Posted in: Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: brainrot, opinion, smurfs

Smurfs, He-Man & More: Your Fav Childhood TV Shows Were OG Brainrot

Before labeling Skibidi Toilet brainrot, look back at other shows that some called "low-quality content," like The Smurfs and Howdy Doody.

Boomers, Gen X-ers, Millennials, lend me your ears (or hearing aids) – I've got a hot take you may not like. Those classic kids' TV shows you grew up with and love? They're absolute brainrot. If you're not familiar with the term, it's defined as "the negative effects of consuming low-quality content," which is typically aimed at iPad kids watching hours and hours of TikToks or asinine YouTube videos (no, I'm not explaining Skibidi Toilet to you). Despite the relatively new connotation of the term, Gen Z is not the only generation to be consumed by the brain rot – and no, the internet is not to blame. What were the kids' TV shows you remember growing up with? If the show has a mean clown, puppets, mascot costumes, claymation, or stop motion, I've got news for you: that's all brain rot content – double brain rot if it has a monkey.

Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, The Bozo Show? Peak OG brainrot. In fact, it may even be worse than watching "100 Baby Sims Challenges" while scrolling through poorly animated cat videos and lobotomy memes. There were very few redeeming qualities in the early days of children's television programming, as making shows for kids was deemed "pointless" as they didn't have any money and couldn't be advertised to. Little did the ad men of the 1950s know the power of a good temper tantrum.

Now, does this include all children's television programs? Absolutely not! Sesame Street came on the scene in 1969, Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood a year before that, and Romper Room and various school-themed and local educational programs as a substitute for pre-k lessons long before those. Just like life doesn't deal in absolutes (not everything on the internet is devoid of value), neither does television. However, to completely condemn modern low-quality content while failing to acknowledge what got us here is dirty behavior and you should be ashamed.

Gen X, don't think I forgot about you (for once). You may say, "But we grew up with the heyday of Sesame Street and no lead-based crib paints; we're better than the boomers!" and to that, I respond with the most terrifying children's television brainrot of all time: whatever the hell was going on with H.R. Pufnstuf. I mean, seriously – you can't look at that and tell me with sincerity that this isn't "low-quality content." It even inspired ads for kids that were…frankly terrifying and undeniable brain rot. Case in point – McDonaldland. It's like having a bad trip inside a McDonalds while watching The Wizard of Oz. The 70s maybe went a little hard on the psychedelic kids' content, proving that the hippies should NOT have been in charge of…well, anything. It explains a lot about your generation, and you have my pity.

This brings us to the Millennials. Did you grow up in the era of having to wait for Saturday morning to watch cartoons? Your brainrot was not the worst, but my goodness, is it absolutely terrifying to look back on – possibly more so than the Gen X shows of the 70s, because by this point, the networks knew what they were doing and still fed you the brain rot anyway. I present Rainbow Brite, He-Man, and The Smurfs (what even is a Smurf?) – anything with a catchy theme song or with advertisements featuring cartoon characters shilling breakfast cereal is absolutely undeniably brain rot. Bonus brain rot points here for anything that was created to sell toys (looking at you, Mattel).

Case in point, entertainment doesn't have to have merit or even a point – should it? Maybe? But sometimes it's just fun to turn your brain off and vibe to something stupid that you know full well is not educational, thought-provoking, or stimulating – it's nice just to be serenaded with the aural and visual equivalent of junk food. So climb off your high horses (without breaking a hip) and watch something stupid, be it with a puppet and a monkey, an animated talking horse, dogs speaking gibberish wisdom, or, frankly, a rather rude clown. Enjoy your brainrot, from whatever generation it comes from.

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