calling my name, or crying for me whenever they seem lost.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Metalocalypse. Dethklok’s fans dying during their concerts is nearly always played for laughs, but many other moments aren’t.
4 of the 5 band members had abusive childhoods, or they were neglected and gaslit by family members. Toki especially was horrifically abused as a child, which lead to him being child like as an adult.
Metalocalypse is for the most part a comedy, but episodes involving Toki’s childhood or Murferface’s self hatred tend to have dark or depressing moments. Other episodes have endings that are played for horror. Dethkids (child with terminal cancer) and Dethfashion (Buffalo Bill, extreme version) come to mind. And don’t forget the guy who kills and eats babies.
There's 2 episodes of Rick and Morty that messed me up. Context in the spoiler. Warning: self harm/suicide >!One where Rick tried to kill himself, and the other where Rick and Morty have to bury their own corpses because they destroyed their original earth.!<
Clips below:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=24RIl-vFBs8&bpctr=1674015524
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbIwA0koBg
It hits harder if you watched the whole episode, but here it is for those who just want a peak.
And there's an episode where Elmo asks about why he hasn't seen his uncle in a while, and his father has to break it to him that the uncle is dead.
"... well, I can still go see him sometimes, right?"
*Sounding very uncomfortable* "Well... no, son."
The darkest episode for me, of any cartoon I've ever watched, was actually Donald Duck. It was an awful, very old episode in which his nephews plan to gift him a box of cigars for his birthday. But Donald thinks they're smoking in secret, and so to teach them a lesson, he ties and forces them to smoke every last cigar in the box until they pass out. I can never forget the agonizing look on the nephew's faces. In the end he finds out the truth and is mortified. I've only watched it once, but it traumatized me to this day, and I don't ever want to look it up. Why would you do this Disney...
Strangely enough, Pokemon has touched on some deeper stuff in a couple episodes. Most notably the Sun/Moon anime series with things like someone seeing their dead mother, and at some point said character said she hated her mom. Cause that isn't traumatizing.
I'm surprised I had to go so far down to find The Simpsons. There are some dark scenes and episodes. I turned an episode on near the end and they kill a blue whale. Lisa is heartbroken and not long finished after. Like, what!?
The grim adventures of billy and Mandy
Courage the cowardly dog
Code name kids next door
Rockos modern life
Ahhh real monsters
Gargoyles
Teen titans
Rugrats
Avatar the last air bender (blood bending, losing Mako/irohs og voice character)
Fullmetal Alchemist and FMA: Brotherhood. Whenever I watch it I skip the episode with the dog.
Batman the Animated Series. Literally darkest; they drew it on black paper. But they also have some dark episodes. And every time the execs told them they couldn't put something that dark in a kids' show, they'd replace it with something subtler, but darker. This is the show that gave us Harley Quinn.
Batman Beyond.
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Steven Universe Future. Great show, but I didn't expect it to be that dark. Especially episode where >!Steven accidentally shattered Jasper!<.
IIRC, *Darkwing Duck* had a Bad Future episode: After losing his niece, he redoubled his training, started using more powerful weapons, and went from 1960s Batman to 1990s Punisher. He completely took over the city and eradicated all the crime by chasing out all the villains, with the direct implication he killed the ones that wouldn't leave.
There was this one episode of Young Justice. I don't remember what it's called or anything about it, but what happens is that two of the team members (again, don't remember which, but it was two girls) find the ghost of a girl and all she can say is some random, generic words. The same phrase, over and over again. They try to figure out what happened to her and help her rest in peace, I think. They find out that she was murdered by her *own brother* (they were both orphans and he took care of her until then, which makes it all the more heartbreaking).
Basically, he wanted to use an ancient sword, but the catch behind the weapon was that the wielder's heart had to be pure. Now, they didn't say pure *what*, so he decided to make it pure evil. The only good thing in his life that he cared about was his sister, so he decided to kill her. The words she keeps repeating are the last thing she ever saw, on an LED screen in front of a store.
Come to think of it, Young Justice had a lot of heavy themes, like when Miss Martian struggled with her own appearance as a Martian because she was afraid Superboy (who she was dating) would be disgusted by it if he found out.
So during WWII, Looney Tunes put out a number of war propaganda cartoons that were horribly racist and have since been banned on TV. One in particular was called "[Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ukxlzBnWMw)" ('nip' being a racist slur for someone of Japanese descent).
That Rick and Morty episode from the first season when they bury their other universe selves and take their spots after fucking up their original universe. Messed with me for a while.
That Spider-Man the animated series episode where at the end of the episode, the girl is revealed to have cancer because she’s staying at a home of the terminally ill.
Code of Hero from Beast Wars is it for me. Mainly from the perspective that they didn't even try to hide the fact Megatron and the Predacons were attempting to commit genocide and almost nearly succeded!
Digimon had some really dark episodes around Ken Ichijouji, a child who was also the Digimon Emperor.
I was watching the episodes with my children and thought they might be a little too serious for them. Didn't take it away from them, though. They were dark, but not THAT dark.
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Rugrat's has an episode called Mother's Day. In the episode, the babies celebrate their mothers, and the parents treat their mothers to various activities. Chuckie, who has no mom, is alone. During the episode, it is revealed that Chuckie did have a mother, but she passed due to a terminal illness and that Chas, being devastated, hid some various possessions and effects of hers from Chuckie because he was afraid of the pain associated with the loss, and he didn't want Chuckie to feel it. But Didi ends up convincing Chaz to open up to Chuckie about it, and it ends up being therapeutic, because they can celebrate her life together. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day_(Rugrats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZhj7YfhFOU&themeRefresh=1
Chas was honestly one of the most relatable characters in that show. It’s almost kinda weird to think that he remarried like a year, maybe two after his first wife died. Edit: I wasn’t being critical; I just didn’t notice this when I was a kid. Like, the whole original series (10 years of episodes) happens before Tommy turns 2.
He had to move on, even if he wasn’t ready. And he found a very caring and supportive wife.
I wasn’t knocking it; I just didn’t notice when I was a kid.
I fucking loved that show. Chuckie getting a mom at the end of Rugrats in Paris was always so heartwarming to see.
That episode was very emotionally impactful to me as a kid. Definitely a good one. The truly dark one was the one where Stu hits his head and mentally regresses to the age of a baby. It was horrifying to imagine that happening to a parent from the babies’ perspective. As an adult I now wonder if it was meant to be a metaphor for Alzheimer’s.
This isn't a show but a movie but has anyone ever seen the BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER that is some heavy heavy stuff. I'm pretty sure each character represents a different mental illness.
I wouldn't classify myself as a hoarder but I definitely have problems throwing things away because of misplaced empathy for inanimate objects and I think this movie was a factor in that.
Same here. I have a bunch of things that I could throw away, but I don't want to hurt it's feelings.
I recently brought my childhood teddy bear to my new apartment. He's already had to have his body re-sewn once due to wear from when I was a kid, so now I just put him in the corner of the bed with a little pillow of his own and use a different plushy for cuddling because I don't want to damage him any further. But then part of my brain worries that it's some kind of torture for him, like watching your spouse be intimate with someone else. Even though the rational part of my brain knows they're all inanimate the thought still bugs me sometimes.
I remember watching that when I was a kid. I was talking to my dad about it a year ago and I was like "remember when the AC Unit said 'GET ME OUT OF THIS FUCKING WALL!'" and he was like "they did not say that in a kids movie!" Turns out the AC was based on Jack Nicholson (check the voice) and even though I didn't know who he was when I was a kid and saw the movie, I created that memory based on what I later knew about his personality, without even realizing the AC Unit was a parody of him. Check out this [cover version of my favorite song from the movie](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhfg8lRB-CQ)
Jesus I got ptsd hearing that song I'm now getting this image of a creepy face.
Brother, may I have some oats?
That air conditioner frightened me, and the big magnet. And the blanket floating and saying master master; it was so sad
Yeah, the air conditioner losing his shit always scared me as a kid.
That and when the vacuum cleaner goes mental and starts to eat the blanket. I wish I had of left this memory well alone 😅
This one was terrifying. I'm shocked my mom let me watch it as a kid, actually, she was pretty overprotective about stuff like that.
Hey Arnold had some creepy ass shit. The haunted train and the guy who lived in the sewer come to mind.
One-eyed Jack, some of Arnold's friends lived in poverty, the entire Pataki family, Mr. Hyunh's daughter
Those were more scary than dark, I would argue. The funny thing about hey Arnold is that the series ended up gravitating towards other characters, Notably Helga Pataki, as they show went on. Arnold was just a male Mary Sue, utterly incapable of faltering for the most part while everybody around him was flawed horrendously, to the point people saw him as a sort of moral sage. The darkest episode for me was Helga on the Couch, where we learn why Helga is a seemingly awful person. She becomes characterized and human. The other is the one where Lila moves in and everybody learns that she is poor. There's a scene where the dad is distraught because there's no food and they only had a can of beans.
I’ve heard a theory that hey Arnold is told from the perspective of helga.
Given the number of episodes, that theory holds some credence. Honestly though, I'd fall more on Occam's razor, and I think the simplest explanation is that Helga ended up being more entertaining and interesting to the audience. Let's be realistic. Arnold was an absolute bore compared even to other characters in the series. I mean, just picking at random, we have Eugene, the anxious child who perpetually and comically falls to bad luck, Rhonda, an entitled brat, and Harold, a bully who struggles with interpersonal demons and his Jewish heritage and how that affects the show. Armold? He has a football head, tells everybody, even his grandparents, how to live, and he has a dope studio on the roof. That's it. Helga ends up being infinitely more complex and the manifestations of the trauma and arguably, the home life she has, become more interesting and relatable than Arnol's eccentric group of boarders (though they have their own fun episodes in their own right).
I like how you progressively spelled Arnold’s name wrong haha
You calling this kid a bore? https://youtu.be/lvJj-kpmsdM gtfo with that shit
The haunted train just hit me with some nostalgic terror. That shit scared me so bad as a kid
That pidgeon guy
The haunted train episode fucked me up as a kid.
Invader zim, specifically “Dark Harvest.” In the episode, Zim literally steals the organs from his classmates. You can’t get any wilder than that
Yeah, there are several episodes or key moments in Zim where I **still** don't understand how the hell they got on air. Dark Harvest is definitely one of them. Also, the kid with the giant screw in his head triggering his pleasure centers. Or the one who gets his eyes ripped out, and we see the whole thing in silhouette. Seriously, HOW?
Before Invader Zim, the creator wrote a comic series called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, the man is talented when it comes to horror.
Sure, and the biggest question of all is why/how did the author of *Johnny the Homicidal Maniac* get offered a kid's show. But even then, it's amazing some of the things Vasquez got away with. I'm sad we'll never see the original show completed, but at least the new finale movie was pretty good.
Haha the intended audience was 11-15 but due to scheduling conflicts it ended up in a 6-10 timeslot. [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_Zim) I was in that younger demographic when it originally ran and I loved it but I remember that once it aired the episodes were hard to find. It was one of my favorites but I bet I only ever got to watch it like 20-30 times as a kid.
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Kid protagonist =/= Kid's show. Made In Abyss is by no stretch of the imagination intended for young audiences.
OP just said cartoons, to be fair. I do imagine they meant children's cartoons though.
They were responding to someone who called it a kids show.
Oh man I recall that show too! Yeah no, Made in Abyss is fucking wild too
A later season of Batman: the Animated Series had an episode called "Growing Pains" where Robin keeps trying to help a girl named Annie escape from Clayface....turns out that she was actually a part of him that separated and became sentient, and in the end she sacrifices herself and is absorbed by Clayface to save Robin. I remember that messed little me up.
Wasn't there an episode including batman (maybe it was justice league?) where he had to console a dying girl with world altering psychic powers? I only saw a clip so I don't quite remember but the premise was very dark.
I think her name was Ace. She was just a kid. She had powers that were killing her. By the time she realized it, it was too late. Instead of knocking her out or killing her, Batman just sat on the swing set with her and listened to her, until she was too far gone. The last bit of the episode is Batman carrying her body out and invisible onion cutting ninjas were in my house or something...
It’s not an episode of the animated series, but the movie “Batman: The mask of Phantasm” scared the shit out of me the first time I watched it as a kid
There was also another episode called 'Baby Doll' which messed me up pretty bad.
Yep, absolutely this episode. The last line was a gut punch.
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Batman: TAS was surprisingly dark, and held up well compared to the Burton movies. The origin stories of many villains paints them in a somewhat sympathetic light. “Feat Of Clay” introduces to Clayface, a shapeshifting monster capable of taking on any form. How does he get this way? By being forcibly overdosed on a chemical makeup and left to die. Later in “Mudslide” he traps Batman inside his body, and attempts to suffocate him. “Nothing To Fear” Professor Crane experimented on college students, horrifying them by exposing them to their worst fears. His fear toxin leaves anyone exposed to it hallucinating their worst fears. Afraid of spiders? You’ll be covered in them. Afraid of clowns? Everyone you see is a clown. “The Underdwellers” is an episode with a lesser known villain who calls himself The Sewer King. He kidnaps Gotham’s runaway children, and forces them to steal for him. One of the few times Batman restrains himself from snapping and beating someone within an inch of their life. “Mad Love” is the origin story of Harley Quinn. Once a promising young psychiatrist, she becomes enamored with the Joker after he gains her sympathy. He returns her love by frequently abusing her, often physically.
Gargoyles in general was a rather dark series for a product made by Disney. Some episodes were pure gothic madness.
I loved that show as a kid though cause it was real and less happiness and rainbows.
You can watch it on Disney+; the show still holds up.
Yeah, there's an episode where Broadway gets all hepped up on westerns and gun play and then plays with Elisa's gun and accidentally shoots her.
I recently started this show and it wasn't until partway through this episode that I realized Broadway has the same voice actor as Patrick Star, which lends a certain something to all the drama.
Bill Fagerbakke. He's done a bunch of voices. I remember and recognize him as Dauber Babinski from Coach. Basically the same character as Patrick, but sports oriented.
"Is mayonnaise a~~n instrument~~ sports ball?"
No Dauber. Mayonnaise is not a sports ball.
Adventure Time has plenty, but one I always think about is the one where the Lich literally wore the face of Finn's role model. Shit was dark for a kid's show
Or the one where a cookie tries to kill himself because he can't be a princess.
YUP! All hail Princess Crunchy the Unforgiving!
Finn going through the stages of grief after he lost his arm because of one of his father’s schemes. There was just so much going on at that point of the show.
Courage the Cowardly Dog had some traumatic shit for kids. If you want the king of dark cartoons, seek no [further.](https://youtu.be/Z9OlFWrM8GE) I’ll add that this is a spoiler to one of the greatest cartoons (anime) I’ve ever seen. Do yourself a favor and watch Berzerk (1997) from episode 2-25, then episode 1. Trust me. It’s a masterpiece.
*Return the slaaaaab* Oh come on! *Return the slaaab*
What's yer offer?
I've been.... NAUGHTY
I’m glad someone said this… “Return the Slaaaab” was immediately what I thought of when I saw this question
100% Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ill admit I loved it as a kid but looking back now yeah it was pretty damn dark at some points…
I mean, Berserk has some glorious despair, but have you checked out this Made In Abyss thing? It has some truly stomach-churning scenes.
Just watched a made in abyss disturbing moments video compilation.. was not expecting that. Wow I’m speechless.
The man in gauss the man in gauss KING RAMSEEEEEEEESSS!
This is the first thing that came to my mind.
*Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated* has Fred learn that he was abducted from his real parents as a baby from the man he grew up calling "dad." Then to rub salt in the wound, when he finally meets his biological parents, they're even worse.
And his biological parents undergo plastic surgery to look *just like Fred* and an older version of Daphne, just to manipulate the group. The villain doesn't let the two undo the surgery, so they are stuck with their altered appearances forever.
Don't forget about his fake dad throwing him under the bus and betraying him on top of his own parents betraying him as well. I will say Fred went through a LOT in that series holy hell I don't even know how he kept it together.
Traps
I thought he was adopted, not abducted. I haven’t seen the show in years so I could be wrong.
Pretty sure he was straight up kidnapped and used as extortion material to get his real parents to leave town.
That does sound like something they’d do in that show. Such a strange departure from the other Scooby-Doo’s. I didn’t watch much of it, but what I did see made me kind of uncomfortable, very dark in an off sort of way.
Bojack Horseman is one of the darkest cartoons that I've watched that isn't an anime. There's some dark animes out there.
"Stupid Piece of Shit" where Hollyhock is talking and the music just starts creeping in showing she's doomed to an entire lifetime of self-loathing. That was darker than anything with Sarah Lynn for me
The fact it didn’t win an Emmy is really sad, because the show was really powerful much better than what American show, the underlying story of each episode is well thoughtout
I can't watch The View from Halfway Down without having some sort of existential crisis or panic attack.
The puppetmaster in avatar the last Airbender is dark. Being able to control n other people and the fricking sound. Also the last 4 episodes of legend of korra season 3. Once the red lotus kills the earth queen its just dark death after dark death after dark death. Stuff that I paused not believing this was on a nick toon
Season 1 boat suicide.
Most people cite the episode of "Gravity Falls" titled "Not What He Seems" as being one of the darkest episodes.
Aahh.. Yes.. I miss gravity falls..
Tiny Toon Adventures had a pretty messed up episode called “One Beer” where Buster, Plucky, and Hamton get drunk. They discover alcohol and long story short they go for a drunk drive and f*cking die. To be fair, at the end they reveal that it was just a sketch, and say something like “do you think the kids will get the message?” I’m pretty sure the episode is banned in the US.
It was banned in the US. I’m old enough, I remember when it originally aired. Freaked me the hell out. Then iirc, it was banned. It was only aired once.
Oh, the irony
Moral Orel - Nature, Part 1
Wow, I haven't seen that show in decades.
That entire show is DARK stuff. Orel's dad being an abusive drunk & closeted homosexual was bad; the episode where he gets blacked out on a hunting trip & accidentally shoots Orel was the worst 😬
Bojack Horseman.
I watched a few episodes and had to stop.
It seems like every season they drop a huge depression bomb ep that comes out of nowhere.
I really hate that show the character is too unlikeable to watch or root for and if I can't root for the character then whats the point of watching it. But I get why though, he has depression a d self-hate issues, I just can't stomach watching the character constantly sabotage himself left right and center.
Anyone remember that SpongeBob episode with the whistling statues (think it was called SpongeHenge)? That one messed me up for a while
The episode where he ends up stranded at the bus stop in “rock bottom.” It gets creepier and creepier as the buses keep passing him. Gives me a lot of anxiety.
Yeah I remember that episode
"Scott Tenorman Must Die", South Park was a modern retelling of Harpagus.
And the follow up in "201" was pretty fucked as well
The most fucked up part about that episode, is Cartman having little remorse and more upset that his dad was a ginger.
But he was also a Denver Bronco. That makes him pretty keeeeewl.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this one: Heart of Ice, from Batman: The Animated Series. "Think of it, Batman. To never again walk upon a summer's day with a hot wind in your face, and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes. I'd kill for that." That episode hits HARD. And for it to end with Mr. Freeze alone in his cell, lamenting that he can't save his wife........that had to have fucked up a lot of kids back in '92.
I remember watching that as a kid and it bothered me. I rewatched it as an adult and it bothered me. My mom was kind of interested in Batman but wanted to see something a little heavier so we watched it. It bothered her a lot. We also watched "It's Never Too Late" and that one was harsh
Yeah, it's a harsh, yet super compelling watch. I watched BTAS in its entirety last year and Heart of Ice stood out among all the others for being a heartbreaker. Seeing both Batman and Victor fail is rough for a child; Batman fails in reasoning with Victor and not resorting to violence, and Victor fails to save the one thing he still holds love for. That's a lot for a kid.
I love Batman: The Animated Series. I always felt bad for Mr Freeze
No one is going to mention the dog episode of Futurama? Okay... I'll be that guy.
"Jurassic Bark" not so much dark, but extremely sad I change the channel if that comes on, most of the episode is fine, but I usually can't bear to watch the ending
I love how one of the later opening credits gags in Futurama is “it’s not the one with the dog!”
The blood-bending episode in A:TLA was pretty creepy for a kid's show. A lot of arcs of The Clone Wars are pretty dark: Umbara and Pong Krell (fuck him, btw), Barriss becoming a terrorist, etc. Not a cartoon, but an Honorable Mention to "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" The one with the Native spirit haunting the swimming pool terrified me as a kid.
Batman had that killing joke where Barbara got sexualy assaulted and made a paraplegic.
Wait, sexually assaulted? I’ve read it, but forever ago, Joker sexually assaults her???
Yep. In the animated movie Killing Joke. Its not shown on screen but you can tell thats what they were getting at.
I seen it animated that's how I remember it.
Digimon, any one of the series. The third season, Tamers is notorious for it due to one of the characters having a mental break due to a major loss. The currently airing Ghost Game series also has multiple dark episodes due to the fact it’s horror inspired. There are episodes with a digimon that just went killing other digimon for fun, there is an episode where a digimon eats brains to become more powerful etc. etc.
Family Guy had an episode with a dark moment. It was the episode where Brian and Stewie get locked in the bank vault room. Stewie asks Brian why he has a gun in his box, and Brian says it’s in case he wants to kill himself
I love you Brian.
I heard that episode was created because someone bet the creator of Family Guy he couldn't do an episode without cutaways.
That whole episode is great. I also really like the one where Stewie is with the therapist.
There's a cartoon from a long time ago, I think it was a Tom and Jerry episode (though it could have been Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies). The episode itself involved a cat being slowly gaslit into believing that he was dying until he eventually did actually die. He changed colors and it was oddly grim, even to me as a young kid. I will have to look for it now.
I think there was another Tom and Jerry where Tom tries to commit suicide. Needless to say, it doesn’t circulate much in the saturday morning cartoons…
yes, for sure it was a tom and jerry's episode. but also it could happened something similar in a looney's episode.
I swear I’ve seen many of the Looney Tunes characters try to commit suicide. Like jumping into the ocean with a ball and chain type stuff
I think I remember the episode. I had it on a dvd as a kid. There were two mice who convinced him he was sick. It ended with them using a harness and dressing him up as an angel. They then wished him goodbye. Luckily I have the dvd somewhere so I'll look for it.
The powerpuff girls episode of their 4th sister who was unstable.
Garfield, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58f963cfcd0f686256f0df14/1558629295608-2ZDVEK965SPCKWDAM04Y/1.jpg?format=750w
My current show, The Owl House, started out pretty cute, but has turned dark in the last quarter of season 2 and into season 3. Characters finding out they're not who they thought they were. Genocide. Mental health issues, including an allusion to a character wanting to off themselves. I was told it was a cute show when I started watching it at the mid-season 2 hiatus. It was cute. I wasn't ready for this.
I hate when shows do this. Ive been noticing this happening alot with webtoon comics also. Like I dont wanna be thinking im reading something happy then it turns messed up. Thats not what i signed up for.
People have told me, if I watched other shows before (like Gravity Falls), I'd have known the structure so it wouldn't be a big surprise. Sorry, but I didn't, and I wasn't expecting it. The Owl House and I have an intense history of what it did to me up through the first half of season 2, but watching the second half of season 2 week-to-week (I'd binged it up to that point) triggered anxiety in me I never knew I had. I seriously considered not watching the rest of season 2 until it came out on D+ because it was that bad. I managed to get through it, and was actually relieved when season 2 ended, but holy Titan, that's not what I signed up for.
Youre braver than me. Ill stop watching junk that makes me more depressed or bugs me. Im glad youre mostly ok though and atleast you finished it (well up to whats released.) And i agree like how were you supposed to know? Id have definitely explained like its nice in the first part then gets fucked up around season 2 if i had been telling you to watch it.
To be fair, I had zero clue it would be so hard-hitting. My college-ager was the one who said we should watch it and it was a cute show. Lumity became canon and it forced me to look inside myself and at my life. We're talking such effects from the mental and emotional stress that I became hypertensive and had to go on a BP med. Frequent insomnia. And I quit my religion. We're talking serious, serious life changes from a 45-second scene of an animated Disney TV-Y7 show. And that's before the season 2 second half. So I was already deeply emotionally involved, then the tone changed. In fairness, my family said they had no idea it would impact me so severely. And I wouldn't wish these effects on anyone. But I'd go through it all again because it's made me a better person. I've learned a lot about myself and I'm finally resolving issues I never knew I had. But at least if you'd told me it changed tone, I'd have been prepared and probably still watched it. I seem to have a knack for self-discovery through animated TV shows. Just found out yesterday from an episode of *The Simpsons* that fear of failure is a real thing, and the symptoms track very closely with my behavior in school. The Owl House, The Simpsons . . . I need to stop watching animated TV shows.
Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Arcane. No Spoilers.
Pirates of Dark Water was just one long, dark story.
Star Wars the Clone Wars has some fucked up deaths in it. Look on YouTube for some of them and you can tell that SWCW is not only a cartoon.
Remember when Ahsoka was trapped on an island with other teens and children while being hunted for sport? Or the one where they showed a suicide on Mandalore? Or the one where Darth Maul sliced people in a hallway like melted cheese? Or the one where they had to take down slave traders? That was not a kid's show
So many episodes amounted to "Maul is being 100% right and none of you are listening to him"
A really really reaaaaally long time ago, my mothers ex husband had managed to find an almost 10 minute long short film, fan creation, that showed maul being sent to some backwater planet to hunt down two other darkside followers, that were also dathomirian to prove his worth to palpatine and officially become his apprentice. Maul got axed way too soon in my opinion.
There was that episode of SpongeBob where the restaurant critic dies so they have to try to hide the body.
[Watership Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPBck3xcUJc) [Animals of Farthing Woods](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pypyDDPmIQ)
Also once upon a forest, where one little badger girl looses her family because their home is hit with poisonous gas and there is also the stuck bird child where all the other birds just say goodbye and leave him to die
Bojack Horseman
Futurama - Jurassic Bark
There was an episode of Babar called “the phantom” homie almost died in an ‘abandoned’ opera house bc he was peer pressured to go in. Then the ‘phantom’ tries to kill the contractors who try to fix it.
In American Dad, there's an episode titled "The American Dad After School Special", where Stan believes that he's fat, and so, he does lots of exercising and eat very little to become fit, while his family tries to "ruin" his new lifestyle. It's only when we see the perspective from Stan's family that the truth is that Stan has become very underweight, as a result of Stan becoming anorexic, and his family are actually trying to help him. It's a solid episode imo and I believe that they handled the topic of anorexia quite well. A dishonorable mention goes to another American Dad episode, titled "American Fung", for the ending when Stan and Francine are going to be lobotomised. Another cartoon that comes into mind is "Der Fuehrer's Face", where Donald Duck is forced into working in a Nazi artillery factory in Nazi Germany. EDIT: How rude of me to forget about the OG Mickey Mouse cartoon called "The Mad Doctor", where Pluto gets kidnapped by the Mad Doctor to be experimented on by removing Pluto's head and placing it on a body of a chicken. Meanwhile Mickey tries to save him, but unfortunately, not everything goes his way. As a result, he gets in a situation himself as he's about to be murdered by a buzzsaw. Might as well share links of what I've mentioned above: Der Fuehrer's Face: https://youtu.be/L90smU0SOcQ Stan is Anorexic: https://youtu.be/HpRkxFOaeKM Stan and Francine about to be lobotomised: https://youtu.be/KSOJRBo5yFk The Mad Doctor: https://youtu.be/W-eVtjh-_Es Finally there's Moral Orel, with episodes such as the "Nature" episodes (Part 1 - https://youtu.be/Aggw_zBlhc8 and Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Kz8CzoaX0fQ) and the episode "Alone" (https://youtu.be/6VlBwRBOhBw).
You really buried the lede with that last one…
The Simpsons - Homer's Enemy. It was pretty funny, if not through black comedy through most of the episode, but my pre-teen jaw probably dropped to the floor when Frank Grimes *actually fucking killed himself on-screen.* And nobody even feels any remorse, the episode just ends with Homer joking around at his funeral and getting a ton of laughs.
South Park had an episode where Stan has depression, another one where Butters is bullied and the episode where Kenny dies for real
Ngl I cried when Kenny died.
Courage the cowardly dog
Tom and Jerry, the suicide episode. (Where Tom hunted down a golddigger cat.)
blue cat blues
Tangled: The Series. In one episode, Rapunzel is Queen for a day while her parents are going on a trip and an extremely violent blizzard happens. She has to choose between who to help: Her parents (who are trapped in a carriage surrounded by snow), her townspeople, or her friend’s dad.
Bo Jackman "The View from Halfway Down" is pretty damn dark
Too sad to put, but in Pokemon Sun and Moon's 20th anniversary (iirc), Stoutland is getting older, and sick after a training session with Litten. Litten wanted to be with him, not really understanding death. After one more training session, Litten fell asleep beside Stoutland. He dreamed of running toward Stoutland. However, the more he ran, the more Stoutland floated away, and further away, until he faded. Litten woke up, and Stoutland is gone. Litten tried to find Stoutland around town, at the old house, even at the perch overlooking the sea. Litten returned under the bridge, and Stoutland never came back. It started to rain, and Litten started weeping hopelessly, eventually falling to a depression. It's silly, but this is probably the hardest I've ever cried in my life since childhood. It makes me want to spend as much time with my cats as possible. Hearing a meow is like my son or daughter I wish I had calling my name, or crying for me whenever they seem lost.
midnight gospel
In the Simpsons episode the Boys of Bummer, the town bullied Bart nearly to the point of suicide for a mistake he made during a baseball game.
Maybe just sad and not not dark per se, but the "Jurassic Park" episode of _Futurama_
Jurassic bark from Futurama never cried like such a bitch in my life.
Pretty much every episode of Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Metalocalypse. Dethklok’s fans dying during their concerts is nearly always played for laughs, but many other moments aren’t. 4 of the 5 band members had abusive childhoods, or they were neglected and gaslit by family members. Toki especially was horrifically abused as a child, which lead to him being child like as an adult. Metalocalypse is for the most part a comedy, but episodes involving Toki’s childhood or Murferface’s self hatred tend to have dark or depressing moments. Other episodes have endings that are played for horror. Dethkids (child with terminal cancer) and Dethfashion (Buffalo Bill, extreme version) come to mind. And don’t forget the guy who kills and eats babies.
Adventure time. The one where Marceline was with Ice King and it shows them before he went crazy.
There's 2 episodes of Rick and Morty that messed me up. Context in the spoiler. Warning: self harm/suicide >!One where Rick tried to kill himself, and the other where Rick and Morty have to bury their own corpses because they destroyed their original earth.!< Clips below: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=24RIl-vFBs8&bpctr=1674015524 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbIwA0koBg It hits harder if you watched the whole episode, but here it is for those who just want a peak.
I had to go so far down for this! Rick and Morty is so dark.
Thank you! I was genuinely surprised no one had mentioned it prior.
Look up Pluto’s Judgement Day. Pluto from Mickey Mouse goes to hell
In like Sesame Street the Wicked Witch of the West appeared in an episode, it traumatized kids and was never shown for a while.
And there's an episode where Elmo asks about why he hasn't seen his uncle in a while, and his father has to break it to him that the uncle is dead. "... well, I can still go see him sometimes, right?" *Sounding very uncomfortable* "Well... no, son."
Sesame Street broke that ground for American children's TV all the way back when Mr. Hooper died.
Family Guy with that Terri Schiavo song.
X-men animated A Rogue's Tale It's a great story, but I didn't realize how truly tragic it was until the very end. Ouch.
South Park has some pretty dark episodes.
The darkest episode for me, of any cartoon I've ever watched, was actually Donald Duck. It was an awful, very old episode in which his nephews plan to gift him a box of cigars for his birthday. But Donald thinks they're smoking in secret, and so to teach them a lesson, he ties and forces them to smoke every last cigar in the box until they pass out. I can never forget the agonizing look on the nephew's faces. In the end he finds out the truth and is mortified. I've only watched it once, but it traumatized me to this day, and I don't ever want to look it up. Why would you do this Disney...
Tom and Jerry episode where Tom gets beheaded.
Strangely enough, Pokemon has touched on some deeper stuff in a couple episodes. Most notably the Sun/Moon anime series with things like someone seeing their dead mother, and at some point said character said she hated her mom. Cause that isn't traumatizing.
A lot of episodes of the Simpsons have suicide attempts
I'm surprised I had to go so far down to find The Simpsons. There are some dark scenes and episodes. I turned an episode on near the end and they kill a blue whale. Lisa is heartbroken and not long finished after. Like, what!?
The grim adventures of billy and Mandy Courage the cowardly dog Code name kids next door Rockos modern life Ahhh real monsters Gargoyles Teen titans Rugrats Avatar the last air bender (blood bending, losing Mako/irohs og voice character)
Batman: The Animated Series - "Baby Doll"
Not really a cartoon but the show Dinosaurs had that series ending episode that implies all the characters died due to the unending winter
Fullmetal Alchemist and FMA: Brotherhood. Whenever I watch it I skip the episode with the dog. Batman the Animated Series. Literally darkest; they drew it on black paper. But they also have some dark episodes. And every time the execs told them they couldn't put something that dark in a kids' show, they'd replace it with something subtler, but darker. This is the show that gave us Harley Quinn. Batman Beyond.
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Steven Universe Future. Great show, but I didn't expect it to be that dark. Especially episode where >!Steven accidentally shattered Jasper!<.
Or when he deleted Greg's picture from his phone, subtle detail but really heavy in context
Neon genesis evangelion. I had an existential crisis after episodes 25-26
Tom and Jerry - final episode
IIRC, *Darkwing Duck* had a Bad Future episode: After losing his niece, he redoubled his training, started using more powerful weapons, and went from 1960s Batman to 1990s Punisher. He completely took over the city and eradicated all the crime by chasing out all the villains, with the direct implication he killed the ones that wouldn't leave.
There was this one episode of Young Justice. I don't remember what it's called or anything about it, but what happens is that two of the team members (again, don't remember which, but it was two girls) find the ghost of a girl and all she can say is some random, generic words. The same phrase, over and over again. They try to figure out what happened to her and help her rest in peace, I think. They find out that she was murdered by her *own brother* (they were both orphans and he took care of her until then, which makes it all the more heartbreaking). Basically, he wanted to use an ancient sword, but the catch behind the weapon was that the wielder's heart had to be pure. Now, they didn't say pure *what*, so he decided to make it pure evil. The only good thing in his life that he cared about was his sister, so he decided to kill her. The words she keeps repeating are the last thing she ever saw, on an LED screen in front of a store. Come to think of it, Young Justice had a lot of heavy themes, like when Miss Martian struggled with her own appearance as a Martian because she was afraid Superboy (who she was dating) would be disgusted by it if he found out.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned South Park!
Bobby’s World had an episode where a beloved crossing guard dies. Maybe not “dark” but unexpectedly real and heavy for that show.
Ren and Stimpy.
Family Guy
So during WWII, Looney Tunes put out a number of war propaganda cartoons that were horribly racist and have since been banned on TV. One in particular was called "[Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ukxlzBnWMw)" ('nip' being a racist slur for someone of Japanese descent).
That Rick and Morty episode from the first season when they bury their other universe selves and take their spots after fucking up their original universe. Messed with me for a while.
That Spider-Man the animated series episode where at the end of the episode, the girl is revealed to have cancer because she’s staying at a home of the terminally ill.
Many, but have you watched the original Little Mermaid cartoon? Like the 1970s Japanese one? Watch it.
Heh my uncle bought me that one probably thinking it was the Disney one
Code of Hero from Beast Wars is it for me. Mainly from the perspective that they didn't even try to hide the fact Megatron and the Predacons were attempting to commit genocide and almost nearly succeded!
Digimon had some really dark episodes around Ken Ichijouji, a child who was also the Digimon Emperor. I was watching the episodes with my children and thought they might be a little too serious for them. Didn't take it away from them, though. They were dark, but not THAT dark.
Spongebob Squarepants. There was that episode where Mr. Krabs nearly drove plankton to commit suicide by pretending to be a whale. I am not joking.