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Should have tightened my crocs.
The 90's and early 2000's were a crazy time. Kids cartoons were not animated mirrors of the wholesome 80's family sitcom content. No, they were cocaine fueled dreams of a group of writers and producers who clearly had a lot of trauma to process. Or in many cases, chose to ignore that trauma and instead create some of the wildest shit that still makes me chuckle in awe that it was released upon youth such as myself in our formative years.
Probably the most fucked up one I watched wasn't The Ren & Stimpy Show as many might expect. No the most fucked up was Rocko's Modern Life.
A who whose main character, Rocko, moves to America and works as a sex phone operator while surrounded by surreal, pathetic, and terrifying neighbors.
An episode that still stays with is when Rocko's best friend, Heffer (the cow), chokes on a chicken bone (really an entire rib cage) and dies. He then proceeds to go to Heck (Hell) and Rocko attempts to save his life.
I think I was like 8, when I watched this show.
This explains a lot.
But I'm here to talk about a different formative show. The trippy, music pumping, action packed, and still dope as fuck Samurai Jack.
From the Wikee-P-Die-Ah:
The titular character is an unnamed Japanese samurai prince who wields a mystic katana capable of cutting through virtually anything. He sets out to free his kingdom after it is taken over by an evil, shapeshifting demon lord known as Aku. The two engage in a fierce battle, but just as the prince is about to deal the final strike, Aku sends him forward in time to a dystopian future ruled by the tyrannical demon. Adopting the name "Jack" after being addressed as such by beings in this time period, he quests to travel back to his own time and defeat Aku before he can take over the world. Jack's search for a way back to his own time period transcends Aku's control, but Jack's efforts are largely in vain due to the way back to his home ending up just out of his reach.
Recently while browsing mindlessly through MAX I saw that Samurai Jack was randomly featured on the home page.
The image of Jack alone came a rush of memories to come flooding back.
What I remembered most besides the fight scenes themselves and Jack's goal to kill the evil Aku, was just how much the soundtrack played apart right next to the outlandish situations a Samurai found himself in.
The music was always up tempo, his enemies always had a level of flare and individuality, and as a little kid watching this my brain froze when Samurai Jack was on. Episodes would end and I would blink, not understanding where the time had gone.
Keep in mind this as on Cartoon Network, not Adult Swim when I was growing up. I went from watching Power Rangers and shit to this.
There was no going back.
My gut feelings were only ratified when my Scottish ancestry was accurately portrayed in this cultural powerhouse.
I don't really have anything else to add. This show was a wild mind opening experience for a kid.
If I stop to think about it, it's probably why I love Tarantino movies. My friend and I tricked his mom when we were 14 to buy us tickets to Kill Bill. Pretty sure I saw it and connected both pieces of art immediately. All the synapses fired in my brain at once.
"Yeah this is pretty fucking dope too."
Doesn't hurt that this show was so advanced that it was only after the internet was all grown up that it was mined for memes. It was thick with them. Extra THICC.
*Chef's Kiss*