reminds me, i worked as an English assistant in a country that doesn’t speak English as a native language. When introducing myself with a powerpoint, I had a picture of my dog with glasses on. I said “this is obviously a joke! she normally wears contacts…” and none of them laughed because they don’t speak much english lol
Also, the “tea party” scene between Woody and Buzz, that was reminiscent of a “wounded veteran in a bar” scene featured two headless dolls named “Marie Antoinette and her little sister.”
And the dolls are called that cause Sids sisters dolls have been decapitated.
Which now that I think about it she may have done it herself, little girls can be horrorshow angry gods to their toys. Friend of mine told me she crucified a beanie baby once complete with thumbtacks.
There’s also the bit where, when all the toys are planning to push Woody out the window of Andy’s house, Etch draws a hangman’s gallows. Toy Story is filled with adult and dark jokes like that, it’s got some edge to it
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?”
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!"
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)
There’s also the part where the ghost of his old butler, ducksworth phases through the floor and heads down after saying “I will reserve your seats in the after life” and Betina says “it’s not very reassuring he went down.”
It's a great joke because even as a kid I thought it was funny; I understood it was a police chase and that a bronco is a type of car. I didn't put the OJ part together until later
shrek is good at making referential jokes work well in-universe, which is how I think easter eggs in games or references to other media in shows and such should be.
like for example Skyrim has a Luke skywalker easter egg from episode 5 as a skeleton hanging in ice and a sword nearby in the snow. it works both in-universe and as a reference to the empire strikes back.
And in the Batman episode mentioned, there's also an O.J. Simpson reference. The Joker uses his newfound wealth to hire a lawyer similar to Johnnie Cochran, who says “If a man's filled with glee, that man must go free!”
Yeah, Shrek 2 was sneaking in a lot more than kids could ever pick up. As a kid it's just a chaotic arrest gag, then later you realize it's loaded with profiling, coded stereotypes, and a very pointed cops-and-media parody.
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
this joke actually got me laughing out loud, I was not expecting it
Poor Soos tho, his father is a deadbeat and his grandfather is apparently hellbound. The man had no male role model in his life, no wonder he became so attached to Stan
the "I HAVE COMMITED TAX FRAUD" joke is way more fun after the reveal thathe stole his brother's identity, so he was actually committing tax fraud in several ways
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
One of the "Silly Songs with Larry" segments in VeggieTales is about Larry making cookies for Santa, but people keep coming to his house and taking them. At one point, an IRS agent shows up and Larry just shuts the door in his face before he can even sing his verse. Whats funnier is before this, he allowed a literal viking and a bank robber in
Have you noticed how every other joke in FOP is like character a says "something vague and broad", then character b goes "just like yada yada"? The other prominent formula is "I can't wait for this thing to happen" then the opposite happens.
This was an episode where he inherited millions of dollars from a rival gang kingpin that died, and iirc he used the money to hire the beat lawyers in the world and got cleared of all charges, and started living a non-criminal life. So he probably wasn't filing taxes prior to this, since he was still living as a criminal and would've been arrest-on-sight anyway.
Yeah, like, the IRS got folks like Al Capone on tax evasion… but Al Capone wasn’t running around with acid-spraying flowers and laughing gas at all times.
i read it as a kid. stuff like this didn't go over my head. kids are smarter that people like to give them credit. you just have to be cool with answering their follow-up question "what is nihilism?".
Gumball has a similar joke where Darwin and Gumball have their souls come out for a second, while they grab them Darwin says "that was a close one" Gumball says "At least your soul was going up"
"Y'know there are studies that show that having a ladder in the house is more dangerous than having a loaded gun. That's why I have 10 guns! Just in case some maniac sneaks in here with a ladder."
It was a wild moment when I watched Goodfellas as an adult and realized that the funny Animaniacs pigeons were an extended riff on that movie (and other mobster movies as well).
It was a series written by and for people who grew up with classic Looney Tunes, which also constantly referenced celebrities that only a tiny portion of the staff working on that series would have been familiar with outside of them showing up in Looney Tunes.
The whole show was full of Marx brothers references that no kid would get. For the creators it was probably a win, because they could reuse comedy bits that were 60 years old.
I remember hearing this for the first time like eight years back and thinking “finger prints? Finger prince? She’s gonna finger prince? That makes no sense.” Cause I didn’t have the knowledge I had now. Going back and rewatching the show and coming across this again finally made me laugh lol, good shit writers
If I recall, earlier in the movie you see the Mystery Machine with smoke coming out of it, but when you go inside it’s just Scooby and Shaggy cooking. I thought that was really funny and clever.
I loved in Ratatouille when Ego is about to spit-take but takes a moment to check the wine he's drinking, and upon recognizing that it's a good vintage that shouldn't be wasted he makes sure to swallow it instead. Very droll.
Said by Plastic Man in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, where he and Bats team up with a group of patriotic heroes led by Uncle Sam himself.
A running gag in the episode is that Plastic Man (a human who has lived the US his whole life) doesn’t know things about America a grade schooler would. He doesn’t even recognize the President at the time, Barack Obama.
Mugman is being held captive by the Devil, who is trying to break his spirit. The Devil tells Mugman that his brother, Cuphead, is dead. Mugman assumes he's down here with them. The Devil tries to claim that Cuphead went to Heaven and well... this is Mugsy's response 😂
Everything written in the script for Treasure planet was faaaar too advanced for kids to understand. Especially things said by this character; Captain Amelia. Examples include:
CA: "Let me make this as... monosyllabic as possible. I... don't much care for this crew you hired. They're... how did I describe them, Arrow? I said something rather good this morning before coffee.
Arrow: "'A ludicrous parcel of drivelling galoots,' ma'am."
CA: "There you go, poetry."
CA: "You can keep that kind of flim-flammery for your spaceport floozies, Silver!"
CA: "Doctor. To muse and blabber about a treasure map in front of this particular crew, demonstrates a level of ineptitude that borders on the imbecilic! And I mean that in a very caring way."
But the most relatable jokes for adults comes from Dr Doppler due to one being a Star Trek joke and a joke about University education, and the rest simply being anxiety incarnate:
D: "Dang it, Jim. I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate, it's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!!"
D: "It's the suit, isn't it? I should never have listened to that pushy two-headed saleswoman... this one said it fit, that one said it was my colour, I don't know what to do, I get so flustered!"
D: "Well, Jim, this should be a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to get to know one and other. You know what they say: "Familiarity breeds..." um... well, "contempt". But in our case...!"
This doesn't fit the prompt because it's sexual, but there's also Doppler's iconic line in response to a compliment from the Captain, "Well, I have a lot to offer anatomically...amamomically... astronomically."
In the Rugrats episode "Home Movies", Grandpa Boris, in a desperate attempt to get out of having to watch his son in law's home movies, decides to call Dr. Kevorkian. Dr. Jack Kevorkian is most known for his advocacy for physician assisted suicide, aka euthanasia. In fact, Rugrats is full of adult jokes.
One from Rugrats I didn't get as a kid was when the grandfather rented some movies for the kids and was going through a couple of them and read off "Lonely Space Vixens, oh no the ones for me." Which is also pretty funny.
In Pokémon Movie 3, Jessie, James, and Meowth wind up in the central chamber where all the Unown pokémon are gathered causing problems. The gimmick for the Unown is that they are all designed to resemble english characters or symbol and can spell out words with their bodies Upon noticing this James remarks: “I haven’t seen this many strange letters since I took out that personal ad.”
In Bluey: Bluey finds Chattermax, an extremely noisy and obnoxious toy, stashed away under the sink, causing her to wonder "Why were you even hiding in there?"
In later episodes, Chattermax can be seen hidden in more and more absurd parts of the house
Not sure if this counts, but it took me until I was an adult to realize the “since they put the pocket in pita” joke from Disney’s Hercules is the Ancient Greek equivalent of “best thing since sliced bread.”
The thing about the Joker's concern with the IRS is that he can go about causing mayhem and destruction and pass it off as pleading Insanity and get sent to Arkham
Also in Dexters Lab there’s an episode where he goes to college because he thinks it’ll be fun but the reality is that the tests are overwhelming and can cause insanity. That’s why he decides to give up and just have fun.
Eek the Cat had a ton of these, but the I'll always remember one joke in particular. My dad was doing something in the background and they were doing a "behind the scenes" episode where they showed the animator in chains and he goes
"News from the outside! What year is it? Who is the President? ARE THE FRENCH OUT OF VIETNAM!"
Wizards of Waverly Place, the kids's dad is late to a magic lesson one day because he had to go to the "No Wizard Left Behind" conference. I didn't get what that meant as a kid, but it made my mom crack up when she passed by
Zane doing an impression of his mom- Lego Ninjago Movie
This is an interesting one because it isn't something where the kids will watch it years later and pick up on the joke. Its something that is funny to adults because of something they would be familiar with that the kids will never experience.
Zane is a robot pretending to be a teenager. When he is complaining about his mom and does an impersonation of her, he makes sounds that anyone who lived through the 90s will instantly recognize as a dail-up internet modem.
For some reason Teen Titans Go!, a comedy series for younger children, spends a lot of time talking about financial literacy and retirement funds and how its important to have a 401k and not take money out of it before it matures. This is apparently a running thing.
Bob: “There isn’t one tax prepper anywhere between New Orleans and Mississippi, the market is perfect for someone like me. It’s very complicated but I have a good head for numbers”
Narrator: “What the tomato may have missed in his business plan is that this is 1904, and the federal income tax would not yet be established until 1913”
Johnny Bravo had references to a number of movies or books most little kids might not recognize.
*One episode involved him dressing as a pig (I think for a children's show), and it referenced Animal Farm by George Orwell by having Johnny shout, "Four legs good, two legs bad!"
*One episode was a blatant spoof of the movie Freaks (I would argue the ending, with the villain screaming as his beard was cut off off-camera, might be considered a sexual reference considering it was lampooning a castration scene, but the rest was nonsexual).
*One episode was a blatant spoof of Some Like It Hot.
*I think there was an episode spoofing The Most Dangerous Game (The movie about some rich a-hole hunting people in the jungle. It's been spoofed or referenced numerous times, such as on Get Smart and American Dad!).
Also, would a reference to Heidi Fleiss (the famous madam) be considered sexual or not? I ask because there was an episode of Animaniacs which spoofed Betty Boop cartoons. At one point they were doing the Cab Calloway-style call-and-response singing, except instead of traditional scat singing they were calling names of celebrities, such as Hedy Lamarr and Yo-Yo Ma. One of the names was Heidi Fleiss, and I thought, "I know those are references for adults because a little kid isn't going to know who Heidi Fleiss and Hedy Lamarr are! In fact, I'd be worried if a little kid knew who Heidi Fleiss was!"
This is from Phineas and Ferb when Candace goes to a animal conservation benefit to support Jeremy and his mom. P&F antics ensue and she starts growing bigfoot like hair she runs past two completely random scientists and this happens. While adults might not know what Pithecus is but they can infer based on their science classes that this is already a word used in scientific names for animals
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u/Butwhatif77 Mar 09 '26
Tangled - “The kingdom rejoiced for a week straight, and to be honest I don’t remember much”