The other day, I participated in a classroom discussion about a short story written by a student. At one point in the story, the author mentioned Jem, the cartoon character from the 1980s.
Suddenly we all started talking about the shows we watched as children in the ’80s. What’s interesting is that many favorite ’80s TV shows are becoming popular again in the new millennium.
Both “He-man” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” have been remade into new shows for contemporary audiences. We’re seeing Care Bears DVDs and stuffed animals. I have a new Strawberry Shortcake folder.
So why are these shows becoming so popular after their heyday 10 to 15 years ago? I mean, there are plenty original ideas for children’s shows. Usually outdated cartoons never really come back, unless they star Bugs Bunny.
The answer is simple. The children who used to watch those shows are now young adults, in college or newly married. The big television bosses out there know that we are the target consumer demographic, and they’re cashing in.
That brings us to why the children of the ’80s are actually buying any of this stuff. I mean, we’re adults now, right? We keep up with current events. We vote. Some of us are even starting new families and having children of our own. We should be past this.
To quote the Toys ‘R Us slogan, “We don’t wanna grow up.”
College-age people are at the time of our lives when we move out of our parents’ house-hopefully-and take on the privileges and responsibilities of adults.
While we really want that-and have wanted that for several years-the enormity of the life transition is, frankly, overwhelming.
We have to do tax forms, find jobs, learn how to cook, etc. And when we realize all this, all we really want to do is curl up in front of the television and watch cartoons.
Yes, cartoons. We battle enough with real-world problems. Sometimes we just want to tune out all the real-world problems the television professes to portray and watch animated figures beat each other up or teach us how to share with others.
We want a return to innocence.
However, we are adults. Our collective sense of humor has matured just the slightest.
Thankfully, animators seem to know that. This explains why Spongebob Squarepants and the Powerpuff Girls are so popular with college kids. They’re funny!
But not just in a cute, smarmy way. These shows have an intelligent, sarcastic edge to them.
They successfully appeal to small children as well as those going through their second or third childhood.
But all these cartoons have something in common. They have a certain degree of innocence that we want to recapture.
Maybe we want to recapture the irresponsibility to childhood. Or maybe we’re just sick of violence, sex and pain in movies and television nowadays.
We’ve seen so much irreverent and scatological humor that we want to go toward something that can be witty without being profane.
For once we want to watch something that doesn’t shock our sensibilities with every sentence.
Now, this is not to say that college-age people are completely ignoring risqu comedy and real-world drama. Many will say that they’ve got to see “Family Guy” or “South Park.”
But that doesn’t stop us from getting nostalgic for a simpler world that we saw through cartoons as children.
We want to see a world where the only problems the characters face are pollution and littering, and all they have to do combine their super-powered rings to summon a blue-skinned hero who will make everything all better.
We want to see teddy bears who can shoot laser beams out of their tummies. We want to see a world where good triumphs over evil with songs about making friends.
And then maybe we can feel up to facing the real world.
Angela Adair is a junior English major. She can be reached at [email protected].