Cartoon Cliches

Homer and Peter have at least gone so far off the deep end intelligence wise that it's actually started to reverse and they have some points their dippiness makes them deceptively clever. That and their shows have gone on so long they're willing to Deconstruct roles (eg. cases Marge or Lois are painted in the wrong and Homer and Peter call them out on it, something that was actually Lampshaded as a rare exception in the earlier episodes).

edited 13th Dec '14 2:37:28 PM by Psi001

Although it seems to pop up more often in anime, what about cases where some guy gets mistakenly blamed for being a peeping tom, whether it be at hot springs or otherwise?

It often bugged me to the point that when I made a similar scenario in two of my story chapters, it was the female party that was in the wrong this time around for resorting to/attempting bodily harm on the male characters.

Anime in general seems to have male characters pissing off female characters on accident multiple times.Usually the males do it by complete accident.It bugs me when it happens.

Animes tend to live on double standard abuse. A lot of the female characters would be considered unhinged monsters with a gender flip.

Perhaps to compensate a lot of anime utilises Slapstick Knows no Gender.

Seeing how anime is Japanese cartoons, I suppose their cliches can be listed too :3

3. Dead Parents. Usually the mother.

That's another trope that seems to appear in a lot of live action stuff,usually for kids.

Either a parent is dead or the parent in question doesn't seem to exist.

Dead/missing mom is definitely a Disney cliche.

There's an element of sexism in this cliché, and not just towards men...

Dead parents are usually necessary for stories that would prove rather awkward if the parents were still alive. That said, I'd like to see a story where both the parents and the kids get roped into the really crazy shit, with none of them as The Load. The Incredibles did that (though really only in the second half), but I'd like to see it more often.

Live action shows have the same problem.

The men can come off as either idiotic or spineless while the women come off as harpies or as an abusive asshole.

Conveniently an Orphan / Disappeared Dad / Missing Mom: The cliche that the hero (or the villain) is an orphan is very common across much of fiction, it isn't restricted to cartoons.

edited 13th Dec '14 5:59:03 PM by AHI-3000

And yes, in way too many sitcoms the man is a dumbass, and the woman is a jerkass.

Naturally, sitcoms can't exist without conflict. But too often the conflict is along gender lines, or at least indulges in gender stereotypes.

And no comedy is complete without at least one idiot, and at least one jerk.

The only sitcom I know that didn't do that was King Of The Hill, where Hank was the sensible one and Peggy was more full-of-herself and egotistical (e.g. her awful Spanish skills).

But in some episodes, they let Peggy show that she could be clever if needed - see "The Substitute Spanish Prisoner."

edited 13th Dec '14 6:06:28 PM by Aldo930

I mean, go to far in the other direction and you get something that's like the stuff that was on in the 1950's.

Bob's burgers is like that too.Bob is the resident sane man while his wife Linda is a utter ditz.

edited 13th Dec '14 6:09:37 PM by ScottPilgrim2013

but..I love Lucy :'(

Extremes on either side aren't really funny. I honestly wonder if there has ever been a show (cartoon or live action specifically) that had both parents having the same amount of intelligence.

edited 13th Dec '14 6:32:47 PM by teddy

Cow And Chicken would be a good example.

Both the parents are equally insane.

True. I think that may one of the few cartoons that did!

edited 13th Dec '14 6:36:30 PM by teddy

The Turners in Fairly Odd Parents are currently at the same level of stupidity nowadays,back before they were flanderized as hell Mr Turner was dopey but not too dumb while the Misses was usually a bit more level headed but was still pretty goofy.Now they're both stupid assholes who seem to hate their son.

I think Dexter and Dee Dee's parents are of equal intelligence. I think same thing with any of the parents from Rugrats.

Speaking of adults, I've noticed that a few shows have the adults either useless (The Simpsons) or non-existent (Peanuts TV Specials, Ed Edd n Eddy). Powerpuff Girls seems to be a subversion. While the girls save the day and the Mayor is probably more imcompetent than Mayor Quimby, The Professor and Ms Bellum are NOT.

For Peanut's sake, I believe Schulz said that Adults were in fact useless in the peanuts world! Man was he strange.

edited 13th Dec '14 9:38:43 PM by teddy

Adults would get in the way of Rule of Funny for the Peanuts-verse. And adult wouldn't stand Lucy's Christmas Queen back-sass in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Actually, this would explain why older siblings (Charlie Brown and Lucy) are the ones that call the shots for all younger siblings (Sally, Linus, and Rerun)

now that I think about it, not having adults makes perfect sense! Imagine how the Great Pumpkin would be if there was adult supervision..

4. Wacky sidekicks supposedly there for "comic relief"

5. Unrequited love

Technically adults exist in the Peanuts universe.

They're either offscreen or sound like muted trombones, depending on the medium.