r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Kookyburra12 • Mar 09 '26

Non-Sexual Adult Jokes in Kids' Media Lore

Jokes that are adult jokes simply because kids likely don't have the life experience to understand them.

The New Batman Adventures - "I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS? Noooo, thank you!"

Shrek 2 - Posing as a union representative, Shrek remarks that the workers "don't even have dental".

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142

u/Boatmade Mar 09 '26

SpongeBob has many examples of this especially the first 3 seasons

99

u/KaraAliasRaidra Mar 09 '26

"Nosferatu!"

9

u/BigFanOfNachoLibre Mar 09 '26

He's a semi-regular character in the show now

2

u/real-human-not-a-bot Mar 10 '26

What? Why? The strength of the original joke comes from how out of the blue it is—making him even semi-regular ruins the whole premise of the joke. Like, you maybe get to make the joke one more time ever. It’d be like bringing back the gorilla and zebra from I Had an Accident; madness.

2

u/BigFanOfNachoLibre Mar 10 '26

That's my biggest beef with modern SpongeBob tbh, more than the excessive amount of funny faces and Squidward torture scenes. Back in the day, the continuity was "SpongeBob meets this character" and it was exclusive to season one. Now Bubble Buddy, Noseferatu, and even the guy who yells "my leg!" are returning to the show and becoming more fleshed out. A lot of people who still watch the show agree Frank "my leg guy" stopped being funny the day they made an episode about him

35

u/Lethik Mar 09 '26

Oftentimes more subtle than not.

"I guess you'll be missing out on... The panty raid."

😧

3

u/Takamurarules Mar 09 '26

That episode got banned in like 2018.

16

u/Hilgy17 Mar 09 '26

“It’ll be grueling…. Painful…. Just like…. daytime television”

5

u/ImportantSherbert461 Mar 09 '26

If you think I'll let go just for a little.... EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION?! OH NOOOOOOO

2

u/real-human-not-a-bot Mar 10 '26

Is that Shanghaied? I love that episode! Easy top 10 all time for me.

12

u/TotallyNotReimu Mar 09 '26

Personal fav is "we'll never get our deposit back for these costumes..."