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So is she a boy or a girl?

Oh, how we love a cable network that airs TV-PG shows during the day on what is ostensibly a "children's entertainment network" and whose Standard and Practices Department is, at best, bipolar, and at worst, utterly incompetent. Whether you loved the Cartoon Network that aired classic cartoons, the Cartoon Network that currently airs original programming, or the Cartoon Network that aired a healthy combination of classic cartoons and modern favorites, this channel is known for shattering the Animation Age Ghetto, and these examples (past and present) are proof! Specific shows include:

Cow and Chicken

  • Cow and Chicken. WHERE DO WE START?!?!
    • The Red Guy (apart from the fact that he was basically, you know, Satan) was always a champion of butt-related puns ("Ben Panced", "Ivan Panced," "Larry Lackapants," "Baron von Neinlederhosen," "Officer Pantsoffski", "Rear Admiral Floyd", "Mrs. Barederriere," "Geraldo Rearviewa," "Professor Hineybottom," among many other pseudonyms), but he may have crossed the line (twice) in one episode where he involved himself with an island tribe called the "Asswipe"- pronounced "az-wee-pay" (but showed up quite clearly as "asswipe" on the closed captions).
      • In the episode "Ballerina Cow", Red Guy is a demolition man, but has to pretend to be a talent scout in order to recruit Cow into destroying his buildings with her dancing. He hands his business card to Cow, and under his title, it says HOMEWRECKER. Cow points this out and Red Guy's response, "That's my talent."
    • Perhaps the most egregious of these, though, was an episode where the Red Guy appears as a sensitivity training school teacher named Mrs. Beaver. Also, in terms of nudity-related puns, we have his character "Lance Sackless."
    • Cow and Chicken also appeared in a parody of the "Got Milk" commercials, where Chicken decides to bulk up to impress the ladies. He takes a trip to the "Ben Panced School of Getting Beefy", where the Red Guy takes him into a cafeteria full of shirtless sumo wrestlers stuffing their faces, as he tells Chicken "My sumo food will make you big and fat! Just look what it done to these third-grade girls."
    • In the episode where they go to a prison, Cow asks Chicken "Do you want to suck my teat?" Come to think of it, when you consider that an udder is basically a cow equivalent of breasts, the many milk jokes in the show take on a whole new meaning.
    • The episode where a spectral milkman created from Cow's nightmares chases Chicken, Flem and Earl. Who is introduced with the following line:

Milkman: I smell MILK! Little BOY MILK and little CHICKEN MILK!

    • The literally carpet-munching Badass Biker women in the later banned episode "Buffalo Gals". Well it did get past the radar. The first time, anyway.
    • The episode in which Chicken believes that he laid an egg, so everybody (even Chicken) believes that he is actually a girl, and he dates both Flem and Earl.
      • When chicken is on his date with Flem and Earl, they go to an ice cream shop, and Flem and Earl have a large ice cream with a cherry on top. This leads to Flem (or Earl) yelling, "Take my cherry, chicken" repeatedly (while offering Chicken the cherry from his ice cream.) It is amazing that this got past any censor. The writers must've celebrated that night.
      • "Boys, boys, please. I've got my own cherry."
    • "I've got Crabs! The warthog doll."
    • The episode regarding Chicken getting cooties at school can be summed up with this one line from the ending: "You were rolling around in a dumpster screaming that you had lost your butt."
    • In the episode "The Girls Bathroom", Chicken sneaks into the girls bathroom at night to see what it looks like inside, with Flem and Earl outside. At one point, while in the bathroom, Chicken walks past a tampon machine and then tells the boys through walkie-talkies "You guys, I think they can buy cigars in here!", to which Flem replies "I knew it!". That's right, a Cartoon Network show got away with making references to feminine hygeine.


Time Squad

  • The show may not have had a long life on Cartoon Network (started June 2001; ended November 2003), but it left behind a glut of crap that got past the radar. Any given episode has one or more of the following:
    • References to homosexuality, all of which was centered on The Larry 3000 and made up a huge chunk of what got past the censors (see Time Squad's Ho Yay section for more details)
    • Drug humor (season one's "Eli Whitney's Flesh-Eating Mistake" and season two's "Pasteur Packs O'Punch" had Larry acting drunk; in "Betsy Ross Flies Her Freak Flag," Betsy Ross and George Washington's army all have red-rimmed eyes and act like stoners. On top of that, there was a strange, white cloud around the "Magical Farm Place Farm").
    • Dead Baby Comedy, in the form of several instances of child abuse and neglect being played for laughs (Otto's life in the orphanage as seen in "Eli Whitney's Flesh Eating Mistake" and "Orphan Substitute," Otto getting left behind on the island on "Hate and Let Hate" for most of the episode, an unnamed child getting a piano dropped on him during his birthday party on "The Clownfather," and Otto getting injured while Tuddrussell tries to be like a father to him in "Father Figure of Our Country.")
    • Phallic and oftentimes autoerotic innuendo (Tuddrussell's laser gun magazine folding out like a Playboy centerfold on "Kubla Khan't"), among other scenes involving Tuddrussell's guns (cf. "Hate and Let Hate," where Larry gets a Personality Swap after accidentally firing off one of Tuddrussell's guns).
    • Freudian imagery that some viewers wouldn't notice the first time around
    • Lines of dialogue that come off as rather...risque.
    • Some racial/ethnic stereotyping (Larry saying the orphans looked cute with their "black faces" [which they got from mining coal] in "Orphan Substitute"; Atilla the Hun portrayed as a Mort Goldman-esque Jewish stereotype in "A Thrilla at Atilla's")
    • Even a couple of the titles were iffy, particularly "To Hail With Caesar" and "Big Al's Big Secret".


Dexter's Laboratory

  • There's an episode of Dexter's Laboratory wherein Dexter and Mandark face off at each other in their giant robots, ready to destroy each other. They open fire with missiles from their crotches.
    • And there's another where Dexter and a nerdy friend of his, Doug (who, oddly enough, only appeared on the show in two episodes) are listening to a scientific program on tape while on the school bus. DeeDee, who's sitting behind them, unplugs their headphones from the tape player, so that the entire bus can hear the title of the next chapter: "Reproduction". DeeDee gasps in shock, then makes fun of them for listening to it. One kid on the bus even says "Yeah, well, that's the only way they'll ever learn about it."
      • At the end of the episode, they move on to the next chapter -- "Photosynthesis."
    • In "Decode of Honor". There are two very hilarious moments--
      • Firstly, DeeDee and Dexter get in a fight over their decoders, inadvertently switching each other's code sheets. DeeDee leaves, delivering the zinger "But Dexter... your club is for big I-D-K-S-Cs." Dexter translates the code, "I...D...K...S...HEY! I'm gonna tell Mom!" For those who only get it for face value, it's an anagram for "dicks".
      • The second comes as DeeDee attempts to complete a task on her list; get a tattoo. She sits down in the tattoo parlor beside a wall of potential tattoo designs, one of which is A HAND FLIPPING THE BIRD.
    • In one episode, a teacher openly fawns over a child in elementary school.
    • At the beginning The Movie Ego Trip, when Mandark sneaks into Dexter's house to steal the Neuratomic Protocore there's a shot of Dexter's parents' legs sticking up in the air, tangled together, with his mother moaning "Honey, I don't think that's gonna fit!" It then zooms out to show them playing Twister.
    • In an episode where Dexter and Dee-Dee have a snowball fight, Dexter tries to escape from the fight, referring to various areas of the field as bases. He takes cover behind a kissing couple and says to himself, "First base." to which the man replies, "You said it, brother!" Considering what metaphors the next three bases represent...
    • In a short clip, we see Dexter get a magazine in the mail. He then proceeds to race up to his room, into his lab, and goes deep into the maze of his workplace, somehow ending up in a submarine. Once he's deep underwater, he opens it up sideways to drool over a centerfold... of a wrench.
    • There's a lot of this in the eposide "Dee-Dee and the Man", where Dexter "fires" Dee-Dee and ends up hiring a replacement "spastic sister"... in this case, a voluptuous blonde. Highlights include Dexter having to take a cold shower after the new Dee-Dee says "What does this button do?" in a seductive tone, and her response to Dexter asking to see her dance: "Okay, but it's fifty bucks extra!"
    • How many times have I told you? Early morning is Daddy's bathroom privacy time!
  • In "Chubby Cheese," Dexter tries winning a prize by playing a Wack-A-Mole parody called "Wack the Weasel."
  • There was a short where the parents were playing Scrabble in the kitchen with the door closed, while Dexter and Deedee were listening at the door, and the parents' conversation sounded like they were cheating on each other (rather than cheating at board games, which is what they were actually arguing about), with horrified expressions from Dexter and Deedee. It was played for comedy, but still...
  • "Hamhocks and Armlocks" was an early episode that got a bit past the radar. For example, the waitress at the diner the family stops at is visibly smoking whenever she appears. Not a pipe or anything either, but an actual cigarette. Later, when Dexter is making a robotic arm for his dad, he has a choice of 2 decals to put on it: One that says "Back off!" and one with a metallic naked woman silhouette. He goes with the naked lady.
  • The (now banned) "Dial M for Monkey" short "Barbecuor" got 2 things past the radar that they really had no excuse for missing. The first is the villian's minion, a Camp Gay version of the Silver Surfer called the Silver Spooner. The second isn't as bad, though it still makes you lose faith in the censors: at Monkey's birthday barbecue, the Infraggible Krunk has a little too much punch and needs Monkey to drive him home.
  • The shoe gnomes in the episode "Shoo Shoe Gnomes" are very clearly meant to represent foot fetishists.

Courage the Cowardly Dog

  • Courage the Cowardly Dog had "The Mask", where Courage helps a female cat reunite with her friend Bunny, a female rabbit. The subtext of the episode was that the rabbit and the cat were a lot more that "friends" with the rabbit's dog-pack-leader boyfriend wanting to kill her for the "friendship". Very much Parental Bonus.
    • Also, in the episode with the beaver, there's one scene where we're greeted with a little slide-show/goggles flashback of the beaver, where he's standing in front of a fence with his dad, and on the fence, there's a sign that reads: That DAM beaver.
    • In "Revenge of The Chicken From Outer Space", We heard some strange moans from Muriel before they show the UFO.
    • in "Cajun Granny stew" there's a part where the fox that's chasing Courage and Muriel is sinking as he says something along the lines of "this dogs becoming a real pain in my *sinking sounds*-
    • In "Courage's shadow" there is a part where courage sees the evil shadow pretending to be Muriel's shadow, it proceeds to rip its head off, we see drops of blood and what appear to be veins sticking out of it's head. granted it's just a silhouette but still.

Ben 10

Julie: Well, I'd better hit the shower.
Ben: Me too. Uh- I mean, uh...

      • In Albedo's debut episode,, we are treated to this delightful exchange between Kevin and Gwen while Ben and Albedo are battling:

Gwen: Find something to touch!
Kevin: Huh? (confusedly reaches hand toward Gwen before realizing what she actually means) Oh.

      • Just minutes before, Albedo rattles off a few downsides to being human (Ben specifically), ending with "scratching myself in places I suspect are inappropriate!"
    • In another episode, the team is on the moon, using spacesuits originally meant for an Arachnichimp, meaning they have an extra set of arms.

Kevin: What am I supposed to do with the extra arms?
Ben: You never used to have problems using your arms. That's what the girls say!
Kevin: Which girls?

  • In Ultimate Alien, Zombozo and Kevin fight with mallets, with Zombozo declaring "Mine's BIGGER than yours!", and Kevin replying "It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it!"
    • We got this gem in "Computer Games":

Humongosaur: Um, one of my balls fell off.


Other

  • An episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has Bloo, after an unsuccessful attempt to glue together Madame Foster's stone bust of herself together again when he breaks it using toothpaste, stating "A bust this big needs ample support!"
    • In a later episode, Coco tries to get a single-room after Eduardo already asked for it. When Mr. Harriman claims that Eduardo needed it more, Frankie starts to object and is about to explain, why a girl can't share a room with three boys when the scenario just switches. Once we are back at Harriman's office, he's sweating and utters something along the lines: "I-I-I never knew there were so many... special "needs" for women.... Ms. Coco gets the room." Frankie Foster smiles delightful and a bit mischivious. We are left to guess, what she just told him about girls... Not that we couldn't guess.
  • Being made by the same people behind Rocko's Modern Life, Camp Lazlo naturally has more than its fair share of radar evasion. A personal favourite comes from an episode where the three main characters make hot dogs for their camp-mates, with Raj in charge of making the hot dog buns.

Raj: Who would have thought that my buns would cause this much excitement?
Lazlo: You have very nice buns, Raj.

Milt: Edward, there's a party in my pants, and you're invited!

  • Batman the Brave And The Bold. Black Canary knocking people off of a roof? Check. Blue Beetle having some PSL for Huntress? Check. A grown man in a diaper? Check. Miss Manface? Check and Nightmare Fuel. Many times where they make you thing someone is going to swear? Boatloads of check. Red Tornado killing his son? Sad, but check. There's more, too.
  • In Krypto the Superdog, of all things - In "Funny Business", the Joker's hyenas greet Ace the Bat-Hound (whom they believe to be incapacitated by their 'giggle bubbles') with "You're outta luck, Batty-boy".
  • In Megas XLR episode 4. The stereo system on a car goes up to the setting "ass".
    • Actually, that was just the word "bass" with the b obscured. A more pertinent example from the same episode however, would be a scene that opens with Goat asking a woman if she wants to "check under his hood". Granted, he may or may not have been referring to his car.
    • And, in the episode "Space Booty", Captain Harlock has a gallery of paintings depicting his past conquests. One of them is very clearly an effeminate-looking man.
  • Samurai Jack - Every time Jack kills someone, the guy turns out to be a robot, bleeding oil. Even if he/she looked perfectly human before.
  • On an episode of My Gym Partner's a Monkey, the animals got overweight because they ate fatty human food. In the end, when they're forced to work it off, Principal Pixiefrog tells the teachers that their insurance rates will be astronomical.

Nurse Gazelle: "That's not the only thing ASS-tronomical."
Pixiefrog: (With a close up of his giant butt, which squeezes into the iris out) "YOU'VE MADE YOUR POINT!"

  • This promo 30 seconds in.
  • A Johnny Test promo features Johnny's dad saying that he'll always love his son no matter what he's like. Cut to a shot of Johnny dressing like a girl and putting on lipstick, much to the oddity of his sisters. An obvious reference to a male getting a sex change or crossdressing and fearing his father will reject his lifestyle.
  • Joey to the World sadly didn't get past the radar (in one of the rare times that Cartoon Network's censors actually did do a competent job at monitoring content -- that wasn't found in a Looney Tunes cartoon). The Cartoonstitute short was credited as being "created by Cartoon Network", and they were putting it as a candidate for a comedy series...sadly, theories have it that the creator didn't know he was supposed to produce something for children, causing references to things that would never fly on Cartoon Network. The short was never included on their site and is considered an old shame for them, but it's still up on YouTube, credited as being created by Cartoon Network.
  • In Camp Lazlo episode Bean and Weenies, Lazlo compliments Rag's buns and Clam's mystic mustard. Its your interpretaion. Just sayin, is all.
  • Mike Lu and Og
    • This line from "Losing Lancelot"

Margery: "Well, I'm just not sure if I approve, I don't know if those two (Mike and Og) are old enough to go out on a boat alone."

    • And let's not forget when Og went naked in "Hot Couture" during the fashion show. Everyone applauded; Mike was seriously squicked out!

Mike: "Sister Mary Francis, where are you now?" (faints)

    • In "The Tube", when Og gets the idea to invent a TV, he grabs Mike's hand to aid him on gathering scrap to build it.

Mike: Is this what I think it means?

    • In "Night Of The Living Ancestors", while Mike is sleeping, a ghost creates a lump in her blanket.
      • In fact, that's the headline image.
    • The original What a Cartoon pilot actually had Lu TOPLESS, with a white stripe painted across her chest. The series gave her a green tubetop.
      • Though they bowlderized clips from the pilot to have Lu appear to have the tubetop when clips from the pilot would be seen on promos leading up to the series premiere.
  • In one promo, the Powerpuff Girls save the Superfriends from the Legion of Doom. When Wonder Woman congratulates them and says they're developing into great crimefighters, Blossom comments that "someday, we'll be as developed as you". Everyone laughs while an embarassed Wonder Woman covers her breasts.
  • In the new Cartoon Planet, the "F*** buddies" caption on Brak's de-motivational poster wouldn't even normally pass the radar on Adult Swim.
  • I Am Weasel
    • "I.R. Bush Pilot" has Weasel perform OB/GYN.
  • I watched a commercial from Cox about talking to your children about what they're doing online. The commercial directly mentions sex. Seriously CN, what the stuff?
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