# What Is The Worst Cartoon Of All Time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2018, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546 "2018-05-04T02:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![sps49sd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@sps49sd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sps49sd)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/82 "2018-05-07T20:03:49Z")
How can anyone call _ **Jonny Quest** _ a bad cartoon? Did you not watch _The Robot Spy_? Or any other episode? The theme and incidental music kicked ass, too. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/83 "2018-05-07T21:13:42Z")
> [@Philliam](#): > > Two pages and still no mention of _Diver Dan_. I’m gobsmacked. Diver Dan was live action. In a way. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/84 "2018-05-07T21:52:20Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > I’ll see your _Colonel Bleep_ and raise you _Crusader Rabbit_, the first cartoon produced for TV: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hHQvkUhJo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hHQvkUhJo) > 😃 In what universe is Crusader Rabbit bad? I LOVED Crusader Rabbit, which was a first effort by Jay Ward, before he did Rocky and Bullwinkle. It had the same dynamic – short hero, tall, dumb sidekick, cheap animation, and witty scripts (yes, filled with puns). There was even a proto-Snidely Whiplash, albeit taller, in the form of Dudley Nightshade. Actually, most of the Crusader Rabbit cartoons I saw were from the later 1950s, and weren’t actually made by Jay Ward. But there were a few older ones in the mix with even more limited animation that I think were from him. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/85 "2018-05-08T02:49:31Z")
I yelled a lot at the TV when I was a kid (still do) and the truly execrable [King Kong Show](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_Kong_Show), well, made me yell a whole lot. Especially the [intro and theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSqYbqgyffM). I really hated that song. Even when I was bored, [The Dick Tracy Show](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dick_Tracy_Show) had this magical, special way of making this despondent little punk even more irascible. The aerial shot of the [traffic jam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G67XourjoQo&list=PLLFOS8BjRtPkW3g0vaZw0IBWYNm7ubJx0) is still how I remembered it. Intentionally crude-as-all-get-out animation, I actually might have a soft spot for [Kevin Spencer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Spencer_(TV_series)), because the [dialogue](https://youtu.be/sc3YdwLNlcY?t=1)is also intentionally crude-as-all-get-out. ok we all know Speed Racer and Marine Boy were shit, so on to: [Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_the_Real_Jerry_Lewis_Please_Sit_Down) was another bringdown, and that [bloody theme song](https://youtu.be/X0g6-vEDTLw?t=1) I couldn’t get out of my head. Newton should be destroyed. Mauled. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/86 "2018-05-08T14:12:35Z")
^ Ten times as big as a man! 🙂 You forgot Astro Boy. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/87 "2018-05-08T15:50:21Z")
[The Brothers Grunt](https://youtu.be/9t7pylCz_KM). Maybe it’s a great work of satire, and I’m just too dense. But I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Mavis\_Topholese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@Mavis\_Topholese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavis_Topholese)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/88 "2018-05-08T18:31:14Z")
so far nobody’s mentioned Super President. This show is about US President James Norcross, who went through a cosmic storm and gained awesome super powers and when danger threatens, he dons his super outfit and battles monsters. This DePatie/Freling show was accompanied by Spy Shadow, a cartoon about a secret agent whose shadow is a sentient being and is also a spy. I’ve seen a lot of bad cartoons - Clutch Cargo is awful, Jot is mind-destroying, Turbo Teen is insulting - but Super President combines a terrible concept, bad artwork, poor animation, dumb scripts, and half-assed everything else to really deliver the bads. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bgf3qYBRdI) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/89 "2018-05-08T18:50:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > As far as I can recall, as a boy I never fantasized about fucking a yeti. So strictly a bottom, then? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/90 "2018-05-09T15:11:56Z")
The Czech-animated Tom & Jerry season (The Dietch collection) was horrible. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/91 "2018-05-10T01:00:38Z")
There was a Saturday morning cartoon anthology called “Uncle Crock’s Block”. The only two things that are memorable about it: 1. It “starred” Charles Nelson Reilly as a talking alligator. Yeah, pretty much how it sounds. 2. It featured some of the most substandard shit ever to come from Filmation. Most of these cartoons I have mercifully forgotten. The one that unfortunately sticks in my head, despite all my attempts at self-hypnosis to erase the memory, was “MUSH” an extremely stupid rip-off of MASH. All the characters were animated dogs. Nuff Said. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/92 "2018-05-10T04:57:41Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > There was a Saturday morning cartoon anthology called “Uncle Crock’s Block”. The only two things that are memorable about it: > > 1. It “starred” Charles Nelson Reilly as a talking alligator. Yeah, pretty much how it sounds. > 2. It featured some of the most substandard shit ever to come from Filmation. Most of these cartoons I have mercifully forgotten. The one that unfortunately sticks in my head, despite all my attempts at self-hypnosis to erase the memory, was “MUSH” an extremely stupid rip-off of MASH. All the characters were animated dogs. Nuff Said. I saw that program when it originally aired on ABC in the mid-70s and what you said is mostly correct. However, there was a bit more to the premise. Charles Nelson Reilly was actually playing an actor playing a talking alligator (i.e., Uncle Crock) who hosted a TV kid show. He was paired with Jonathan ("Dr. Smith) Harris as a once-great prima donna director reduced to directing “Uncle Crock’s Block”. In between the live segments, there were three gimmicky cartoons that, in addition to “MUSH”, included “Wacky and Packy” (about a caveman and his pet mammoth stranded in the 20th century) and “Fraidy Cat” (about a cat on his 9th life who’s haunted by the ghosts of his eight other lives). The program meant to be both a spoof of low-budget local TV kid shows (complete with cheesy cartoons) and a sitcom about the chaos and ego-clashes going on behind the scenes of the show. Unfortunately, the concept was too meta and self-referential for most of the 7-year olds watching so they had to awkwardly dumb things down. It didn’t work. The final product was an ungainly hybrid that kids hated and was quickly cancelled by ABC. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/93 "2018-05-10T13:01:07Z")
I remember visiting some friends with a young daughter back in the 1980s and she had on some Smurf cartoons. Dreadful. No wonder that kid is now in jail for identity theft and the mother is dead (long divorced before that, shacking up with a married man). ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/94 "2018-05-10T13:57:02Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I saw that program when it originally aired on ABC in the mid-70s and what you said is mostly correct. However, there was a bit more to the premise. Charles Nelson Reilly was actually playing an actor playing a talking alligator (i.e., Uncle Crock) who hosted a TV kid show. He was paired with Jonathan ("Dr. Smith) Harris as a once-great prima donna director reduced to directing “Uncle Crock’s Block”. In between the live segments, there were three gimmicky cartoons that, in addition to “MUSH”, included “Wacky and Packy” (about a caveman and his pet mammoth stranded in the 20th century) and “Fraidy Cat” (about a cat on his 9th life who’s haunted by the ghosts of his eight other lives). > > The program meant to be both a spoof of low-budget local TV kid shows (complete with cheesy cartoons) and a sitcom about the chaos and ego-clashes going on behind the scenes of the show. Unfortunately, the concept was too meta and self-referential for most of the 7-year olds watching so they had to awkwardly dumb things down. It didn’t work. The final product was an ungainly hybrid that kids hated and was quickly cancelled by ABC. Oh great, now I remember the “Wacky and Packy” cartoon. Gaahhhhhh. I later read somewhere that ABC was so angry about the cartoons that they swore they would never work with Filmation again. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/95 "2018-05-10T16:05:26Z")
“Winky Dink and You.” Not because the cartoon itself was terrible, but because its gimmick got me in big trouble several times. The gimmick was that, when Winky Dink got in trouble, kids were supposed to draw what he needed on the TV screen with crayons. If there was a canyon, we were supposed to draw him a bridge; if he was thirsty, we were supposed to draw him a glass of water. You get the idea. Thing is, the toy stores sold Winky DInk sets that we needed to buy. I didn’t know that, so I just drew on the TV screen, instead of attaching a sheet of Saran Wrap to the screen and drawing on that. I got a good but whipping for that! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/96 "2018-05-10T20:30:52Z")
oh lets not forget the first version of space ghost… birdman … not a specific cartoon but a couple of 60s to mid 80s genres Cartoons based on tv shows…anyone remember the happy days cartoon ,gilligans planet brady bunch ect … or cartoons based on based on popular network stars like gary coleman (different strokes ) on nbc mary kate-ashley on abc the other one that they still do is cartoons based on real music groups that the only thing real is the taped music they use ie Jackson 5 puffyamiyumi aka cartoon networks Japanese house band theres several others ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/97 "2018-05-10T21:06:02Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > “Winky Dink and You.” Not because the cartoon itself was terrible, but because its gimmick got me in big trouble several times. > > The gimmick was that, when Winky Dink got in trouble, kids were supposed to draw what he needed on the TV screen with crayons. If there was a canyon, we were supposed to draw him a bridge; if he was thirsty, we were supposed to draw him a glass of water. You get the idea. > > Thing is, the toy stores sold Winky DInk sets that we needed to buy. I didn’t know that, so I just drew on the TV screen, instead of attaching a sheet of Saran Wrap to the screen and drawing on that. > > I got a good but whipping for that! I did that too when I was three or four, and my mom was royally POed. What i remember most, however, is being surprised at just how small my drawing looked when I turned off the TV. Things on-screen look so much bigger than they actually are! ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/98 "2018-05-10T21:06:26Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > oh lets not forget the first version of space ghost… birdman > … > not a specific cartoon but a couple of 60s to mid 80s genres > > Cartoons based on tv shows…anyone remember the happy days cartoon ,gilligans planet brady bunch ect … > or cartoons based on based on popular network stars like gary coleman (different strokes ) on nbc mary kate-ashley on abc > > the other one that they still do is cartoons based on real music groups that the only thing real is the taped music they use ie Jackson 5 puffyamiyumi aka cartoon networks Japanese house band > > theres several others Add in Laverne and Shirley, Dukes of Hazzard, Punky Brewster, Partridge Family in Outer Space. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546/99 "2018-05-10T22:15:29Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Space Ghost was shit Yes, but without _Space Ghost_, we would never have had _Cartoon Planet_ and _Space Ghost Coast to Coast_. So it was all worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-cartoon-of-all-time/813546.md?page=4)