A few weekends ago, my best friend and I resorted to heedlessly vegging out in front of her television set. In the midst of our pointless channel surfing, we stumbled upon “Adult Swim.”
Being more or less out of touch with popular culture, I have never watched the series of shows on Cartoon Network, but I understood that it was a programming block intended for viewers between 18 and 25, which is my age group.
Curious and in a listless state where changing the channel seem like too much work, I agreed to watch AS’s “Squidbillies,” a poorly animated cartoon program about a degenerate, inbred family of squids who lived in Georgia (sounds enthralling, doesn’t it?). Only minutes into the program, characters’ heads would explode in mid-sentence, or they would derail into mindless rambling about the most random topic.
I think my friend and I were so awestruck by the sheer stupidity of the program, we continued to watch.
Overall, it was the most outlandish 20 minutes of television I had ever come across, and although I didn’t admit to it at the time, I couldn’t help but be slightly amused by the absurdity of the distasteful cartoon.
Eventually, I returned to the programming segment on Cartoon Network. I was yet again reduced to a bored and languid state and unwilling to watch another CSI rerun when I tuned in once more.
This time I got to watch a riveting episode of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” an animated cartoon about a milkshake, a box of fries, and a meatball who live as roommates and have hair-brained adventures together.
As you might have already gathered, it’s really about nothing.
However, the premise isn’t the only thoughtless feature of the adult-targeted cartoon.
The dialogue that transpires between the fast food is relatively inane, but mind you, I’m the one watching talking fast food in my spare time.
In the episode titled “Team mobile,” Meat Wad at some point asks Master Shake if they can go to Carl’s house to which Master Shake replies, “no” and adds after Meat Wad persists that he has killed Carl with his mind.
Before I continue thumbing my nose at A S programming, having watched only enough of AS programs to form a meager impression, I have to address the fact that the cartoon block doesn’t debase it’s audience entirely.
Very recently I came across a series of programs on AS that had some substance.
Late this weekend, I turned AS on to watch two semi-riveting Japanese animations “Ghost in Shell: Stand Alone Complex,” which centers around an elite militant group in future Japan that battles cybernetic terrorists, and Full Mental Alchemist, which is about two brother alchemists who are embarked on a crusade to find the Philosopher’s Stone.
So it turns out my contemporaries don’t always pine for toilet humor, but I still have some misgivings about a generation that demands feeble-minded cartoons that often look as if they were created on a napkin by a lunatic with a broken hand.