Thank G*d I grew up in the 90s. Everything is woke now. Smh my head
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Anyone who says that TV in the 80s and 90s didn't have 'woke' or 'politically correct' elements in it hasn't been (re)watching a lot of TV from the era. Many major shows I grew up watching in the 90s were chock full of it. Quantum Leap, MacGyver, Sliders, The entire premise of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and basically every fucking Saturday morning cartoon...
Speaking of Saturday morning cartoons. I wonder what those people would think of characters like Charlie from Biker Mice from Mars? She was a tough, no-nonsense girl working a blue collar job (motorcycle mechanic), and there were times when they wanted to 'Damsel' her but it turned out they didn't. The funniest one for me was when an episode that starts out with a bank robbery, and the robbers claim they have a hostage, the Mice all go 'Charlie?' and then she shows up behind them and says 'why do you always think I'm the hostage?' You know who the hostage was? Greasepit... the villain's main henchman and a certified dumbass.
Every fucking time I go back to rewatch those cartoons I ALWAYS find elements that would make reactionaries go nuts. The pilot episode to M.A.S.K had the bad guys think that one of the protagonists trying to thwart their plans was a man... only for them to figure out quickly that it was a woman. Even shows that I would now consider to be really, really stupid, like Dinosaucers, had gender flipped characters. In Dinosaucers they were making a tribute episode to old-school Film noir detectives, and they had to meet 'Sam Spade' (Sam Spade was the protagonist of the Maltese Falcon), only for them to find out it was not Samuel Spade, but Samantha Spade.
I could go on forever. But one thing that I DID want to say that I honestly did find problematic even as a child from cartoons of the era was what I would call 'the love potion episode'. What I mean is that sometimes in some cartoons they would have an episode where a love potion or something or the other that causes a character to fall in love with another and cannot control it. So what's the contradiction I found as a kid and more so as an adult?
Well... if the person afflicted by the potion is female, the entire episode will center around it. Two examples is one from Dinosaucers were a female dinosaucer gets influenced by it and now is OK with wanting to marry the leader of the antagonists. One other example that was played more for laughs is in Gummi Bears when Duke Igthorn wanted to get Lady Bane to fall in love with him in order for him to gain access to her powers or something or the other to finally capture the Gummis... only problem? The person she falls in love with is Toady, Igthorn's bumbling chief henchman, and the whole episode centers around getting Lady Bane to snap out of it.
So that being said, one thing I DID notice is that sometimes the person being affected by a love potion or spell is a guy... and when that happens, the plot or the show doesn't take it seriously at all and is usually a quick gag. The main example that comes to mind is from Conan the Adventurer where they have a quick scene where a very large, ogre-like woman is dragging a scrawny little man who is actively resisting her and she says 'give him a love potion, I want to marry him!' and the man protests, but the love potion is forced on him and he then he falls in love with the woman he detested and... well, that's it. The episode continues and those two are never mentioned again. There are probably other examples, but that is all that comes to mind.
Trust me when I say it, if these people ended up waking up 30 or 40 years ago and thinking 'ah ha! finally! no more woke!' they would be in for a rude awakening. Don't get me wrong, there was a fuckload of problems with representation in the media at the time. Things like brownface/yellowface hadn't fallen entirely out of style yet, and there were issues with female representation and racial stereotyping. MacGyver had those issues to an irritating degree, especially in the earlier seasons. Neurodivergent people weren't well represented and in many cases not present at all. And don't get me started on transgenderism. It is almost like at the time being transgender was a gag more than anything at best or a highly sinister trait at worst.
I recognized even back then that it wasn't perfect, yet in many ways the culture of the 90s felt more progressive than today. And there was hope about the future.
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In Japan, heart surgeon. Number one. Steady hand. One day, yakuza boss need new heart. I do operation. But, mistake! Yakuza boss die. Yakuza very mad. I hide in fishing boat, come to America. No English, no food, no money. Darryl give me job. Now I have house, American car, and new woman. Darryl save life. My big secret: I kill yakuza boss on purpose. I good surgeon. The best!
I loved that guy! You get a katana named scalpel as a reward, too!
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Okay but like some of the cartoons weren't woke, like that one about the respectable businessmen fightong those eco terrorists and their heathen goddess of hating job creation.
I don't remember that one
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I don't remember that one
wrote last edited by [email protected]The terrorists recruited children by grooming them with rings? I think there was some sort of horrible mulleted demon they summoned by combining them?
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It was tastefully done and minimal. It’s so over represented and in your face it comes off as forced.
No, no, no... they were as subtle as an anvil falling on your head.
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Okay but like some of the cartoons weren't woke, like that one about the respectable businessmen fightong those eco terrorists and their heathen goddess of hating job creation.
I know, right! The writers were also pedophiles! I mean teenagers saving the day? What is the obsession with teens! It tell you something!
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the end of the Internet dark ages
That seems like a strangely backwards way to word it in my mind. Thats around the time the Internet stopped being "the internet" to me.
I see what you mean. Yeah, the internet was a better place back then.
I was coming from more of a stance of the tech behind the internet.
When someone could ruin my game of ultima online by picking up the phone.
When niche message boards existed and msn messenger was how i spoke to my friends.
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I know, right! The writers were also pedophiles! I mean teenagers saving the day? What is the obsession with teens! It tell you something!
No no tjis one had good job creators fighting terrorists, so they agreed with everything i think.
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Guys, House is woke now. Yeah, they made a meme in this thing called "Lemmy" that suggests it's woke, so it's woke now.
Lemmy is woke, so that checks out
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2005 was essentially the 90s. People were still talking about the matrix, playing n64 and ps1, barely anyone had a mobile phone and most internet connections were still dial up.
Idk about the PS1 as I def had the PS2 by then, but the rest checks out, that was def my life
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BS the 90s ended after 9/11 and 2005 is when people started using social media and YouTube…the beginning of the end.
Bleh that was just in the US
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Shaking my head my head.
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Ashly Burch is so talented!
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Okay, okay. I should've put 90s/2000s
No, your title makes more sense. People who grew up in the 90s would have watched House in its original run. The thing that makes no sense is the censoring of the word god.
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lmao very fitting because she was referred to as "13" for most of the show, i think her real name was Remy? she had Huntingtons
That's right! And lol, thanks for reminding me what she was called, that's funny!
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I loved that guy! You get a katana named scalpel as a reward, too!
I mean, it's an Office reference first and foremost.
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Sorry it’s true?
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No, your title makes more sense. People who grew up in the 90s would have watched House in its original run. The thing that makes no sense is the censoring of the word god.
I'm not religious, but some religious people don't like to say god's name in vain and I was mimicking that.
Maybe it was too much
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Lemmy is woke, so that checks out
I'm not sure Lemmy is woke since it's half tankies that love dictatorships as long as they once cosplayed as communist
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Shaking my head my head.
ATM Machine
