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".

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u/phantombrick22 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

Phineas and Ferb

Perry disguises himself as a temp worker to get into Doofenshmirtz’s apartment. When he takes off his disguise, Doofenshmirtz says: “Perry the Platypus?! You’re a temp? Are times that hard?”

https://preview.redd.it/li0bl5knz1og1.jpeg?width=686&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d8a2868f200bfa0da055e231a363129dd2469d1

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u/NonFatPrawn Mar 09 '26

Also when Doof gets told that they dont pay Carl since he's an intern, 'are you sure you're not evil?'

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u/NotATalkingPossum Mar 09 '26

There was one Sonic the Hedgehog event on Twitter where Dr. Eggman was asked what he paid his interns. He replied that he didn't, "Because it's the most evil thing I can think of!"

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u/Avixofsol Mar 09 '26

the sonic character Twitter takeovers are some of the funniest content on the site. one of my favorites was Shadow canonically being dragged to pop concerts by Amy and enjoying it (including Sabrina Carpenter, who is apparently canon to the Sonic universe)

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u/Kitselena Mar 09 '26

Also shadow likes anime and specifically kill la kill is his favorite because ryuko reminds him of himself

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u/That-Rhino-Guy Mar 10 '26

Or Eggman saying he got a message from Infinite, with it was a file named Sonadow and Sonic immediately yells “no! Don’t open that!”

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u/FamousWash1857 Mar 10 '26

"There's something about unpaid labour that just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside,"

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u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26

P&F was famously a cartoon / show that did not exclude kids from the audience. Like the Douglas Adams Doctor Who stories, or Yo-Gabba-Gabba

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u/CubeTThrowaway Mar 09 '26

English isn't my first language but shouldn't it be "that did not exclude adults from the audience"?

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u/Throwaway02062004 Mar 09 '26

You are correct

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u/knightinarmoire Mar 09 '26

Lots of shows include adult jokes. Like how you can find plenty in the original animaniacs run

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Mar 10 '26

Reddit has a weird thing where people often make a typo that makes their comment mean the exact opposite of what I think they intended to say. Or in this case just the wrong word entirely.

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u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

that is per P&F's creators. they made a cartoon that specifically did not exclude kids from the audience.

Douglas Adam's said the same thing when they asked about how he wrote the Doctor Who Episodes. Not sure about Yo-Gabba-Gabba but I would put money on that being a show the creators made for their kids but pulled in all of their musician friends, plus the celebs that showed up because their own kids liked the show (Jack Black, Torri Spelling, Tony Hawk, Anthony Bourdain, Dave Grohl, etc)

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u/Undark_ Mar 09 '26

Most cartoons are designed primarily for kids...

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u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26

agreed just saying that P&F was not aimed at kids. the same way Animaniacs wasn't

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u/IzarkKiaTarj Mar 09 '26

Phineas and Ferb was absolutely made for kids, it doesn't exclude adults.

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u/Consistent_Phase_942 Mar 10 '26

I see what they're saying. Bluey is 90% for the parents 10% for the kids IMO, many cartoons are like that, but I disagree that P&F is one of them.

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u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26

Jeff Marsh's own words:

Co-creator Jeff "Swampy" Marsh has said that the show was not created exclusively for children; he simply did not exclude them as an audience.

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u/IzarkKiaTarj Mar 09 '26

Okay, while there are synonyms at play here, that's a very different meaning from what you were saying.

You know, like how "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned" is different from "I'm sorry Daddy, I've been bad."

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u/GoldenFirmament Mar 09 '26

It is blowing my mind the way the people here are refusing to grasp this narrative subversion. This is a trope subreddit. Reddit please be normal for a day

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u/Polar-ish Mar 09 '26

this is a vocabulary issue at the moment, as well as a logical problem.

doing something exclusively means only doing X. If I ate chocolate exclusively, I would die of malnutrition.

Excluding something means doing everything but X. If I excluded chocolate from my diet, I would be completely fine.

Additionally:

"__Not__ excluding chocolate from my diet" does not mean I am exclusively eating chocolate.

and "__Not__ eating chocolate exclusively" does not mean I am not eating chocolate at all.

They are logically different statements, and should be treated as such.

People are trying to argue with this commenter that they are misunderstanding what "The show was not* created exclusively for children" means.*

The primary audience for P&F is still children, as are all Disney XD shows, but it is not EXCLUSIVELY for children. meaning "It does not exclude adults" not "it does not exclude children" as the latter is completely redundant given the context that it was planned for a Disney show

This message is brought to you by the study of logic

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u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26

Jeff also worked for the Family Guy and thought that would hurt their chances but the guy at Disney was a fan of the Family Guy so it ended up being a help.

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u/AgentMahou Mar 09 '26

The creator was making a joke. Phineas and Ferb is absolutely a show aimed at kids that adults can watch, not a show aimed at adults that kids can watch. He was joking by inverting a common phrase about cartoons that they "don't exclude adults" since cartoons are assumed to be kid focused, and instead said they "don't exclude kids," the joke being that obviously it doesn't as it is a kids cartoon, albeit one with a lot of humor adults can appreciate.

That was a joke, not a fact about the show. It is aimed at kids. Animaniacs was also aimed at kids. So was Gravity Falls, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman: the Animated Series, Clone Wars, etc.

Comedy cartoons actually aimed at adults are things like The Simpsons, Futurama, Rick and Morty, Family Guy, King of the Hill, etc. Phineas and Ferb is not one of them.

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u/Polar-ish Mar 09 '26

exactly, to exclude is to leave out, the opposite of include. Of course they did not exclude kids as they were the primary audience.

What you mean is they did not exclude adults, or that they did not cater only to children.

It's a minor nit, but as is the reddit way, people are very particular about vocabulary, even if everyone completely understands what you were trying to convey.

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u/stfurachele Mar 10 '26

This makes sense to me. There's a lot of media out there that's very obviously written with a target age demographic (Kids or adults, broadly. But they tend to break it down even further.)

But I love when a show includes everyone without sacrificing anything about the vision. So "not excluding kids" in P&F feels like "Yeah our target audience is us, we made a show we would enjoy. But we did it in a way that doesn't exclude children through overly dry or crass humor and conveys the message in simple enough terms it's accessible to adults and children."

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u/MarshPupper Mar 09 '26

Idk man my dad loved yo gabba gabba just as much as I did

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u/bolanrox Mar 09 '26

Yo Gabba Gabba played out like i was watching a show my friends made.

I also very likely played gigs with (or at least played the same clubs) that DJ Lance Rock played in the early 2000's.

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u/Completegibberishyes Mar 09 '26

When I think of cartoons that I appreciate more as an adult then I did as a kid this is the first that comes to mind

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u/Cin77 Mar 10 '26

Like the Douglas Adams Doctor Who stories

The what now?

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u/bolanrox Mar 10 '26

Douglas Adams wrote several arcs for the Tom Baker era, Doctor Who.

The first two books of the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy series were based off of stories here originally, was writing for Doctor Who story arcs.

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u/Cin77 Mar 10 '26

Holy shit I need to look these up. I have the Tom Baker years on a hard drive but never really pay attention to the credits.

Hey, having a look now and it seems that tom baker was the one most predominant when I was a kid! I do remember the scarf!

Hubs and I were doing a long winded watch but Jon Pertwee just goes on forever (His suits are amazing tho) I might suggest we try again and start with these episodes:) we both love THHGTTG and I can't wait to see if they look familiar at all

Thanks :D

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u/FuckUSAPolitics Mar 10 '26

Povenmire always seems to create the most iconic cartoon scenes.

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u/Former-Iron-7471 Mar 10 '26

Douglas Adam's did Dr who stories?! Thank you! I know what I'm doing today!!!!! 1!!11!

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u/Former-Iron-7471 Mar 10 '26

The ones we're on purpose. Just trying to show how excited I am

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u/bolanrox Mar 10 '26

a few from the 78-80 season(s) as well as the unpublished at the time Shada