What Do You Mean Its Not For Kids / Fox Cartoons And FX

Disney's Darker and Edgier, Ruder and Cruder big brothers - FX Networks and 20th Television Animation - popularized adult animation in the United States. As such, kids should not watch these shows.

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• The Seth MacFarlane cartoon franchise, which boasts such shows as The Cleveland Show, American Dad! and the always-polarizing Family Guy, is one of the most frequent targets of the claim in modern times. Critics, including the conservative American Media Watchdog organization, Parents Television Council, — in harshly criticizing the frequent very adult plots, extreme violence, crude language and lewd sexual situations — cite the fact that the show is animated, has child-friendly businesses (such as Burger King) as frequent advertisers, has merchandise marketed to children, and is aired during early evening hours when children are potentially in the audience (and it really doesn't help that they occasionally start the [adult swim] block at 8). Those defending the show often point out that the show's intended audience is not children and that some won't allow their children to see it, but those claims have often been denied by the PTC and others. Even more so if one buys the DVD release. Some adult cartoons, like The Simpsons, are written to comply with broadcast standards, so what you see on television is what you'll get on the DVD^note with few exceptions: the DVD versions of "Marge Gets a Job," "New Kids on the Blecch," "Viva Ned Flanders," and "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" altered Mrs. Krabappel's line about Bart feigning Tourette Syndrome, Mr. Burns calling Smithers a "Chinaman" was changed to Smithers being "Chinese", Homer figuring out that Barney's birthday is on the same day as Hitler's was changed to being on the same day as the original collie who played Lassie, and a sexy Superbowl commercial about the Catholic Church had "Catholic" removed from the line "The Catholic Church: We've Made a Few...Changes". While most of these were for offensive content, the Hitler line was censored due to a tragedy that occurred on that date. The MacFarlane cartoons, however, are written first and then censored for broadcast, so the DVD versions are often more explicit.
  • When the first few seasons or so of Family Guy were released on DVD in Norway, it was rated 7. Later seasons, however, got rated 15.

• The Simpsons (the animated series that made modern TV animation what it is today, for better and worse) has dealt with adult subjects like animal abuse, child abuse, politics, alcoholism, sex, religion, class inequality, and juvenile delinquency, but back when it first aired, a lot of people didn't accept it as an adult cartoon because of how simplistic the animation and art was, and trashed it for corrupting the younger generation due to the subject matter and having Bart Simpson (who, back then, was written as a more destructive, 1990s spin on Dennis the Menace) as the main focus of the stories. It also didn't help that Simpsons merchandise back then were sold as children's toys.
  • The Simpsons was even, in 1991, declared by the UK's Channel 4 to be the Greatest Kids' TV Show ever, despite not actually being a kids' show.
  • Word of God says it was never meant to be a kids' show and the bright color scheme was meant as an attention-grabber for FOX executives and viewers who just happened to be channel surfing.
  • Even actual children's shows referenced The Simpsons as if they were in the same category. When The Fairly OddParents! aired Channel Chasers, they parodied The Simpsons in a way only viewers would recognize... only some of it was cleaned up, like changing Flanders from a Christian to a bearded Jewish man and making the Barney Gumble expy a gross, belching slob instead of a drunk, though he does go inside a place called "Mike's" (a parody of "Moe's Tavern") when he gets hit with radioactive slime and becomes a superhero^note this may have been a Parental Bonus.
    • Before this, the characters made a cameo appearance in the celebrity version of the Sesame Street segment "Monster In The Mirror".
  • At one point, The Simpsons even aired on Cartoon Network in the Philippines. No, not [adult swim], daytime Cartoon Network.
  • This was done in-universe in the very first Treehouse of Horror, even though the subjects mentioned weren't actually for children.
    Homer: Oh, no, Marge! Come on, please!
    Marge: Homer, I'm not sleeping with the lights on. They're just children's stories. They can't hurt you.
  • Not helping is that Simpsons shorts played before Ice Age: Continental Drift and Onward.
  • Even This Very Wiki has made this mistake, as at one point, the Parental Bonus page contained examples from The Simpsons.
  • The show's comics even appeared in Disney Adventures magazine.
• In 1998, King of the Hill was nominated for a Kids' Choice Award, despite being an adult show that deals with similar subjects touched on both The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-Head: political correctness, worker incompetence, spousal abuse, suicide, mental illness, infidelity, marital strife, death, sexual harassment^note and not just man on woman; the episode "That's What She Said" depicted male on male harassment with a character making lewd jokes that does offend some of the men who work at Strickland Propane, and "Jon Vitti Presents: Return to La Grunta" had Hank humped by a dolphin, with the hotel staff not taking him seriously, drug abuse^note mostly tobacco and marijuana smoking and alcohol consumption, and indecency in the media. As mentioned on the Animation Age Ghetto page, many children and teens stayed away from this show because they found it boring (which is what a lot of detractors of the show have said about King of the Hill in comparison to Beavis and Butt-Head, the latter of which is more chaotic and raunchy). Its general cleanliness, despite being a show aimed at older audiences, is specifically the reason Cartoon Network airs it at the start of its nighttime "adult" block. It acts as a middle-ground between normal kid-aimed Cartoon Network and Adult Swim by being adult-aimed but not "too mature" that parents will get mad if their kid catches an episode. Bobby Hill even appeared in 2 issues of Disney Adventures magazine, one where he talks about surviving the school year, another where he appears as one of "The Top Coolest Cartoon Kids". Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when his show would be purchased by Disney in 2019.
• If you turn to the search menu for your DVR and search for Archer, you will find it labeled as children's programming, despite the excessive bloody violence, vulgar profanity, copious female nudity, and sexist/racist/overall politically incorrect humor. Not to mention this is on FXX, which is known for edgier programming than Fox.
• In the mid 2000's, there were passionate child fans of Futurama who were in the 7-12 range. Even though it may look like a cool animated sitcom about outer space, at times it can be Darker and Edgier than Matt Groening's other animated sitcom, The Simpsons.
  • At one point, the show aired on Spacetoon in the MENA region, a channel targeted at children (albeit edited for content).
  • It was even aired on YTV, a Canadian children's cable television channel.
• Little Demon quickly earned the ire of Moral Guardians due to its adult situations and occult imagery. This is because of both Disney producing the show (albeit under the FX Productions label) and of course, the Animation Age Ghetto. Doesn't help that the series, much like the other shows on this page, are available on Disney+ internationally through Hotstar.