Warner Bros' Histeria! was one of several shows created in part as a result of the FCC deciding in 1996 to start enforcing the 1990 Children's Television Act that required a certain percentage of "informative" and "educational" programs. It premiered on Kids' WB! in September 1998. But having come from the creators of Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, this show, which centered on comedic sketches loosely based on historical events and topics, was actually pretty much the best show to come out of the CTA. Unfortunately, probably because it came out at around the same time as the Pokémon anime, barely anyone realized this when it was originally airing, and thus didn't bother to watch it much.One season (52 of the planned 65) of episodes were produced before the show was cancelled over budget concerns (i.e. being $10 million over it), then were repeated numerous times for the next three seasons before being taken off the network in 2001. Unlike its predecessors, Histeria! did not reappear in syndication on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. The show would've disappeared altogether if not for the fact that, in 2006, it reappeared as part of the initial lineup of Time Warner's In2TV channel until they were inexplicably removed in January 2009.
Ax Crazy: Lizzie Borden is portrayed this way. In one episode, she refers to herself as the "O.J. [Simpson] of 1849" (because she was acquitted of murder, even though it's heavily implied that she did it).
Beach Episode: "The Dawn of Time" ends with the cast hanging out at the beach.
A notable one is Clark Kent as well... William Clark
Partnered up with a Jerry Lewis expy as Merriweather Lewis. And the Clark Kent character was actually voiced to sound like Dean Martin. How many kids in 1996 do you think picked up on that joke?
Cut Short: Unlike with its Speilberg-produced predecessors, Histeria! had no Grand Finale other than audio of the characters singing a goodbye song over the end credits of the last episode produced.
Depending on the Artist / Off Model: Happens quite a bit with the kids, especially Froggo. The artists couldn't decide whether he was supposed to be chubby or thin or somewhere in between.
Friendly Tickle Torture: George Washington briefly does this to Martha Washington at the end of the first sketch in "The American Revolution".
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Big Fat Baby's flatulence, Mr. Smartypants being a man who "spends a lot of time in his pants", two episodes using the words "Hell" and "Damn," and Sappho "wasn't into men".
Perhaps part of the reason for this was that the show often had Lydia Karaoke, Network Censor complain about this trope.
In one episode, they were talking about ancient Greece and the vestal virgins. One of the kids asked what a virgin was and World's Oldest Woman replied "Let's just say, we didn't do a lot of dating."
Literal example when Mr. Smartypants relays the history of the toilet to the viewers, and getting to say "crapper".
As stated, this is maybe the only kids' cartoon besides Gargoyles made between 1980 and today to get both "Hell" and "Damn" in wholesale and blatantly. Both times were quotes ("War is hell!" and "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!") and both times the in-show censor had a CONNIPTION fit over it.
David Farragut: Damn the torpedoes!
Lydia Karaoke: WHOA! You can't say that word! That word is a no-no!
Admiral Farragut, "played by" Clint Eastwood, yelled at her that it was wartime, there was no time for pleasantries, and eventually threw her overboard directly onto said torpedoes (used in the then-current method to refer to what are now called "mines.") She even waved a little white flag, "Okay, now I see why they used 'Damn the torpedos'!"
All in all, not so much "getting past" the radar, as running over the radar dish with a bulldozer.
Gender Flip: A promo where they flipped every word they could find from male to female and vice versa.
i.e. 'Hers'teria
A Good Name for a Rock Band: Toast decides to name his band Nasty Head Wound after Daniel Boone suffers an actual head wound.
Got Volunteered: The Mountie sketch, with Loud as the volunteer.
Lydia Karaoke the Network Censor is voiced by Nora Dunn from Saturday Night Live (she was the female cast member who first came on the show during the 11th seasonnote which, had it not have been for a cast and crew overhaul, would have been the last season for SNL who got fired from the show for refusing to appear in the episode hosted by Andrew "Dice" Clay because she hated his vulgar sense of humor).
Another SNL connection: Miss Information was voiced by Laraine Newman (from the original "Not Ready for Primetime" cast [1975-1980]).
Sitting Bull is apparently possessed by Candle Jack.
Viewers of Disney's One Saturday Morning can pretty much recognize Nostradamus as Manny the Uncanny. He also played the Jerry Lewis-inspired director on Animaniacs (Paul Rugg).
Long List: In an homage to the Cheese Shop sketch, a segment about the Boston Tea Party has an Englishman appear at the aforementioned "party" and ask for many, many different kinds of tea, only to be informed that they're "fresh out".
Name's the Same: Real Life instances were lampshaded by one of Pepper Mills' running gags, where she pesters a historical figure for an autograph, only to realize afterwards that they weren't the celebrity with the similar-sounding name that she was expecting. Like getting Leonardo da Vinci when she wanted Leonardo DiCaprio.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lots of historical figures are portrayed acting like celebrities; for instance, Julius Caesar and his murderers are Frank Sinatra and the other members of the Rat Pack.
Also overlaps with Name's the Same for some meta gags where the celebrity and historical figure share a name; Karl Marx was played like Groucho Marx and Lewis and Clark were Jerry Lewis and Clark Kent.
No Indoor Voice: Loud Kiddington, who is less "Outdoor Voice" and more like "Halfway across Manhattan Voice"
No Name Given: Crooked Mouth Boy and Bow-Haired Girl. Storyboards for "When America Was Young", recently made available online, reveal that Crooked Mouth Boy's name is actually Chipper, though.
Overly-Long Name: Sarah Coopersmith-Fitzwarren-Goldenheimer-Stein.
Parental Bonus: Jokes that didn't fall under Getting Crap Past the Radar tended to be these. One example was Confucius portrayed as an Expy of political commentator John McLaughlin.
The fact that, much like Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, that Spielberg and company (although Steven Spielberg wasn't involved with this one) once again pisses off the censors with as much radar-dodging crap as possible. Added bonus for the fact that the censor character here is often treated like a Butt Monkey.
Rule of Funny: While it did include more references to history than cartoons in general, the writers didn't concern themselves too much with the fact they were billing the show as "informative" and "educational" programming... in, well, any situation where they thought accuracy would get in the way of humor.
Pepper constantly mistaking historical celebrities for pop cultural ones, never realizing her mistake until she's gotten their autograph. For instance, mistaking Vladimir Lenin for John Lennon.
Loud watching something and alternating between "See it, see it..." and "DON'T SEE IT!! DON'T SEE IT!!" depending on whether he sees it.
The last time the Big Fat Baby had his diaper changed. Whenever someone asked, a character would respond by asking, "Remember when [insert historical event here]?" The inquirer would respond affirmatively, the character would respond with "Before that."
In sketches where Loud and Fetch are running a business, Loud says that if he can't make a deal, Fetch will eat something disgusting, which said dog will get upset about.
Screwed by the Network: The show's time slots kept changing during its inaugural year on Kids' WB!, eventually taking it off the Saturday morning block altogether and settling into airing only on weekday mornings after Pokemon - too late for kids to watch it on school mornings, and too early for them to wake up for on vacation mornings.
A song introducing a sketch about Alexander the Great is sung to the tune of the Animaniacs theme, and the sketch about Florence Nightingale as a Hospital Hottie ends with the boys shouting "Hello, Nurse!!" Also, the World's Oldest Woman's jingle is sung to the tune of Slappy Squirrel's theme.
The Pinky and the Brain theme music can be heard when Chit Chatterson mentions brain removal in a sketch about mummification.
As well as part of the background music for the introduction to Nikola Tesla's later life.
Clark Kent's appearance as William Clark, of course. Additionally, Superman made two other cameos as himself (one of which had his "S" emblem written as "F", which some have speculated is a nod to Freakazoid!!).
Fetch bears a bit of resemblance to Hunter from Road Rovers. This could just be a result the Kids' WB! "house style" though. Notably, though, the last episode contains a brief gag in which Fetch dashes onstage joined by dogs who appear to be of the same breeds as Blitz, Exile, and Shag.
The Revolutionary War episode (I think it was that episode, only remember seeing a handful of episodes) had a segment where the action was "called" by parodies of the lead FOX NFL duo at the time of Pat Summerall and John Madden.
the sketch about the Boston Tea Party ends up being a homage to Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch, replacing types of cheeses with types of tea (and even having John Cleese do a voice cameo)
One alternate opening credit is done exactly in the style of Saturday Night Live.
A skit involving the Spice Islands involves, naturally enough, a Spice Girls parody. World's Oldest Woman is peeved that she's apparently "Old Spice".
Loud Kiddington's Expository Theme Tune bears a striking resemblance to the theme tune of Bat Masterson.
Shown Their Work: The series has its moments, it's an amusing show that is all about bringing a subject that is typically perceived as stuffy and irrelevant to younger people. In particular the series does a good job on the Second World War, giving a basic (it is a kid's show after all) outline of the lead-up to Nazi Germany and doesn't particularly gloss over the less-mentioned parts of the war (i.e. alliance with the most assuredly non-democratic Soviet Union and the postwar Europe debacle) that often escape mention in other sources.
Take That: A cat burps up Mickey Mouse's shorts in "Really Really Oldies but Goodies", and "Histeria Around the World (Part 2)" opens with Loud, Charity, Aka, and Toast parodying the Teletubbies (much to their chagrin).
Theme Song: Many, plus themes for segments featuring regulars like Loud or Pepper. The two main themes were a 30 second version and its extended version. Occasionally, a parody of another show's theme song was used, such as The Addams Family or Saturday Night Live, as mentioned above.
Vague Age: The kids' ages are never given, but it is mentioned in one episode that they attend William Howard Taft Big Around the Middle School. However, Froggo is actually said to be ten in "The U.S. Civil War - Part 2".
Weirdness Search And Rescue: Miss Information would guide people through historic events and describe them, usually getting some details hilariously wrong and needing to be corrected.
“Well Done Son” Guy: Shown in one episode as Alexander the Great's relationship with his father Philip of Macedon, as Philip infuriates Alexander by always telling him that his feats are "pretty good but not great". Actually likely Truth in Television of the relationship between the two - there have long been rumors Alexander had something to do with his father's assassination.
Who's on First?: This pops up during Father Time's attempt to quiz Lucky Bob and Susanna about the Zhou Dynasty.
Also done in the Lewis and Clark sketch when Lewis asks Clark which way to turn on the river.
Writing Lines: In a parody of the intro to The Simpsons, Loud has to write "I do not need a megaphone!"
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