Advertise on podcast: Cartoons Were Wild

In 1987, Reverend Donald Wildmon accused Ralph Bakshi's new Mighty Mouse cartoon of showing the superhero snorting cocaine in a flower-sniffing scene. What followed was a media firestorm, boycotts, Congressional testimony, and CBS executives forced to defend a cartoon mouse on national television. The full story is more insane than you remember.

While CBS hired consultants to sanitize every punch and implement strict 'pro-social' guidelines, ABC let their animators run wild with violence, innuendo, and chaos. The result? Two completely different Saturday morning experiences that defined a generation—and a corporate war that changed children's television forever.

Some of animation's most iconic moments were never in the script. From Robin Williams turning Aladdin recording sessions into comedy chaos to a Looney Tunes legend ad-libbing while drunk, these voice actors broke all the rules—and created cartoon history. We're counting down five times the 'wrong' take became the right one.

Art Babbitt created one of Disney's most beloved characters, then became Walt's greatest enemy. This is the story of the legendary animator who punched his way into animation history, led a labor revolution that changed Hollywood forever, and got blacklisted by the man whose empire he helped build. The fight in the parking lot was just the beginning.

While Disney locked away their racist 'Censored Eleven' cartoons and pretended they never existed, Warner Bros put them on DVD with historical context warnings. We're diving into the wildly different philosophies behind these decisions and what happened when both studios tried to erase—or preserve—their most problematic animation history.

From sexual innuendos in Animaniacs to genuine nightmare fuel in Courage the Cowardly Dog, some cartoon moments make you wonder if anyone was watching the final cut. We're counting down five scenes that left parents jaw-dropped and censors scrambling—after they'd already aired to millions of kids.

In 1991, Nickelodeon let a basement animation studio run by an obsessive perfectionist create the most disgusting cartoon ever aired on children's television. Within two years, that relationship would explode in missed deadlines, on-set chaos, and a firing that shocked the animation industry. This is the wild story of how Ren & Stimpy became both a phenomenon and a cautionary tale.

These cartoons aren't as cheery as you think!?

CartoonsWereWild best of episode!

Cartoons Were Wild best of episode!

Turns out cartoons were actually for adults!?

People let kids watch this?!

The show that predicted the future! con't

The show that predicted the future!

The show that predicted the future!