Top 10 Nickelodeon Moments That Aged Badly
#10: Helga’s Parrot “Hey Arnold!” (1996-2004)
When Helga’s dad gets a pet parrot, she unwittingly teaches it to recite her personal and private love poems for Arnold. Helga, going for the most extreme option, decides she has to catch and kill the parrot to keep her secret from getting out, and spends the entire episode trying to do so. Helga isn’t exactly a role model in this series and is often the villain in various storylines. However, this seemed a bit over the top, even for “Hey Arnold!”. The parrot never deliberately did anything wrong, and there were definitely other options that could have been considered before Helga decided to outright kill her new pet. Today, this is just more disturbing than it is funny.
#9: An Insensitive Impression “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius” (2002-06)
In the second ever episode of this series, Jimmy shows his friends his latest invention: chewing gum that inputs classic literature texts directly into the mind of the chewer. Sheen gets a fishy-tasting “Moby Dick”, but Cindy’s “Gone With the Wind” gets a bit more problematic. She says the gum tastes like fried chicken, which is an important dish of traditional Southern and, specifically, Southern African American cuisine. The effects of the gum then cause Cindy to do an impression of Prissy, an African American character from the book. Out of the many books in the classic literary canon, it’s weird that the writers went with the option that would’ve probably gotten them totally cancelled today.
#8: The Panty Raid “SpongeBob SquarePants” (1999-)
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This bizarre episode saw Mr. Krabs going through a total mid-life crisis as he tags along to Patrick and Spongebob’s big evening plans to try to feel young again. Their plans end up being less exciting than what Mr. Krabs was hoping for, until Patrick mentions something that piques his interest. The episode takes a weird turn as they describe their next activity to be sneaking into a woman’s house to steal her underwear, which gets all three boys way too excited. It was definitely a questionable episode when it first aired, but today it would totally be seen as a gross violation of women’s privacy, even when the woman turns out to be Mr. Krabs’ mom in the episode’s final gag.
#7: Adultery for Children “Rocko’s Modern Life” (1992-96)
In this controversial episode of a popular Nickelodeon cartoon, Rocko’s neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Bighead are going through a bit of a rough patch in their marriage. Mrs. Bighead invites Rocko over to help her with some things around the house, where she acts very flirtatious as she’s obviously trying to seduce him. This episode was banned after first airing due to the sexual innuendos and themes of adultery. Today, this episode would likely get even more complaints due to the controversial nature of an older woman seducing a younger man that was doing work for her, and Rocko’s obvious rejection of her many repeated advances that wouldn’t be tolerated in a post-“#metoo” climate.
#6: A Hillbilly Moment “The Amanda Show” (1999-2002)
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A recurring sketch on this popular series was about two young “hillbillies”, played by Drake Bell and Amanda Bynes, telling knock-knock jokes to each other. It was a silly sketch back then, but today it might have gotten a bit more backlash. “Hillbilly” is generally a derogatory term for someone from a rural mountainous area in the United States, places where people typically live off very low incomes and often don’t have access to quality education. The “Hillbilly Moment” sketch might be seen today as making fun of these less fortunate people, and playing heavily to negative stereotypes about these parts of America. Plus, the same joke being told over and over again just gets old fast.
#5: The Pearl Harbor Joke “The Rugrats Movie” (1998)
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This is a joke from “The Rugrats Movie” that gets less and less funny the more you think about it. Basically, the story is that Grandpa Lou slept through the bombing of Pearl Harbor when it was his responsibility to sound the alarm in case an emergency like that were to happen. So, in the Rugrats universe, Grandpa Lou was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans in a tragic historical event. It seems pretty disrespectful to make a joke about something like that, especially in a movie meant for kids. Even today, it’s likely a joke like this would be considered “too soon”, especially because it paints such a shocking picture of Grandpa Lou’s role in the event.
#4: The Hobo Jokes “iCarly” (2007-12)
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It’s so weird looking back to think that iCarly had a whole generation of kids making fun of homeless people. As a running gag on the show, the characters referenced or encountered what they referred to as “hobos”, which is a largely outdated term used to describe a homeless person. The iCarly characters see a hobo outside their hotel window in Hollywood, draw pictures of hobos, and even throw a “hobo party”. Due to complaints about the insensitive jokes at the expense of one of the most vulnerable groups of our society, the iCarly hobo jokes stopped in 2010. Even so, it’s still so crazy just how normalized these jokes were in the show’s early years.
#3: Uncomfortable Foot Jokes Various
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Throughout Dan Schneider’s many popular Nickelodeon shows like Zoey 101, iCarly, and Victorious, they seem to share a large amount of various jokes about feet. Many characters on these series show their bare feet and make jokes about how funny or gross feet are, and there was even a tweet from his show Sam & Cat that asked young fans to reply with photos of their feet. Some people have speculated that these jokes are tied to Schneider himself, as there are rumors that he reportedly has a foot fetish, and even darker allegations of inappropriate treatment of children on his many shows. They’re incredibly troubling accusations that make some of our favorite shows hard to watch.
#2: Smoking Cartoons “The Ren and Stimpy Show” (1991-95)
Sometimes it feels like the 90s weren’t that long ago, until you remember how much has changed since then. In multiple episodes of this series, characters from this popular cartoon can either be seen smoking or holding unlit cigars and cigarettes in their mouths. While it’s often debated whether Ren and Stimpy was meant for children at all, there’s no doubt any Nickelodeon cartoon today would never show their characters smoking. In the decades since this show aired, smoking has gone from being commonplace and even fashionable to totally uncool and unacceptable almost everywhere, children’s media included. It’s the kind of thing that’s unheard of today, but really shows how much society can change in just a few years.
#1: Soap Doubloons “SpongeBob SquarePants” (1999-)
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In this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it joke, beloved children's cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants holds up some bars of soap for his pet snail Gary, and gives him some special advice with a wink. The joke is clearly a reference to other frequently repeated jokes in popular culture about the disturbing type of violence purported to take place in men’s prisons. In today’s world, these jokes have gotten old fast, as it’s no longer acceptable to joke about such a serious and often belittled issue. It’s a problem that already isn't taken seriously enough in our society, so there’s definitely no need for Spongebob of all people to be making light of it. It’s astounding this joke made it past the censors, and that it’s still part of the episode to this day.