9 Times Nickelodeon Cartoons Caused Questionable Controversies
People love a controversy, and can find it in pretty much anything, including innocent-seeming cartoons.
There's one episode where Mr. Krabs and Spongebob pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to increase the demand for a swimming pool, and Fox News host Gretchen Carlson claimed the show was talking a lot about global warming, but only looking at it from a negative point of view.
When Steve Burns left Blue's Clues after 5 years, plenty of people thought he was fired because he had been busted for heroin possession. That's not the case. He left the show by his own choice but was then forced to live with the rumors, and even one rumor that he had died.
Rugrats comics were popular for a while, and when this one came out people were offended that they would belittle such an important prayer. There were also complaints that Grandpa Boris looked too much like a stereotype Nazi-era depiction of Jewish men.
Rocko's Modern Life had its fair share of adult humor, but one episode went too far. Bev Bighead said she needed "a little attention from a man once in a while" and then began to seduce Rocko. The episode was pulled from the lineup.Â
Invader Zim was always a dark show, and criticism of it wasn't helped when Scott Dyleski, a well known teenage murderer, once joked about body parts after watching the episode "Dark Harvest."
Ren & Stimpy is another show that never shied away from being crass, but when Ren was shown beating his owner with an oar, it went too far. The episode was pulled and didn't show back up for a 10 years.
The Ukranian National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality claimed in 2012 that everyone's favorite sponge both promoted homosexuality and was part of a "large-scale experiment" that was meant to transform the nation's kids into "criminals and perverts."
When Nick introduced a line of pre-teen Dora the Explorer dolls, plenty of people claimed that the dolls overly sexualized the popular children's character.
When Spongebob was fired by Mr. Krabs to save one nickel he starts living as a beggar for a bit before saying to Patrick "Unemployment may be fun for you, but I need to get a job.†That remark got a lot of people riled up, but Nick has never issued a statement on the controversy.