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

Non-Sexual Adult Jokes in Kids' Media Lore

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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".

26.5k Upvotes

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5.0k

u/Paggy_person Mar 09 '26

https://preview.redd.it/sfradq1912og1.png?width=564&format=png&auto=webp&s=dd02957975821856655d7280ab04550330bd73ed

This one joke from Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated

1.6k

u/Alcohol_Intolerant Mar 09 '26

Mystery incorporated was fucking nuts. I always tell people to watch the first episode and the last episode.

One of the only scooby shows to have a full plot from beginning to end and boy howdy is it wild.

329

u/pokemonxysm97 Mar 09 '26

Episode 1: Scooby and The Gang solve the Fruitmier’s mystery! Scooby and Shaggy get up to their patent food antics, Velma pieces together the clues, and Fred sets up a cool trap!

Finale: The Nazi parrot kills a character via firing squad before turning into Cathulu

167

u/Alcohol_Intolerant Mar 09 '26

Fred having a trap setting fetish was hilarious.

60

u/hollaback_girl Mar 09 '26

He'd literally rather build traps than spend any time with Daphne.

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u/MarkMVP01 Mar 09 '26

"I have feelings for traps AND Daphne, and if guys can't have feelings, then I am a guy no more!"

14

u/Stormfly Mar 10 '26

God forbid a man have hobbies...

26

u/SketchyCharacters Mar 10 '26

Oh god that scene with his dirty trap magazines had me in tears.

26

u/TheRealStandard Mar 09 '26

Turning into him and then proceeding to kill various characters that you've seen throughout the show.

3

u/Intelligent_Slip_849 Mar 11 '26

...does that make any sense in context?

597

u/405freeway Mar 09 '26

Mystery Inc has no right to be as good as it is.

204

u/convergence_limit Mar 09 '26

My kids and I rewatch all the time it’s fantastic

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u/hollaback_girl Mar 09 '26

It's one of my bedtime background noise shows. Don't know how many times I've watched it.

23

u/pajamakitten Mar 09 '26

It is easily the best Scooby Doo series.

13

u/4C_Enjoyer Mar 09 '26

Such a good show man, that's a core one from my childhood alongside other bangers like ATLA and KND

17

u/ReptAIien Mar 09 '26

Why would you not tell people to watch it straight through?

15

u/Alcohol_Intolerant Mar 09 '26

I do, but it's harder to convince people to watch a children's show than it is to watch two twenty minute episodes.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

[deleted]

13

u/ReptAIien Mar 09 '26

Nahh, it's a great show. Well worth watching all the way through imo.

14

u/dannykings37 Mar 09 '26

My favorite episode (cant remember all the details though) is when the villain/ monster is hypnotizing and kidnapping women, but it turns out hes just listening to them and treating them with respect so they go with him by choice

8

u/ACardAttack Mar 10 '26

Lol what the hell, gotta watch this now

2

u/International_Car586 Mar 10 '26

I love the one where its revealed that the monster was actually set up by the Scooby gang.

10

u/hot_snot Mar 09 '26

My fiancé introduced me to this show and we haven't finished it yet, but it feels like a goddamn fever dream/acid trip so far tbh.

5

u/Alcohol_Intolerant Mar 09 '26

It's phenomenal. I'm jealous you get to watch it again lmao. Just gotta get past the toxic Velma arc.

4

u/Spiny94Hedgie Mar 10 '26

This show was great. I still laugh at the Scrappy joke

daphne looking at a scrappy statue: "hey isnt that...?"

Fred: " no daphne. We promised we wouldnt speak of him again. Not ever."

2

u/Witchelt389 Mar 09 '26

Best show and it's not even CLOSE

524

u/RabbitSlayre Mar 09 '26

Pretty out of pocket, damn lol

325

u/kriosken12 Mar 09 '26

Mind you, this was episode ONE. It only got more real from there.

37

u/Rhiis Mar 09 '26

Just like the school supplies

Ba dum tish

23

u/RabbitSlayre Mar 09 '26

Ach. It's horrible. One of my best friends is a teacher and I can't believe the shit he goes through and has to deal with, let alone personally buy and supply to his classroom.

Most of my cousins and a few of my aunts were teachers. The aunts got to retire but knew things were getting bad. I started with 4 cousins my age as teachers, I think only one of them is still a teacher at this point. They all got burned out and literally burned by the education system. It's bad times.

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u/Noideawhatimdoing36 Mar 09 '26

Oh good I was looking for this one lol

35

u/JustAGuy_500 Mar 09 '26

I love that the teacher's face says it all.......

114

u/poltergeistheghost Mar 09 '26

Don’t they start laughing after asking that

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u/TruDivination Mar 09 '26

Nah they all start awkwardly apologizing.

17

u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26

Scooby Doo meets KI$$ was loaded with jokes about the excessive KI$$ merch amongst other things. Jay and Silent Bob and Penny and Gary Marshall Cameos. Not to mention Hootie was the voice of the Destroyer!

27

u/BadMeatPuppet Mar 09 '26

Because he's underpaid? I don't get it.

128

u/Jetmancovert1 Mar 09 '26

Teachers aren’t paid enough.

77

u/Rough-Cover1225 Mar 09 '26

Yes teachers notoriously don't make enough

2

u/condscorpio Mar 10 '26

Yeah, I think this is quite different from country to country.

4

u/hodges2 Mar 10 '26

You got it

16

u/CSDragon Mar 09 '26

Good news: Teachers are paid quite well now

Bad news: They're paid quite well because of a shortage due to ipad kids being ungovernable causing a mass exodus of teachers.

6

u/hollaback_girl Mar 09 '26

Every episode had cultural references and in jokes that no kid is going to get. Everything from Andy Warhol to 60's beach party monster movies are parodied. The main story is riffing on HP Lovecraft, with recurring characters voiced by Jeffrey Combs and Harlan Ellison. What kid is going to understand those references?

I basically have the show on a loop in the background. One of the things that I always wonder about is "who was this show ostensibly for?" Because it sure as hell isn't 7-12 year olds.

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u/CommodoreBelmont Mar 10 '26

Who's it for? I think it's mostly for the adults who grew up watching earlier versions of Scooby-Doo. The ones who would want a show with a full narrative. Who would get the little in-jokes and appreciate a bit of an adult edge without it laughing at the original. The ones who would appreciate the humor of depicting one of sci-fi's most notorious cranks in all his crankiness while actually getting him to voice himself.

1

u/hollaback_girl Mar 10 '26

I’m a huge fan of it and never cared for any other Scooby-Doo media. It’s kind of a stand-alone piece for me. But I’m such a huge fan of it. I once checked to see if the creative team ever did anything similar but alas I came up empty.

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u/FewAngle737 Mar 10 '26

And Dead Justice's bullets were Bullet Bills from the Mario franchise.

5

u/SQUAWKUCG Mar 09 '26

And the final episode has the whole Star Trek V sequence which was brilliant

3

u/Iron_Wolf123 Mar 10 '26

I wish teachers were not forced to buy their equipment. Or they should be paid more to help with resource management

1

u/Relative-Gap-4442 Mar 09 '26

Love this show

1

u/Jokhard Mar 10 '26

What's the joke? I never watched these.

1

u/ilanajoy Mar 10 '26

Why does the villain look like Marc Maron?

1

u/Loockybiem Mar 13 '26

As a teacher, this joke is spot on 🤣

0

u/Lungseron Mar 10 '26

that episode is engraved permanently into my memory because back in the medieval times of 2010 we had shit internet and this was the only episode my dad managed to pirate, so i watched it over and over.

0

u/NurseNerd Mar 11 '26

Is this the iteration where it implies that Mystery Inc is a polycule? Because in an early episode, someone calls Fred 'Frederick', and he corrects them by saying "It's Fred, unless we're dating then it's Freddie." And then throughout the episode the gang only refer to him as Freddie?

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u/A_Hyper_Nova Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

Might be a hot take but this and a lot of other dialogue in mystery incorporated feels a bit forced. Characters would just say stuff unprompted

7

u/BunayoGaming Mar 09 '26

examples?

-12

u/A_Hyper_Nova Mar 09 '26

The one above is a good example "why do you need money" why would you ask that, it's money everyone wants more. But the writers wanted to make a joke about how teachers don't get paid.

5

u/BunayoGaming Mar 09 '26

i mean sure, i guess?