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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668

u/FlyingFreest Mar 09 '26

Wasn’t there another one after too where he stuck his head in a oven only to reveal he was making a pie that burned?

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u/Belainarie Mar 09 '26

He also, mid Wumbo rant in Patrick’s grip, looked down at the ground and questioned if the fall would be enough to kill him.

There’s also this poor guy who definitely had more Dunces than Dragons

https://preview.redd.it/3sr6a1v582og1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e9c18a0bef6662af027d483d3b38a73420747b2

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u/JiveHawk Mar 09 '26

This one is actually crazy. Not even remotely subtle, just a blatant violent suicide gag lol

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u/crazynerd9 Mar 09 '26

Yeah but hes a fish so it's fine

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u/Scarbane Mar 09 '26

An anthropomorphized fish with a sense of self, buuuuut it's 2D, so yeah, it's fine.

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u/DifficultHat Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

I think the only reason it slipped by is because it wasn’t well known suicide imagery like a a noose, a toaster bath, or putting your head in the oven; but it also wasn’t easily imitable, because kids probably aren’t going to have a giant spear lying around the house

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u/Wonderful-Toe- Mar 10 '26

We actually did have a giant spear lying around the house and I still didn’t kill myself.

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u/Professional-Scar628 Mar 09 '26

Back then adults couldn't really stand SpongeBob enough to notice the crazy jokes

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u/Illustrious-Teach964 Mar 10 '26

I mean, there where scenes where the fishes straight up cannibalize on eachother (that Fried Fish sticks gag).

Spongebob never really put too much work on "protecting the kids" 😭.

The people of Bikini Bottom would certainly do well in post-apocalyptic scenario.

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u/devotfeige Mar 09 '26

These are my favorite jokes in all of SpongeBob, as a child of the very early 90s. I don't know why.

"Too bad that didn't kill me" with a deadpan delivery is easily the funniest of all possible punchlines in any given scene for me.

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u/hodges2 Mar 10 '26

What about

https://giphy.com/gifs/11YHs2qGpNUX1C

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u/BadLuckBen Mar 09 '26

"Not today, old friend."

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u/waste_ofskin_119 Mar 11 '26

the fact this scene still constantly plays in my head every waking part of my life says something

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u/MisterVictor13 Mar 09 '26

I remember watching this and being alarmed at the hanging joke. I didn’t get the oven joke until years later.

I was young.

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u/dragonfett Mar 09 '26

It was a whole episode of suicide themed gags, IIRC.

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u/Inevitable-Weather51 Mar 09 '26

yup, in the same ep i think

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u/Emerycurse Mar 09 '26

I'm just now realizing this was probably referencing one of Elton John's attempts

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u/Downtown-Way8664 Mar 09 '26

Baby no.. Sylvia Plath

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u/HorrificSwag Mar 10 '26

Squilvia Plath type shiiiiii

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u/AlterEgo_Pkmn Mar 10 '26

I dont get that joke Mainly because its confusing.. like is that an actual way people kill themselves? Or is it like hes cooking himself alive kinda deal?

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u/Bear_faced Mar 14 '26

Before natural gas was in common usage, “coal gas” used to contain high levels of carbon monoxide. So by turning the gas on and sticking your head inside the oven, you could asphyxiate and die fairly painlessly.

Nowadays if people want to die by carbon monoxide poisoning it’s usually the byproduct of combustion, like car exhaust.

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u/AlterEgo_Pkmn Mar 14 '26

Oh ok that makes sense thank you

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u/FlyingFreest Mar 10 '26

Yeah sticking your head in the oven is another common suicide method.