Parents would like to think that the content that is advertised as child friendly is child friendly, but unfortunately that is not always the case. Throughout the history of children’s television, many programs have been produced that contain explicit content that is not meant for children. While these productions have been called out by parents and media organizations, sexual content in children’s media continues, and seems to only be getting worse and worse. These are 10 of the most explicit children’s TV shows to ever air.
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10 Adventure Time
Animated tv show Adventure Time has always been a home to many dirty jokes. Set in a post-apocalyptic world and centering around the adventures of a boy named Finn, and his magic dog Jake in the magical Land of Ooo. The show was broadcast on Cartoon Network, and ran from 2010 to 2018. Throughout its 8 year run, the show was always a source of controversy for parents due to the content of some of its jokes. Some of the controversial jokes included Jake and Lady Rainicorn getting naked running through cabbage fields, Jake implying he has a foot fetish and Finn being suggestively invited into a bouncy castle to watch the princess bounce. All of these adult moments took place in a television show that was all in a show marketed to children and tweens. It is no wonder that parents were against their children watching the show.
9 Good Luck Charlie
Good Luck Charlie had a simple and traditional premise. Too many kids, overtired parents and plenty of wholesome family moments and jokes to keep child audiences coming back again and again. Sprinkled in with the child friendly humour, are a few jokes that only the adults in the audience could understand. In the episode Teddy on Ice, parents Amy and Bob find out that their toddler daughter Charlie is using curse words, and they don’t know how to stop her. Although we actually do not see Charlie, curse, the implication is more than enough for a children’s program. In several other episodes including Snow Show Part One, and Take Mel out to the Ballgame, characters stripped in front of the camera. These are just a few of the dirty jokes and moments within the show, fans have picked up many more both during and after the show’s run. Despite this, Good Luck Charlie ran from 2010 to 2014 with 97 episodes and a tv-movie being produced as well. Today it remains a Disney classic, with its dirty jokes largely forgotten by the general public.
8 Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo was an animated series on Cartoon Network about the life of Johnny Bravo, an overconfident playboy that ran from 1997 to 2004. From its first episode, the show was chalk full of adult references despite it running on a children’s network. Many of the sexual references in the show included such extremes as a virgin sacrifice, and such regular inappropriate actions such as Bravo not respecting women’s personal space. In regards to the show’s controversial moments, the show’s creators said that they were not overly concerned with the adult content and that they did not believe anyone was watching the show.
7 6Teen
This animated tv show about 6 sixteen year olds hanging out at a local mall focused on coming of age experiences that all teenagers experience, such as finding a part time job and starting to date. The catch was that these stories were told from a child friendly perspective, or at least they were meant to be. Mostly. Like teens in real life, the animated teens on this show pushed the boundaries of what was appropriate and what is not. The Halloween special Dude of the Living Dead’s plot was focused on a peephole in a lingerie store changing room. Another suggestive episode was Over Exposed, which featured the characters accidentally and purposely seeing each other naked. Needless to say, plot lines of this nature on a show that was airing on children’s television attracted criticism from parents and networks. These controversies among others, were the reason why the show was eventually cancelled in 2010.
6 Total Drama Island
The Canadian animated tv show featuring teenagers on an island doing extreme challenges had no shortage of dirty moments. Censored nudity was common throughout the series, despite the fact that the animations were meant to be of 16 year old children. In addition, many of the actions the animated teens were forced to do such as eating Bull testicles attracted controversy or were even censored in areas such as the United States, where it was changed to Bull meat balls. Although the following seasons of the show did contain censored nudity and teens performing extreme actions, it was much more sparse and toned down than in the first season.
5 The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody was one of Disney’s most successful shows of the early 2000s. The show centered around 2 brothers who lived in a luxury hotel with their mother and the various exploits they found themselves in. While most of these exploits were child friendly, many of them crossed the line. For example in the episode Forever Plaid, the boys, aged 14 drilled holes into the wall to spy on a High School girls soccer team in the next room as they changed and gossiped. Another episode featured a joke where 16 year old London began to strip naked when being told to, “strip and make the bed,” in reference to removing sheets. These sexual jokes, among others, were mostly ignored by viewers and the show avoided controversy throughout its 3 run and its 3 year long spin off series, Suite Life on Deck.
4 Spongebob Squarepants
For a show to have been on the air as long as Spongebob Squarepants, controversy is almost guaranteed. Some of the controversy has surrounded he show includes a virus themed episode and an episode that conservative groups said promoted homosexuality in children The worst, and arguably most justified of the controversy surrounds the various dirty jokes in the series. In one episode Spongebob told Patrick that his genius was showing. In response, Patrick covered his private area, implying he thought Spounhebob had said penis. In another episode Spoungebob quickly changed the channel on his TV when Gary walked in, saying he was looking for the sports channel, despite him looking intently at the tv. This implies that the images on screen were a form of fish themed pornography. These moments have drawn the attention of the Internet and some parents groups. Despite this, Spongebob remains a popular kids show to this day.
3 Jessie
Disney’s Jessie, which told the story of a small town girl who moved to New York to pursue her dreams of acting only to wind up a nanny for one of the city’s most elite power couples, did not have an occasional dirty joke which spiraled out of control unlike most of the entries on this list, but seemingly relied on adult humour altogether, despite being a show meant for children. The show’s adult humour includes a scene in which an underage Luke, when asked if he had an off switch after making sexually suggestive comments, challenges the adult Jessie to, “find it,” in an obviously suggestive way. In another episode, when they discover the family’s pet lizard is pregnant, 10 year old Ravi remarks that it must have been more than friends with another lizard of the same species that they had encountered in a previous episode, heavily implying sexual relations took place.These blatantly inappropriate moments caught the ire of several parental organizations who demanded that the show be taken off of the air. This fell on deaf ears as the show continued for a run of 98 episodes, one of the longest ever Disney shows, and produced a spinoff series Bunked, which remains on the air today.
2 ICarly
Ever since accusations of abuse and sexual deviancy were leveled against once celebrated Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider, all of his productions were analyzed under a more critical lens. His particular alleged deviancy was said to be an attraction to underaged girls feet. Some of the content in his shows seems to back this up, with regular gags centered around girls’ feet existing across several of Schneider’s shows. His most famous show, Nickelodeon’s ICarly, received even more scrutiny after star Jeneatte McCurdy said that she was embarrassed by her acting career, which was mostly spent under Schnieder, and acting on ICarly. While she did not go into the particulars about Schneider and the allegaAnd it is true that many scenes in ICarly featured underaged actresses bare feet, said feet being massaged, licked and filmed close up. Controversy surrounding the show continued when Noah Munck, who played Gibby on the original show, said in and gave his version of events involving Schnieder on a podcast shortly after the accusations were made. He said that when he was 15 he didn’t notice anything amiss on set, but from an adult perspective he said that there was a lot wrong, but would not elaborate. While ICarly was once an innocent kids show beloved by many, the recent critical analysis of the show darkens what was once a classic children’s show of the millennial era.
1 Sam and Cat
This short lived ICarly spinoff is not Dan Schneider’s most well known or beloved work, but it is the one in which he most showed his true depravity for the whole world to see. In addition to the aforementioned foot scenes and allegations of on set mistreatment from Schneider, what makes this show so perverted is what happened on its Twitter account and how it affected many of the show’s fans. In a 2013 tweet made by Schneider, the show’s account requested that young fans write Unfortunately, many young fans followed Schneider’s request and sent him photos of their feet with #SamandCatSaturday written on them so that they could be retweeted by the show’s account. In a 2018 press statement after these allegations, among numerous others, were brought to light, Schnieder responded by saying he found children’s feet “funny,” and that the images were not meant to be sexual. Even if this statement were true, Schneider still broke the cardinal rule of internet safety, and requested images of young children through the internet, using his show’s Twitter account to do so, much to the dismay of those following the scandal. So while most kids shows that contain inappropriate content only last 20 minutes with easily reversible damage, but Sam and Cat caused negative effects on its following that could last forever.
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