There's different kinds of evil. What I'll be talking about here is creepy evil...the kind that gets under your skin and makes you almost nauseous to think about. Creepy evil was all over kids media in the 80s and 90s. It was an intellectual fad in the publishing industry.
That was the era when horror novels were big sellers and Stephen King was a household name. Amazingly PHDs in the book biz felt they had to bring that sensibility to little kids. Even Maurice Sendak bought into the idea. Sendak's a terrific artist but you have to wonder what he was thinking when he did the book above.
Evil kids media was all the rage. Here's (above) an award winning book by Chris Van Allsburg. The cover looks like something out of "The Shining." And what is that medallion on the cover? Good Grief, did this get a Newberry Award?
I guess you could argue that creepy horror always had a toehold in kids media. When I was a kid I used to watch a puppet show called "Kukla, Fran & Ollie" (above). Yikes! They looked like something out of Hieronymus Bosch. Kukla, the round guy, was especially horrific. I can't tell you how many unsettling dreams he inspired. Watch out, I think he's giving the camera the Evil Eye!
But who am I to lecture? I did "Tales of Worm Paranoia" which was as creepy as anything else.
There's different kinds of evil. What I'll be talking about here is creepy evil...the kind that gets under your skin and makes you almost nauseous to think about. Creepy evil was all over kids media in the 80s and 90s. It was an intellectual fad in the publishing industry.
That was the era when horror novels were big sellers and Stephen King was a household name. Amazingly PHDs in the book biz felt they had to bring that sensibility to little kids. Even Maurice Sendak bought into the idea. Sendak's a terrific artist but you have to wonder what he was thinking when he did the book above.
Evil kids media was all the rage. Here's (above) an award winning book by Chris Van Allsburg. The cover looks like something out of "The Shining." And what is that medallion on the cover? Good Grief, did this get a Newberry Award?
I guess you could argue that creepy horror always had a toehold in kids media. When I was a kid I used to watch a puppet show called "Kukla, Fran & Ollie" (above). Yikes! They looked like something out of Hieronymus Bosch. Kukla, the round guy, was especially horrific. I can't tell you how many unsettling dreams he inspired. Watch out, I think he's giving the camera the Evil Eye!
But who am I to lecture? I did "Tales of Worm Paranoia" which was as creepy as anything else.
Those aren't the only ones. Maybe this explains my screwed up childhood....It seems like the more modern the cartoon, the more scary for kids it gets.
ReplyDeleteI liked Invader Zim for the most part, but it's not something I would want to expose my nieces (even though one is seven and the other is 10).
Your post on evil reminded me of This segment from the claymation Mark Twain featuring Satan. My parents got me this video when I was six and there aren't words to describe how much I hated it.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm not a huge fan of things that are supposed to be pure evil.
I see no "evil" anywhere in Clampett's work, only anarchy. Even Bugs at his angriest isn't evil--nor are the gremlins...shoot, Clampett even makes Hitler cute!
ReplyDeleteThis is an important topic. For centuries, kids have been drawn to the the dark, violent world of Grimm's fairy tales. I think it's nature's way of preparing them for life in a world where, let's face it, evil exists.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteWow, that was really the kidvid from Hell! Not exactly appropriate for a six year old. I hope you weren't scarred for life by it. Notwithstanding my earlier comment, I think kid-art should prepare kids for the existence of evil one little bit at a time. Baby steps, baby steps!
Weird....I'm just speechless
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ReplyDeletei'm not a big tweety fan, but i laughed so hard at that bee slapping scene from gruesome twosome. Yeah evil indeed!
ReplyDeleteAbout Punch, doesn't he kill Judy in the story? It goes way beyond his face.
Does Edward Gorey's stuf qualifies as kids media?
I saw "Swing You Sinners" at a very young age. That gave me some intresting dreams.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little (and not so little) I was very scared of Harpo Marx. He seemed maniacal -- with his wild hair, crazy smile, and blaring horn. He was really a type of clown and there is a bona fide phobia of clowns called coulrophobia. To kids things can seem evil even when they're not supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the names of the cartoons that have scared me, but when I was a kid I do remember being deathly afraid of the THX logo. Most likely because my dad would blast everything he watched with the bass box etc. I would run and hide whenever it came on.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember that short that was on Nickelodeon in the early 90s with the guy tapping the egg with a spoon? That scared me...
what do you think of gahan wilson eddie? John callahan is the only other guy whos writing funny/evil panel cartoons today, everything else is a far side ripoff
ReplyDeletekali- that's funny about the THX logo, my little brother hated it too, we used to hit the backwards skip button on dvd's to torment him by playing it over and over. i guess that i was an EVIL kid.
ReplyDeleteBurr Tillstrom created Kukla under a WPA grant in the late 1930's. Many years later, he felt bold enough to create the out-of-the-closet version of Kukla, which was Ollie. Those puppets are two sides of the same very repressed coin. Today, of course, they'd have felt genitals and be starring on Broadway in 'Avenue Q.'
ReplyDeleteI was always freaked out by the puppets on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.. I guess you cant have good without the evil though.
ReplyDeleteAwwww!!! He' so cute!!
ReplyDeleteTweety is the poster child for wide eyed innocence. One that destroys a mother hen's eggs and crushes puddy tat's heads.
The cartoons that scared me most... hmmm... that episode of Batman where they pour clay down the actor's throat. Then later he becomes Clayface.
The episodes of Spider-Man where Spidey gets 6 arms, watching that would make my leg clench up and scare the snot out of me. Also, the vampire character in Spiderman, and the episode of X-Men where Wolverine's claws go through his skin.
Lastly, the characters on that show about humanoid Sharks with 6 arms. I think one was a crab or something.
OH!!! And the last sketch in Fantasia with Chernbog or whatever his name is! And the part where the Sorceror was gonna kill Mickey.
ReplyDeleteI was afraid of Oscar the Grouch when I was a kid, but he was my favorite muppet anyway.
ReplyDeleteto the becoming lady in the safety pee goggles, I remember the egg-tapping cartoon of which you speak. I have further information on what cartoon it is or who mad eit, but i do remember ti creeeped me out too.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that creeped me out most were these alien puppets on sesame street. Teh Whole idea was that they didn't understand earth objects so they would discover items such as grandfather clocks and we, the children, would discover with them. NOT THE CASE! They were really scary. Firs tof all they used this "out space" background sound similar to the stuff from 1950/60s sci-fi stuff that's meant to be scary. The damn things would float into the picture in this wobbley disconcerting way and bleat out eh same alien word over and over again. The mood those scenes set actually made me thing that aliens had taken over the televisions and I was sincerely frightened that they would come out and beam me up.
Years later when Unsolved Mysteries premiered I couldn't walk by an open window at night without fear that alien was watching me pee.
Yeah, the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was really scary when I was a kid. Pure evil looking.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, the worst nightmares I remember were some creep chasing me or my family around...so that child catcher kind of represented some real fears I was having at the time.
Eddie, you forgot the two rats in fraggle rock. And the hi-hat robot from sesame street. Me had nightmares, it's true!
ReplyDeleteI used to think Lady Elaine Fairchild (or was it Lady Aberlin), the Punchinello look alike that ran the Museum Go Round in MisterRogersNeighborhood, was a bit creepy. She was evil on purpose, but several others in the Land of Make Believe were equally creepy.
ReplyDeleteI think it creeped me out more when I realized years later that Fred Rogers (probably via an interview with Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow Show where Snyder kept goading the preacher about lifting a few highballs and chasing broads) did ALL of the voices for all of those puppets (it was always fairly obvious with Ex, the Owl), and it wasa bit disturbing to the psyche to think of all of those hours of those personalities pouring out of that one man.
Likewise, with Clowns, some are creepy, some are not.
How about the frog in "One Froggy Evening"? That thing is not a frog. Showing it entombed in concrete for a century is the first tip. They could have writen the cartoon to have the man find the frog in a lily pond, but they didn't because it's not a frog we're dealing with here. The "frog" is an evil entity that has assumed the shape of a frog in order to play a trick on anyone that finds it. If the frog stopped singing at just the right moment once it would be one thing, but to do it again and again and again shows that it is not coincidental but that the evil frog entity knows exactly what it's doing. "One Froggy Evening" is a story of a man who has an encounter with an evil jin.
ReplyDeleteAnon: good analysis of Froggy Evening!
ReplyDeleteLike how you've been digging up these old posts! I haven't seen this one. Thanks, Eddie.
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