What? No Nightmare Fuel thread?

Post the TV shows and cartoons that scared or scarred you as a child.

I was reminded of this one recently while reading a Cracked article about cartoons with dark themes, and was surprised it wasn't on the list.

I'll sing you a story of a duck
A duck whose name is Alfred Kwak yes Alfred Jonathan Kwak
He lives in a lovely little town
A lovely town in OH MY GOD HIS WHOLE FAMILY JUST GOT RUN OVER BY A CAR
HIS WHOLE FAMILY
AND ALL YOU SEE IS THE SHOE GOING UP IN THE AIR
AND THE CROW IS HITLER
WHYYYYYY, DUTCH PEOPLE? WHYYYYYYYYYY?


And in the I KNEW THIS WAS REAL, DAMN IT category: The Rimini Riddle.

Cyberwulf wrote:

And in the I KNEW THIS WAS REAL, DAMN IT category: The Rimini Riddle.

oh god those puppets. hold me.

I'm sort of cheating with this one, as this is (thankfully) not a part of my childhood, but any parent who makes their child watch this show needs to have their parenting license revoked.



Edit: Holy bear shit, apparently there's a product line?! What hath God wrought?

Cyberwulf wrote:

Post the TV shows and cartoons that scared or scarred you as a child.

I was reminded of this one recently while reading a Cracked article about cartoons with dark themes, and was surprised it wasn't on the list.

I'll sing you a story of a duck
A duck whose name is Alfred Kwak yes Alfred Jonathan Kwak
He lives in a lovely little town
A lovely town in OH MY GOD HIS WHOLE FAMILY JUST GOT RUN OVER BY A CAR
HIS WHOLE FAMILY
AND ALL YOU SEE IS THE SHOE GOING UP IN THE AIR
AND THE CROW IS HITLER
WHYYYYYY, DUTCH PEOPLE? WHYYYYYYYYYY?

Hee. I loved this show, and I still do. Maybe it's a Dutch thing, because all my peers here also remember it fondly, mostly because some of the heavier-handed symbolism completely went over our collective heads. I was most affected when Alfred was imprisoned for some crime he did not commit -- which happened far too much -- and whenever that buccaneer cat got involved.

I like the voice-actors of the English dub. Hank the mole sounds appropriately fatherly.

Also, isn't the main character's parents dying sort of a staple in children's cartoons?

Cyberwulf wrote:

I was reminded of this one recently while reading a Cracked article about cartoons with dark themes, and was surprised it wasn't on the list.

I'll sing you a story of a duck
A duck whose name is Alfred Kwak yes Alfred Jonathan Kwak
He lives in a lovely little town
A lovely town in OH MY GOD HIS WHOLE FAMILY JUST GOT RUN OVER BY A CAR
HIS WHOLE FAMILY
AND ALL YOU SEE IS THE SHOE GOING UP IN THE AIR
AND THE CROW IS HITLER
WHYYYYYY, DUTCH PEOPLE? WHYYYYYYYYYY?

Omigosh are you kidding??? THAT IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE CARTOON!!! I watched it for the first time when I was two years old, Alfred was my hero. Hell, he's STILL my hero, I wish I was half as brave and kind as he was.

I've always loved how it was super educational about history, geography and the nature of humanity without ever beating the messages into the viewer. It eased me into concepts like war and deceit and democracy and the whole Hitler thing so that when I learned about them, it didn't come as a total shock. It still has a lot of things to teach me even now, over 20 years after I watched it for the first time. And yes there's the whole dead family bit, it's very sad, but I don't think I was traumatized? I just felt sad for poor baby Alfred. It just made a very self-centered child get her first bits of empathy.

But a show that scared me as a child? WICKED! is the one that comes to mind. It was about this evil Appleman? And two kids who tried to stop him? I don't even know man. All I know is that it was incredibly creepy and everyone I know of my age group was heavily traumatized by it.

Shareing the love for Alfred J. Kwak.

Also: Noseybonk

What the fuck are you Europeans showing your kids?

Nosey bonk... What the fuck did I just watch?

Jay/Cris, Snake Bandage and WD40 wrote:

wooooo Alfred Kwak

From the ages of six till about thirteen I went to a childminder's after school, and she used to make us play outside unless it was bucketing down. So I didn't get to watch much kids' TV in the afternoons, and as a consequence only saw two episodes of Alfred Kwak I can remember: his whole family getting killed, and one where this octopus (or jellyfish?) baddie got pretty badly sickened when his bodyguard/driver put him in a tank of tap water with salt in it instead of proper saltwater. I would probably appreciate the show more if I saw it now.

Euglena wrote:

oh god those puppets. hold me.

The puppets aren't even the worst part. Otto, that purple toy the big-headed kid was holding at the start of the clip? Yeah, that was actually alive, and had been sent into our world from another dimension full of child-eating monsters for the sole purpose of bringing back fresh children for dinner. Except he got fond of the big-head kid (Leo) and his pal Flick was sent to hurry everything up. Flick took the form of a talking soccer ball. HOW I REMEMBER THIS I DO NOT KNOW

Cyberwulf wrote:

Jay/Cris, Snake Bandage and WD40 wrote:

wooooo Alfred Kwak

From the ages of six till about thirteen I went to a childminder's after school, and she used to make us play outside unless it was bucketing down. So I didn't get to watch much kids' TV in the afternoons, and as a consequence only saw two episodes of Alfred Kwak I can remember: his whole family getting killed, and one where this octopus (or jellyfish?) baddie got pretty badly sickened when his bodyguard/driver put him in a tank of tap water with salt in it instead of proper saltwater. I would probably appreciate the show more if I saw it now.

Oh no, I totez get your point of it being Nightmare Fuel. To me, however, that doesn't detract from the awesomenes but only adds to it.

And it was an Octopusesque thing, yeah.

Mr.Doobie wrote:

What the fuck are you Europeans showing your kids?

Oh, don't think I'm forgetting about the Yankees, now. Here's the only episode of Bravestarr I can remember. That's right, it's the one where the kid dies of a drug overdose.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Mr.Doobie wrote:

What the fuck are you Europeans showing your kids?

Oh, don't think I'm forgetting about the Yankees, now. Here's the only episode of Bravestarr I can remember. That's right, it's the one where the kid dies of a drug overdose.

I only wish it woulda shown the kid's face. Woulda drove the point home.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Jay/Cris, Snake Bandage and WD40 wrote:

wooooo Alfred Kwak

From the ages of six till about thirteen I went to a childminder's after school, and she used to make us play outside unless it was bucketing down. So I didn't get to watch much kids' TV in the afternoons, and as a consequence only saw two episodes of Alfred Kwak I can remember: his whole family getting killed, and one where this octopus (or jellyfish?) baddie got pretty badly sickened when his bodyguard/driver put him in a tank of tap water with salt in it instead of proper saltwater. I would probably appreciate the show more if I saw it now.

Ah, yeah, I can see how it could become utter nightmare fuel without proper context. I'd still recommend looking for episodes of it, it's a really good series. I wouldn't really recommend the English dub though, I couldn't take it seriously at all. There used to be a subbing team that tried to sub Alfred J. Kwak from Dutch/Japanese but they only ever got to episode 6. :T

Hahaha oh man, but that bit you mentioned with the octopus. That was comedy gold! Lispel is a self-serving spy and kind of a humongous dick to Alfred (except for the one time Dolf shoots the fuck out of his face and even then he just helps Alfred because he wants revenge), so seeing him freak out like that over his water was very satisfying. Especially since his driver was all "jeez stop being such a drama queen" and pretty much didn't give a shit, it's a glorious scene.

Jay/Cris wrote:

I was most affected when Alfred was imprisoned for some crime he did not commit

I didn't watch a lot of this show either, but I do remember that one. Ugh, that was so sad back then.

And now you made me want to see that show again.

Uh, a lot of stuff creeped me out as a kid, but the only one I can think of right now is this claymation about aliens. Unfortunately, I can't remember the title, so I can't look it up to see if it still creeps me out (if it even is uploaded anywhere).

Seriously, claymation is the worst.

Lurv wrote:

Uh, a lot of stuff creeped me out as a kid, but the only one I can think of right now is this claymation about aliens. Unfortunately, I can't remember the title, so I can't look it up to see if it still creeps me out (if it even is uploaded anywhere).

Seriously, claymation is the worst.

Cue clip from Adventures of Mark Twain




I dunno. The Alfred Kwak thing with it dealing with dark elements nver fazed me as a kid. I actually thought that a show was lame if it didnt deal with 'hard subjects. Maybe it's because I was raised on dark kids films like Watership Down, Dark Crystal, Old Yeller, The Man from Button Willow, The Plague Dogs, Secret of NIMH and so on (including Adventures of Mark Twain) "Dark" elements in kids shows were pretty natural for me.

They were pretty common in kids books too... Again, I was raised on Roald Dahl. (Danny Champion of the World is not exactly known for it's soft subject matter and happy portrayal of family life - Nor were the more 'whimsical' books like Georges Marvellous Medicine).

Not that I couldn't get creeped the shit out by some shows. Took me a while to track it down but this is Children of the Dog Star:
Intro

In short, a UFO or something latches onto the top of a barn near our stars house. Check 5 mins into this video

I genuinely don't remember what happens in the show, I only ever caught clips when stuff like this was happening: 2 min 50 mark. , or this 6 min mark - which isn't made any less creepy by the weird blue-fade dissolve effect at the end of the show.

One bit I remember concerned the kid descovering out that the thing was from outer space, and specifically from the dog star. Whispering "The Dog Star" to herself, she falls alseep, only to have the antenna thing appear at her window whispering the words "dog star, dog star, dog star." over and over again in a weird computer-voice.

That shit kept me awake for weeks.

WD40 wrote:

Cue clip from Adventures of Mark Twain

That one's pretty creepy too, but I didn't have to deal with it as a kid fortunately.

Reidmar wrote:

Cyberwulf wrote:

Mr.Doobie wrote:

What the fuck are you Europeans showing your kids?

Oh, don't think I'm forgetting about the Yankees, now. Here's the only episode of Bravestarr I can remember. That's right, it's the one where the kid dies of a drug overdose.

I only wish it woulda shown the kid's face. Woulda drove the point home.

Well, earlier they do show the kid rocking and tweaking.

I honestly had little to scar me as a child (I thank the lack of good TV reception for that) but believe it or not, I do in fact remember a little skit from Sesame Street that bugged the hell out of me.

Don't know why, the whole thing kind of freaked me out. I love Muppets, don't get me wrong, Jim Henson's work is brilliant I think, but goddamn that shit freaked me out.

Another one that really comes to mind (after I stop repressing the memory for a bit) is an episode of the '90's show Are You Afraid of the Dark?that aired on Nickelodeon.

This is that episode

I never finished watching the episode. It just freaked me the fuck out that much.

Mr.Doobie wrote:

What the fuck are you Europeans showing your kids?

European cartoons were damn vanilla. There was Dusty the kangaroo, a little dragon who wanted to be a firefighter, a whiny black chick still wearing half his eggshell as a hat, and some great claymation from beyind the Iron Curtain (I loved the bunnies in the Yugoslavian TV advertisements).
Japanese cartoons were the real deal.
BEM (stood for Bug Eyed Monster of course) - three "good" monsters wandering around, fighting evil monsters, being chased away by everyone until one day the Muggles torch them alive in the house where they had cooped up.


Fantaman was Japan's first superhero. Why would they give him a sickly yellow color and a skull for a face is beyond me. Once you got past that, you could tell he was a good one... in the way a benign tumor is a good one.

There was a bit of bafflement as this comic was also being published at the time:
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and no, that is not a good guy, but at least he's wearing a mask.

Captain Harlock's alien women had me sleeping in my parents' bed for a night (plus a lecture on the difference between reality and fiction, and no cartoons for a week. So I never got to know whether Captain Dan was really Arin's father after all). Now it seems ridiculous but I was 4... starts at 2:12:

Apparently this TV show wrought havoc on the minds of countless of Norwegian children:



Something about it being the first surrealistic childrens show. I am not that old thank heavens.

WD40 wrote:

Bill and Ben


+

Pob


=

KeyserSoze wrote:

?

IT'S DESTROYING MY EYESIGHT! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Moomins. It made a habit of showing the Groke - a personification of death. It doesn't look scary now at the age of 30, but it was pretty impressionable at the age of 6.

And then there was The Animals of Farthing Wood - it was like watching Watership Down all over again.

Beregond5 wrote:

And then there was The Animals of Farthing Wood - it was like watching Watership Down all over again.

Oh lords, the hedgehogs.

I must look for the Irish dub of Farthing Wood. God I remember when that came out first and it was such a huge deal because it was broadcast all throughout the EBU in all the different languages.

Anyone ever hear of the Bunyip song? Anyone have a link or something?