Stuff in old cartoons that seems really screwed up now

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Rainbow Brite. First episode. A baby is seen left out in the rain. Did they ever reveal the parents?

The my pet monster cartoon. Grown up neighbour has a thing for a very young girl.

And there's Pepe let Pews not so consensual actions...
What else?

[Vakanai]

Pokemon - okay kid, you're ten years old now so it's high time you get out of school and home and start fending for yourself out there.

(I mean, I think we can call the 90s old now...)

[K7P5V]

Tom & Jerry sitting on the tracks and waiting for the train...

[Powerboy]

Blackface and general caricatures of black people.

People smoking, sometimes multiple cigarettes at once, blatantly advertising cigarettes to children.

[Vakanai]

Tom & Jerry sitting on the tracks and waiting for the train...

There was one episode, set during the French Revolution...or maybe it was a Three Musketeers parody...anyway, Tom was tasked with preventing mice from eating all the food for a banquet or something. Of course Jerry wins against him. It ends with a shot of the guillotine - Tom was beheaded. Jerry got Tom killed all so he could eat lavishly, and of course this being Tom and Jerry was portrayed somewhat heroically/in the "pro"tagonist role. The hero got someone killed just to eat fine cheese and fruits and meats.

That's a seriously messed up episode! I mean, usually Tom is the one messing with Jerry and gets his comeuppance, but Jerry was totally the villain here and Tom still pays, this time in bleakly morbid fashion...

[Vakanai]

Blackface and general caricatures of black people.

People smoking, sometimes multiple cigarettes at once, blatantly advertising cigarettes to children.

You think that's blatant? There were actual advertisements where cartoon characters like Fred Flintstone and so on were actually pushing certain cigarette brands!

[williamtheday]

That it's okay to hunt sentient rabbits and ducks.

[Celgress]

Sonic AM was about a group of orphaned teenagers battling an insane racist scientist who turned their people into robotic slaves.

In one episode the kids of Dungeons & Dragons decide to murder their arch enemy Venger in cold blood and nearly do so.

[j9ac9k]

Pepe Lepew's whole ouvre is problematic.

[Celgress]

Although live-action the shorted lived 1980s' Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future could never be made today. There was tons of messed-up stuff in that show: genocide, slavery, racism (mechanics against humans and the other way around), cold-blooded murder, torture (both mental and physical), biological weapons.

[Jackalope89]

Pokemon - okay kid, you're ten years old now so it's high time you get out of school and home and start fending for yourself out there.

(I mean, I think we can call the 90s old now...)

Except, Pokemon is still ongoing, Ash is still 10, and still running around the world unsupervised.

On that note though; Brock was freaking creepy in hindsight.

[Bunch of Coconuts]

Rocko was a telephone-sex worker.

[Vakanai]

Except, Pokemon is still ongoing, Ash is still 10, and still running around the world unsupervised.

On that note though; Brock was freaking creepy in hindsight.

Ongoing doesn't make it not old...

[Gaastra]

That's a seriously messed up episode! I mean, usually Tom is the one messing with Jerry and gets his comeuppance, but Jerry was totally the villain here and Tom still pays, this time in bleakly morbid fashion...

They did a follow up mousekateer cartoon with the same thing. If the king wakes up tom is dead! He does! Odd thing is jerry and tuffy saves toms life in that one at the end by having tuffy sing the king back to sleep! In most tom and jerrys tom is the bad guy. He starts it or jerry is protecting some animal from tom. But there are some shorts were they reverse it and jerry is the bad guy!

Dr jeckell and mr mouse, scaredy cat, among others. Then there is the awful year of the mouse. Jerry is so out of character in it! Tom does win in some however! Even ones where is is a bad guy like this one--

Tom eats jerry and yakky at the end! Trouble is tom was a jerk and you really hated him in this short making his win feel worse!

[Username taken]

Although live-action the shorted lived 1980s' Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future could never be made today. There was tons of messed-up stuff in that show: genocide, slavery, racism (mechanics against humans and the other way around), cold-blooded murder, torture (both mental and physical), biological weapons.

Funny enough, I think that’s part of what affected the series back then.