Do you ever go back and watch cartoons that you liked as a kid, only to discover a subtext or inappropriate moment you didn’t understand when you were knee high to a grasshopper? Are you just now getting jokes your older siblings laughed at in your favorite show? If not, then get ready to have your mind blown by this list of pop culture moments and adult jokes in kid’s shows that you didn’t catch when you were growing up. A lot of the best cartoons of the ’90s are actually full of adult humor.
We’re not talking about the Powerpuff Girls referencing The Big Lebowski or Freakazoid quoting an Ed Wood film (although both of those super weird and totally 90s things definitely happened). This list covers the stuff you can’t believe animators and writers were able to get on the air. Sex, drugs, and honestly mostly sex – everything was fair game. Some of the shows on this list seemed to be nothing more than a vessel for raunchy humor and obscure innuendoes, while others were more than likely the work of a disgruntled illustrator sticking it to the man. And still, a few of the items on this list are so dark that it’s hard to comprehend how the episodes went to air. Maybe Hanna and Barbara had a secret deal with the FCC? Maybe they were just gross old creeps (most adults are).
This list is certain to make you go back and binge watch all the cartoons you loved as a kid to see what pop culture references you wouldn’t have thought twice about when you were growing up.

Then There Was This...

Daffy Duck Does Some Light Reading

The Flash Gives TMI About His Love Life

The Doctor on Rocko’s Modern Life

Cute Little Accident

Whoa, That’s Pretty Forward

The Rugrats Movie Takes on Circumcision

The Three Little Pig’s Father

The Most Watchable Scene In The Rescuers

When the Bus Driver in Hocus Pocus Hits on the Witches

The Hooker In Toy Story. Get It?!

Jessica Rabbit’s Upskirt Shot

How many VCRs were destroyed trying to find this freeze frame?

Dexter’s New Assistant’s Answer After He Asks Her To Dance

The Note In Edd’s Bathroom

For those of you squinting to read, it says “Don’t Touch Yourself.”

Lord Farquaad Gets Called Out for Having the Castle Equivalent of Truck Nuts

What Else Would It Be?

That Time Rocko Moonlighted as a Phone Sex Operator

Helga’s Poem

Where Can I Find a Copy of Lonely Space Victims?

Shaggy’s Favorite Name

Suck Your WHAT?

This One Is Filthy

Spongebob’s Sea-Themed ~Adult Entertainment~ Addiction

When the Animaniacs Made a Handplay Joke

Life Lessons from Rocko’s Modern Life

He Reads It for the Articles

Who Doesn’t Like a Good Prison Shower Joke?

Grandpa’s Hippie Days on Hey Arnold!

Well This Happened…

This Can’t Be Unseen

Well That Is How It Works

The Powerpuff Girls really had to deal with some creeps.

Rocko’s Modern Life Gives Kids Some Great Advice

Patrick’s Genius Is Showing

Maybe That Note Was There For Good Reason…

Topanga’s No Fun

I’ll Pass…

When Heffer Gets Milked on Rocko’s Modern Life

That Time Tom and Jerry Committed Suicide

From the rarely aired episode, “Blue Cat Blues.” Tom and Jerry allow themselves to be run over by a train after they see their girlfriend’s cheating on them. They should have just started a emo band.

Phil and Lil’s Dad Goes Away for Some Male Bonding and Stu Makes This Gesture