I think there is also the fact that younger people have stronger emotions, so the characters of the series I liked as a kid will have a bigger “emotional footprint” for me than characters of more recent stuff.

This IMHO can lead to some overvaluation of old stuff: things that I remember as supercool because they were supercool to me at the time, but I think they are also factually superior to stuff that I watch naw from a more jaded perspective, even though if I was younger today I would think that the characters of today are supercool.

Some people mature faster than others. Others feel some obligation to NOT like what all the “cool” kids like. There are occasional real-life “individuals.”

Also tastes become more nuanced as people mature because of experience and education (not just formal schooling, could also be informal education outside of mere experience)

And then there are those who insist on liking something because no one else does. Plenty of people on this site wear their tastes in obscure bands as a badge of honor and heap derision on “pop” music.

By the way the term “it thing” goes back to at least the 1940s with the “it girl” Who or what is most popular that everyone who is anyone is into “it” . Been listening to popular radio shows of the 1940s and it was already part of the lingo. Possibly could go back to the 1920s which was full of fads and “it” things that the “in” crowd are following.
(I was amazed to discover the term “hipster” in a 1945 letter by Louis Armstrong to Orson Welles)

I'll admit that as a kid, there were plenty of things that I would dislike compared to other kids simply because I found them overrated, RUGRATS being one of them (keep in mind, this was before SpongeBob took over Nickelodeon as we knew it). On the flip side however, there was plenty of things that I genuinely liked that nobody else did, but the fact that nobody else liked them in no way influenced my enjoyment of such things, like COW AND CHICKEN or ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE; I seriously loved both shows, but everybody else hated them.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
COW AND CHICKEN or ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE; I seriously loved both shows, but everybody else hated them.

Never thought those two would appeal to kids and they were originally broadcast in prime time. Can't see how kids could get the satire especially in Rocko's Modern Life. But twenty somethings loved them. Wasn't crazy about Cow and Chicken which was an acquired taste, but loved I.M. Weasel. Actually know all the words to the theme song. Lol.
I knew a girl in Middle school who was adamant that she didn't like Star Wars and would spare no chance to tell you. It was obvious that some of it was because everyone gushed about it all the time and she was stuck up and just had to show how superior she was by not liking what everyone else liked. This was 1977 so it was still just STAR WARS with no episode IV or New Hope. That 70's Show had a great episode about what it was like then. It was like movies had been invented all over again.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
like COW AND CHICKEN or ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE; I seriously loved both shows, but everybody else hated them.

Both of these were directly inspired by Ren and Stimpy and that grossout semi-adult, “weird” style of knowing humour.

Cow and Chicken was more for older kids and teens, definitely leaning on wierdness and grossness (bit too hard a lot of the time). I never really liked it for that reason. It was closely related to I Am Weasal and I only liked that for Michael Dorn.

I LOVED Rocko's Modern Life though.
That had the right balance. It shaved off all the twee nasty wanky massively over-indulgent crap that Ren and Stimpy had with its creator's extreme fetishisation of the 1960s. It also didn't have the over-reliance of grossness and weirdness for it's own sake that Cow and Chicken copied.
Rocko was just brillian, it was smooth and streamlined. It had great characters and humour, great popculture refences, and great original writing.
It was done in a way that made it have the ability to apeal to kids but the story content and refences were certainly very adult.
It's a great show! Much better tat what inspired it.

Rugrats was pretty good in the begining, as was Sponge bob, PowerPuf girls and a lot of shows of that era but in later seasons they shited their demographic to aim at young kids and the quality massively dropped off. None of them were originall meant for younger children but that's what they became because parents are morons who sit kids in front of colourful characters with funny voices.

And that is why I came to appreciate Animaniacs.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
And that is why I came to appreciate Animaniacs.

Rocko was great and all but Animaniacs was must watch, set the VCR TV.

I liked I.M. Weasel because it was a cartoon centered around “you can't fix stupid” I.R. Baboon was the epitome of stupid and I.M. Weasel was the guy trying keep the stupid from overwhelming the world.

ANIMANIACS was certainly a great show, but when it comes to the trio of Steven Spielberg-produced toons, FREAKAZOID! gets the vote from me in terms of absolute favorite. Co-creator/Freakazoid voice actor Paul Rugg is both a hoot and super nice guy; I've bantered with him on Facebook a time or two in the past.

POWERPUFF GIRLS and DEXTER'S LABORATORY both suffered under the hands of one man: Chris Savino. When he became the showrunner for both shows after Craig McCracken moved on to work on FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS, and Genndy Tartakovsky moved on to work on SAMURAI JACK and others, Savino essentially ruined both shows what with changing the art styles (which he reasoned was better than keeping them exactly the same, because either choice would have made the shows suck anyway), but also retconning a lot of what had already been previously established, like how Dexter and Mandark met. Sure, it was nice to give Mandark a backstory, and show us that he had Flower Power hippy parents who named him Susan (a nod to the Johnny Cash song), but changing how they met to Mandark actually wanting to be friends with Dexter, but Dexter refusing turned Mandark into the victim and Dexter into the bad guy was a huge disservice. Not that it was totally OOC for Dexter, as he often looked down on those whose intelligence was inferior to his, including his own family (especially Dee Dee), but the whole point was that 1. Mandark proved to be a worth adversary/nemesis for Dexter for actually being smarter than him, and 2. Mandark was just pure and plain evil from the get-go, so making him the victim instead was like a cliched scorn/revenge plot.

FREAKAZOID was also a personal favorite. Totally demented especially with how they worked in satire on Clinton. Still remember the episode where Freakazoid stops the attack on Pearl Harbor with the Blazing Saddles toll booth gag and in the alternate universe Pinky is the US President.

I missed most of the retconning of DEXTER and only saw the special past, present and future Dexter showdown with Mandark, snd the Paul Williams and Dom Delouise guest appearances. As for POWERPUFF Girls I gave up and went back to Anime magical girls like Project A-ko and Cutey Honey. But I was already an adult and moved on to more mature offerings. I was building up my anime collection.

I know it's called “social deduction”, so it's not meant to be played against the computer, but I for one am devastated by how I have to interact with a player community to play my favorite type of game. And I mean a player community which is toxic (I know, I'm way too sensitive that I find people hurling insults or slurs at each other at every turn if the game doesn't go their way or they're bored to be toxic, the average is completely used to it by now, but it really ruins the entire experience for me). I loved Mindnight, but hated the player base and now it's dead. There would be others to try, like Town of Salem or its sequel, Matriarch, whatever… but I'd have to assume if it's a problem in one place it's a problem generally as well. And good luck getting your friends to play online games with you if you can't even get most of them to even look at your creative work for almost two years. I wouldn't care if it's AI or not, I'd welcome options and so far I've only heard of one such game with a single player option - that didn't convince me it's any good.

Honestly, what online community isn't toxic on some level? Well, the DD community certainly isn't, but that's beside the point.

I've been so stretched thin lately.

Ozoneocean wrote:
I've been so stretched thin lately.

Stretch Armstrong made quite a career out of it, but not so good for the rest of us. Is it a multitude of competing work and life demands, or pressure you're putting on yourself to do certain things?

—

I was doing so well at the start of my comic with almost weekly updates, but gradually slipped back into my old ways. It's disappointing, but I'm finally discovering things about how my peculiar brain is wired that might help me get back on track. Digits crossed.

Ironscarf wrote:
Stretch Armstrong made quite a career out of it, but not so good for the rest of us. Is it a multitude of competing work and life demands, or pressure you're putting on yourself to do certain things?

Both :(
—

Ironscarf wrote:
I was doing so well at the start of my comic with almost weekly updates, but gradually slipped back into my old ways. It's disappointing, but I'm finally discovering things about how my peculiar brain is wired that might help me get back on track. Digits crossed.

Hahaha! Same with me. I'm working on this Key Of Dreams thing but stuff keeps getting in the way lol!

The internet: “Nobody's talking about SpongeBob's 25th anniversary, boo-hoo!”

Also the internet: “Yap-yap-SpongeBob's 25th anniversary-blah-blah-SpongeBob's 25th anniversary-drivel-drivel-drivel-SpongeBob's 25th anniversary.”