Idiot adults and townspeople in cartoons

Kunmui

New member
Anyone notice this thrend in cartoons today, the "surrounded by idiots" setting. And in most cases, it is a show where kids are the central characters, and the only sane people on the show, and all of the adults are idiots, and sometimes the other kids are idiots. Here are example:

South Park - the show that might have started this treand. all of the adults are idiots, and sometimes even the other kids besides Stan and / or Kyle. The exception was Chef when he was on the show.

The Simpsons - not in the early seasons, but for a while, the town of Springfield except for Lisa and / or Marge are just morons.

Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy - except for Mandy and Grim, and the villains, who sometimes are idiots themselfs, there is no intellegent life anywhere except for maybe characters like Nigel Planter or Junior. Everyone is either stupid of essentric.

Fairly Odd Parents - Timmy, Wanda, and some of the villains are the smart ones. Though the villains are crafty at what they do, when it is not involve tricking Timmy, they don't show any intellegence. How often are Timmy's parents going to buy Timmy's I got this stuff off the internet story.

Feel free to add more shows, I am not really complaining, just stating a fact.
 
Well my point is to discuess idiot casts of characters, not one particular character, shows when the normal level headed, some what intellegent characters are in the minority. Surrounded by idiots world.
 
.....What about him? This thread is about shows where only a couple main characters are smart and the rest of the world seems to be completely stupid. Quagmire doesn't fit into that subject in any way I can think of.
 
Quagmire isn't even one of the stupidest characters on Family Guy, anyway. Peter, maybe, but Quagmire's not really any stupider than the others, he's just got a bigger libido.
 
I haven't seen that many episodes, but most of the extras and bit players on Invader Zim, apart from bordering on generally bizarre, seem abnormally stupid.
 
Well the adults and most of the kids in Jimmy Nuetron either stupid, selfish, or just insane and I think this kind of scenerio maybe got annoying and tiring.
 
I know a few on some of my favorite shows:

South Park - Most of the adults are morons especially the Mayor and some of the other kids like Butters & Pip are idiots while Stan,Kyle,Kenny,& Chef are the smart ones.

Fairly Oddparents - The adults like Cosmo,Timmy's parents, & the townspeople are idiots while Timmy,Vicky,Denzel,Wanda, & Timmy's friends are the smart ones.

Family Guy - Peter,Mayor Adam West, & the townspeople are hilarious idiots while the others are smart like Joe,Brian,Cleveland,Quagmire,Lois.etc and Chris is the only kid who's an idiot, but smart in some episodes like when he told about Robot Chicken in the Star Wars special.

Jimmy Neutron - Jimmy's dad & the townspeople are wacky doofuses and some of the other kids like Carl,Sheen and Bolbi(weird foreign exchange student) are idiots.

Danny Phantom - Danny's dad & the townspeople are funny idiots while Tucker Foley is the only kid who's a comedic idiot while others are smart like Danny,Jazz,Sam,& Maddie.

Home Movies - The only idiot adults I know are Coach Mc.Guirk & Mr.Lynch who's an idiot sometimes and the only kid that's an idiot is Jason but can be smart/funny as well.
 
Since when is Melissa's dad an idiot? Sure he's got kind of a corny sense of humor, but being funny (or not funny, depending on your point of view) doesn't equate being stupid. He's definitely got more on the ball mentally than McGuirk or Lynch.

Also, Kyle's cousin Kyle and Walter and Perry on Home Movies? Idiots? Come on, you're reaching here. They may be kind of annoying and/or stereotypical, but they're not flat-out stupid. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you seem to just be labeling every character that you don't like an idiot. There's a difference between being stupid and being annoying.
 
Wayside - everyone's logic is weird, and the people are crazy and make no sense except for Todd. I don't know if I would call them idiots but just weird or crazy, except for the principal, he is obviously an idiot.

Edgar and Ellen - except for Edgar and Ellen themselfs and sometimes Stephanie, it seems the towns people are a bunch of idiots. Ironically that works against the main characters, because most of the time when Edgar and Ellen don't succeed in their pranks, it is because the towns people are too stupid to realize they are being pranked.

I sort disagree about Crocker, when it comes to hunting fairies, and tricking Timmy on occasions he can be smart and crafty (like when he built the anti mind reading helmet or the Big Wish movie), sometimes he can an idiot (just ask Norm) when hunting fairies but quite often he proves a very intellengent and crafty foe for Timmy, but when he is not hunting fairies, he is crazy and stupid.
 
South Park will always be my number one favorite example of this. It's symbolic of how stupid people are these days, and how they're the ones who are in charge of the big companies, government, and even just simple parenthood. And that makes me feel better when I hear things about bills to give money to sick poor kids being turned down, or a motion to ban all forms of physical touch from public schools.

And this is important because it's something we all have to be consciously conscious of. Why? Watch a stand up comic talk about current events infront of an audience. When the comedian talk about what's wrong with politics or society, and what should be done, they're always right on the money. The audience cheers and agrees completely. So where are all the stupid people that are ruining America and the world?? They must be SOMEWHERE, logic would indicate.

Another example I thought of was Dexter's lab. Dexter's parents only saw what they could see on their level of understanding and knowledge as adults and as parents. So they were completely stupid to anything involving a giant science lab that their son built.
 
I'm surprised no one said Invader Zim. Which is in the same way much like Edgar and Ellen (ok the other way around actually) in how everyone is too stupid to realize Zim is up to something besides Dib and Gaz (Though Gaz could care less) Even the smart people of the Zim world like Dib's father are too ignorant to realize that Zim is an alien. Something that is quite obvious.
 
I'm surprised noone has mentioned The City of Townsville from the Powerpuff Girls yet. Ms. Bellum, the girls and the professor seem to be the only sane ones.
 
Well, I can't say Stupid, but Nobita's mother in Doraemon is all over the map. She's very shrill, she loves to yell, and she is kinda vain and stupid some times. And Nobita's father always comes home drunk,.... come to think of it, I guess that's one of the reasons why they never brought it over here.

And Kirby Right Back At Ya (Hoshii no Kirby) the townsfolk are quite often duped into things that Fumuu usually sees as a scam a mile away. It's hard to tell who's stupider often, King Dedede ot the towns folk.
 
No they're just weird not idiots. The principal is not an idiot either. The only person on Wayside that is an idiot is Myron.



I think they're just too nice and gullible.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the biggest idiots but I'll wait until later to make a post about them.
 
Well I never said they were. I said they were essentric and weird. Maybe we differ on the principal, but he is at least, weirder than everybody else, and everyone thinks he is weird.
 
Beavis and Butt-Head/ Daria had their share of idiots:

Kevin
Brittany
Jake Morgendorffer
Tiffany Blum-Decker
Beavis and Butt-Head
The students of Highland High (Except Daria.)
 
"The Fairly Oddparents"...I think they made light of it in "Channel Chasers" (I'm not entirely sure; I have no desire to watch it again to check) without really adding a joke to it.

And to the person who mentioned "Daria", talk about reaching. Kevin and Brittany, yeah, but a lot of the other characters don't really fit the 'idiot' mold. Jake? High-strung and stuffed to the gills with father issues, yes, but =/= idiotic.
 
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