For this week’s art Activity, I wanted to dive into the world of animation. At first, I was scouring the internet for artists or worlds that I could find a theme for. As I thought more and more about it, I started to think about anything that I have experienced or seen in my life that may fall into some sort of themed category. I thought about some animated worlds that could relate in some way, which brought me to animated television shows. The three “worlds” I would like to focus on are that of animated shows like Rick and Morty, Family Guy, and Big Mouth.
Specifically within these worlds, I would like to focus on the idea of how these shows use absurd ideas, irony, and humor to exploit things that have happened or things that are going on in the modern world. They push the threshold and attack social norms, and talk about ideas or use phrases that are taboo or “off-limits.” I think shows like these are very valuable (and popular) because they use goofy characters, talking animals, hilarious skits, and more to poke fun at the world and all that it is filled with.
Rick will tell Morty to “Stop being a pu**y” which attacks the the idea that we are told not to use gendered language. Family Guy has used racially sensitive language as characters in shows joke about race and nationalism. Big Mouth explores puberty, sex, and anatomy through the eyes of middle school kids with a vulgar and unfiltered twist, which is often considered “something kids should not be worried about at that age.” Many more things include poking fun at obesity, politics, marital satisfaction, child abuse, racism, sexism, ageism, religion, gender, abortion, love, hate, war, sex, drugs, alcoholism, pedophilia, cheating, killing, and the list goes on and on.
This is why I explored these shows/creators of the shows. I think now a days, people are too uptight and politically correct. It is frustrating because we feel as though we have to walk on egg shells all the time for fear of offending someone or their mother. I find this day and age frustrating because of this exact idea, which is why I am glad the animated shows a vast amount of people enjoy are able to be the medium that jokes about a spectrum of viewpoints.
Dimitri Petrakis 