Ruin Your Childhood With These Adult Jokes Hidden In Kids’ Cartoons

Ashley - June 11, 2023

Photo: tinytoons.wikia.com

Screenwriters understand parents will be forced to watch their cartoons a million times. While the primary purpose of cartoons is to entertain and teach children essential life lessons, these sympathetic screenwriters also try to throw the parents a bone here and there. Without making it too obvious, writers manage to weave the dirtiest jokes into children’s cartoons that are definitely not appropriate for the little ones watching. Thankfully, kids don’t notice these adult jokes, but the parents will undoubtedly get a kick out of them while they’re stuck watching Rugrats for the millionth time! Get ready to ruin your childhood because we have an extensive list of all the wildest and NSFW adult jokes hidden in kid’s cartoons.

Rugrats – Grandpa’s Dirty Movies

Since we already mentioned Rugrats, let’s start with one of the most well-known dirty jokes ever placed in a children’s cartoon. There are a lot of hidden adult jokes in this adorable television show, but this has to be one of the most audacious. When renting the kids some Reptar movies, Grandpa couldn’t resist getting himself a special film to watch after the babies go to sleep. When it came time to show the kids the movies he’d gotten them, he had to let them know that “Lonely Space Vixens” wasn’t for them. Space vixens, Grandpa? Parents definitely got a laugh out of this while watching this episode.

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Justice League Unlimited – Awkward Love Life

Many kids love the DC Comics superhero The Flash. He’s the fastest man alive, and according to this cartoon, that applies to all aspects of his life. There’s no way the kids watching this episode understood this reference, but any adult watching instantly understands what the writers were trying to say. Poor Flash! He just wants to help people, and instead, he gets called out like this by Hawkgirl! Young audiences would miss this subtle joke, but it’s glaringly apparent to us what the hidden meaning is here.

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Freakazoid! – LGBTQIA+ Approved!

Our society has made some amazing strides toward becoming more inclusive and accepting of everyone. Sometimes, this isn’t shown obviously in children’s shows, but every once in a while, you’ll find a gem like this that makes you question what the writers’ true intentions were. While being questioned about why he never found a wife, this cop replies that it’s because “I like meat too much.” Now, he’s in the middle of eating a sandwich, so young audiences probably assume that he’s just talking about his love of food. The rest of us, however, are wondering what kind of meat he’s talking about!

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The Powerpuff Girls – The Accident

This sweet, action-packed television show filled an entire generation with the thrill and confidence of girl power. It’s well-known that the professor accidentally created The Powerpuff Girls during a laboratory experiment gone wrong. This plot gave the writers the perfect opportunity to slip in an adult joke. The girl in this screenshot reassures the professor that she was also an accident. The look on the professor’s face says it all! There’s no way he needed to know that information, and it’s actually kind of sad that the girl knew that. Did her parents tell her that in the heat of the moment one day? Let’s move on before we think too deeply about this clip.

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Johnny Bravo – NSFW

Most kids have fond memories of beating up a pinata during a birthday party. There’s something exhilarating about swinging a bat around blindly with the hope of getting a nice treat afterward. Adults tend to use blindfolds for very different NSFW reasons, which the lady in this episode of Johnny Bravo referenced boldly. Who thought it was a good idea to let this scene go to air? Most kids probably wouldn’t have any idea what she was talking about, but the adults definitely knew!

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The Fairly OddParents – Poor Timmy

Poor Timmy was always getting trashed on The Fairly OddParents. Between his evil babysitter Vicky and his frequently absent and neglectful parents, it was no wonder Timmy needed a couple of fairy godparents to help him through life. During one conversation, his father admitted that his hopes and dreams were shattered many years ago. When Timmy asked when, his father responded, “How old are you?” Ouch, that’s harsh! While many parents feel their lives were forced down a different path when they had children, most are tactful enough to never say this to their children’s faces!

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SpongeBob SquarePants – Patrick’s A Genius!

SpongeBob is one of the most iconic and influential children’s shows to have come out in the last few decades. This show is filled with ambiguous humor, audacious situations, and plots that both adults and children enjoy following. This show is filled with hidden innuendos and double-sided jokes, but this has to be one of the more obvious examples. SpongeBob tells Patrick that his genius is showing, but poor Patrick completely misunderstands. He thinks SpongeBob is saying he’s indecent and immediately attempts to cover up. Kids will get a laugh out of Patrick’s odd misunderstanding, but adults will chuckle at the deeper meaning.

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The Three Little Pigs – An Odd Memorial

Everyone knows the story of the Three Little Pigs! Three pig brothers build houses made of different materials, and the big bad wolf comes along to blow those houses down- except for the house made of bricks. This adorable cartoon is full of silly shenanigans, but there are also some dark references that children probably never noticed. In this scene, we can see a picture of The Three Little Pigs’ father hanging on the wall. Except the picture is a link of sausages! Why would they take a picture of their dead father after he’d been processed into a food product? Pigs are known to eat each other in the wild, but that doesn’t need to be in a kids’ cartoon!

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What’s New, Scooby-Do? – She’s Legal!

Scooby-Do was another massively popular and influential cartoon. It even got its own live-action movie back in 2002! This series stole the hearts of many children, and many adults appreciated the hidden humor and funny situations. In this episode, Velma’s older cousin Marcy is visiting from out of town. While visiting, she begins flirting with Fred and mentions that she’s recently 18. Of course, this means she’s now legally allowed to… vote. We all know what she was truly implying, and Daphene seems particularly irritated with Marcy’s flirting.

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The Powerpuff Girls – Fragile Masculinity

The themes of girl power and overcoming adversity were the foundations of The Powerpuff Girls. An entire generation raised on this series learned how to be confident in themselves and how to stand up for what’s right thanks to this show. The show usually creates fantastical situations to teach these life lessons, but on occasion, the writers really laid it out straight for the audience. Blossom laid down some brutal honesty in this episode when she said, “Whenever their masculinity is threatened, they shrink in size…” Surely, every adult reading this is chuckling internally.

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The Fairly OddParents – Timmy’s Not Depressed

This show is riddled with hidden meanings and jokes that will make any adult crack up. Timmy’s parents are watching a show about how to tell if your teenager is depressed. The show mentions that the child will say they’re busy a lot and take a roll of tissues to their room while asking to be left alone. As Timmy does these things, his parents lament that they’re bad parents, but there’s a pretty clear secondary possibility here. Either Timmy is depressed and using those tissues to catch his tears or he’s using them to catch something else! Is your childhood ruined yet?

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Beauty And The Beast – Cynical, Much?

One of the best aspects of childhood is the feeling of being unburdened. Children haven’t yet experienced a lifetime of disappointments that burdens the rest of us with the type of cynicisms seen by the clock man in this photo. When the Beast professes his love for Beauty and asks for advice about what to do, the clock man suggests the usual things. This includes, “Flowers, chocolates, promises you don’t intend to keep.” Yikes! Who hurt you clock man? We can only imagine the awkward silence between parents while their children watch this cartoon!

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Shrek – Overcompensating?

Adult humor isn’t too different from most kids’ sense of humor. We all joke about bodily functions, although adults tend to joke about very different parts of the body than children do. During this scene in Shrek the ogre and his sidekick, Doney, are approaching Lord Farquaad’s castle. When they see the massive castle in front of them, Shrek jokes that perhaps the man is overcompensating for something. This probably blew right over the heads of younger audiences, but those old enough to understand definitely got a kick out of this joke.

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Tiny Toon Adventures – Playduck Magazine

Adults can’t help themselves from throwing references to things children wouldn’t understand in these cartoons. It’s a great way to give the parents something to laugh at while they’re stuck watching the same cartoon over and over again. In this episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, Daffy Duck is seen readying “Playduck Magazine” while Bugs Bunny sits next to him with his arms crossed and an unimpressed look on his face. We’d be pretty irritated, too, if one of our friends brought a magazine like this to read in public!

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Animaniacs – Breaking The Fourth Wall

There was a time when it was considered the height of bad storytelling to break the fourth wall, but nearly every series that’s come out in the last few decades has pulled this trick a time or two. The Animaniacs was a long-running cartoon in the 90s that followed the Warner siblings. Most people loved this cartoon for the hilarious and unreal situations it put the characters into, but there were also moments like these that made it stand out. A character asks the Warner siblings to give her the bird, which is another way of asking them to give her the finger. One of the siblings replies, “We can’t. This is a family show.” The fourth wall gets broken, and we get a subtle adult joke.

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Zootopia – We All Know What Bunnies Do

Zootopia is an adorable children’s movie about an animated bunny who’s trying to crack her first case as a police officer. Of course, she ends up working with a hilarious scam artist, and the two have multiple witty conversations that truly make this movie a masterpiece. One of these conversations involves the officer making a sly reference to something we all know bunnies do. She says, “I mean, I am just a dumb bunny. But we are good at multiplying!” The look on the fox’s face says it all!

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Rocko’s Modern Life – A Classic

Who remembers this joke from their childhood? It seems like this is one of those hilarious play on words that every child remembers hearing at some point. Despite it being a staple of our childhood memories, we don’t remember seeing this on a cartoon! But this screenshot from an episode of Rocko’s Modern Life proves the joke must have gotten so popular that it made it onto a kids’ cartoon. While going to a doctor’s office, one particular doctor’s name stood out. It’s Dr. Bendova, everyone!

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Batman – This Is Pretty Forward

We definitely don’t remember catching the true meaning of this joke when we were kids! The animated Batman series somehow managed to get away with some super sketchy stuff, and this is one of the most obvious examples. While out on a date, this man tells his girlfriend that he’s getting bored of the mall and suggests going for a ride. When she complains that he seems to like his car more than her, he response, “Who’s talking about cars?” His smirk really makes it clear what he’s referring to here, and we’re honestly shocked someone thought it was a good idea to put this in a kids’ cartoon!

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Teen Titans – An Anatomy Debate

Here’s another example of a children’s cartoon based on the legendary DC Comics characters. DC Comics has had a huge influence on children’s television and even more recently, put out a line of epic series on the CW. This episode of Teen Titans appears innocent enough. The characters are inspecting action figures of themselves. One says the action figure got every detail just right, but the other character says, “Speak for yourself.” He’s clearly implying something below the waist that he inspected when he pulled the action figure’s clothes away. Hilarious, but now we’re wondering about the alien’s anatomy. Definitely not appropriate for a kids’ show!

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Animaniacs – Scandalous!

The Animaniacs really pushed boundaries back in their day! This show was known for being hilarious and having a strange species of characters that most people assumed were half-cat and half-dog, although official statements say they aren’t supposed to resemble any known creatures. During this audacious scene, one of the Warner siblings has found the pop star Prince when her sibling requested she dust their piano to look for prints. The sibling tries to explain further and says, “No, finger prints!” Of course, she took this the wrong way and simply responds, “I don’t think so.” How did this make it onto TV?

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Ratatouille – Getting Too Familiar With Veggies

Adults are known to do some strange things with vegetables, but that’s not something that young children should be aware of. During this scene from the hit children’s movie Ratatouille we get a startling adult reference that hopefully most children will just assume are the characters being silly. The chef is caught hanging out in the cooler by himself, and another chef comes in and chastises him. He tells the lonely chef, “One can get too familiar with vegetables, you know?” We definitely know that this happens, but we’re shocked it was brought up in a kids’ movie.

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Hey Arnold – Not Since Woodstock

Hey Arnold was one of those shows that everyone remembers. This show was filled with hilarious moments, but it was also one of the darker cartoons of its time and dealt with a lot of serious situations like death and bullying. Apparently, it also has at least one drug reference! While trying to comfort his grandfather, Arnold reassures him that he still has plenty of brain cells left. The grandfather gets a faraway look in his eyes and replies, “No… not since Woodstock.” Well, at least the writers weren’t trying to glorify drugs!

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Animaniacs – It’s A Children’s Show!

Animaniacs pops up on this list a lot. It’s one of those cartoons that was far more obvious about its adult jokes and references. One of the things Animaniacs did differently than most other cartoons of its time was breaking the fourth wall. This is a phrase that refers to when a show makes a reference to itself not being real, and it often happens when these types of NSFW jokes come up on this show. During this scene, Noah is deciding whether or not to let a couples of different species onto his boat. Here come two bunnies that swear they have no relation to each other. Noah’s response was, “Let’s hope not, it’s a children’s show.” Young kids probably had no idea what this joke was about, but we’re sure the adults watching started cracking up!

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Ed, Edd n Eddy – Look Closely For This One

Some of the adult jokes we’ve seen in these cartoons are right in your face, but others are far more subtle. You actually have to look pretty closely to see what we’re referring to in this scene from an episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. If you look around the bathroom, you’ll notice Edd has a bunch of sticky notes reminding him to do things. The note on the toilet says, “flush,” and one of the notes on the wall says, “walk, don’t run.” Both are normal notes, but if you look again, you’ll see another sticky note that reads, “don’t touch yourself.” The writers really worked to throw this joke into the episode. We wonder how many people noticed it when it first aired!

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Rugrats – “Male Bonding”

Rugrats will forever go down in history as one of the most influential children’ shows of all time. Series, this show had so much intensity packed into super short episodes, and it didn’t shy away from dealing with series topics. Of course, this show is also known for hilarious adult jokes like the long-runn Dr. Lipshitz, but this is a joke some people may not remember. While talking about their friend’s activities for the weekend, Stew mentions that Howard is off with his “male bonding” group. While that may seem perfectly innocent, Stew’s hand gesture shows the audience exactly what he thinks this group is really up to!

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Rugrats – Baby Drama

Rugrats is a show all about babies and toddlers, so of course, we’re going to see storylines that deal with the problems these little ones encounter. During this scene, a newborn baby is talking to a baby that’s a few days older than him. The newborn complains that they cut his cord, but the older baby lifts up his diaper and says, “Consider yourself lucky.” Kids would have no idea what the older baby is talking about, but all parents know he’s probably referring to circumcision. That’s one of those brilliant jokes that are obvious to the adults but completely nonsensical to the kids.

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Dexter’s Laboratory – Dance For Me, Candi

In this episode of Dexter’s Laboratory, we see Dexter fire his little sister and replace her with Candi. Candi is an attractive woman and doesn’t seem quite qualified for the job. When Dexter asks her to dance for him as part of the hiring process, she says, “Okay, but it’s 50 bucks extra.” This short conversation, in combination with Candi’s unusual name, gives the audience the impression that she usually works as an exotic dancer or adult entertainer. The kids watching this episode probably shrugged and chuckled, but the adults definitely understood this reference!

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Toy Story – The Hooker Doll

So many people loved the Toy Story movie series, and it became one of the most popular children’s movies of the early and mid-2000s. While these movies mostly stayed on the straight and narrow, there were a few moments that gave the adults in the audience a good laugh. One example is this literal hooker doll! The doll has a hook for a head and long legs with black high heels. We all know what this is referencing, but kids likely didn’t put two-and-two together until they rewatched this movie later in their lives.

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Johnny Bravo – Did She Say Virgin?

Throughout history, virgins have been used as sacrifices to ancient Gods and other dieties. The purity of being a virgin made people better sacrifices for these cosmic beings, and it’s not a topic that you would expect a children’s cartoon to touch on. However, in this episode of Johnny Bravo, he is in the middle of being offered as a sacrifice due to being a virgin. He immediately had to protect his iconic masculine energy and makes it clear that he is not, in fact, a virgin.

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Doug – The Birds And The Bees

Doug wasn’t nearly as popular as some of the other shows on this list, but it had a solid following, and many of us rewatch it on occasion for a little childhood nostalgia. In this episode, the family’s cat (named Stinky), had a litter of kittens. The kittens shocked most of the characters, especially Roger, who thought Stinky was a boy. His mother steps in at this point and says they’re due for a very important talk. It sounds like Roger’s about to learn about the birds and the bees, although this conversation definitely takes place off-screen.

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Rocko’s Modern Life – A Different Hotline Than Expected

Rocko was always getting himself into interesting situations, and his search for a job led him to work for a different hotline than we would expect to see in a children’s show. It’s shocking how obvious the writers and showrunners depicted Rocko’s new career as a sex line operator. The sign on the wall is particularly notable. It says, “Remember. Be hot. Be naught. Be courteous.” This definitely wasn’t appropriate for a children’s show!

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SpongeBob SquarePants – Adult Movie

We already mentioned SpongeBob SquarePants, but this scene is pretty well-known. Even as kids, we knew there was something weird going on in this scene. SpongeBob is just hanging out at home, minding his own business, and watching something on tv, when Gary comes into the room. SpongeBob immediately changes the channel and has a guilty look on his face as he tries to reassure Gary that he’d been watching sports the whole time. It’s pretty clear he was watching an adult movie of some sort, which is super weird to think about for SpongeBob’s character!

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Dexter’s Laboratory – Your Group Is A Bunch Of…

How kid’s cartoons like Dexter’s Laboratory got away with scenes like this, we’ll never know! During this scene, Dexter’s sister angrily states that Dexter’s club is for big I-D-K-S-Cs! Kids probably mulled over this acronym for a while to try to determine exactly what she was trying to say, but it’s obvious to the rest of us that all you need to do is rearrange the letters slightly to get what she was trying to say. Dexter says he’s going to tell their mom, and we bet that any moms watching this episode probably laughed at the ingenuity of this scene. It’s a great way to insert an adult joke while keeping the scene PG!

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Cow And Chicken – It’d Be An Honor To Squirt For You

Cow and Chicken was one of those shows that grew on you over time. It’s full of eccentric humor and grotesque jokes that are too mature for most kids but still has plenty of funny elements that can hold a younger audience’s attention. During this scene, Cow is looking for a job to pay for some toys he wants. He runs into Dr. Junk, the professor of milk, and becomes very excited. He exclaims, “Oh, it would be an honor to squirt for you!” What a scandalous choice of words from the scriptwriters!

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Courage The Cowardly Dog – Naughty Men’s Clubs

This is our first adult joke from Courage the Cowardly Dog, but it deserves a special place on this list. It’s hilarious, audacious, and just subtle enough for kids not to notice what it really means. During this episode, Muriel gets taken. She’s strung up with shackles attached to the ceiling, and instead of panicking, she seems pretty calm. Her only response at first is, “This is one of those naughty men’s clubs, isn’t it?” Does Muriel have experience with naughty men’s clubs? We didn’t need to know that about this character!

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Rocko’s Modern Life – That’s Gotta Hurt!

It seems like there are a ton of hilarious adult jokes strewn throughout episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life. This scene starts out innocently enough. Rocko goes to pick some berries from a bush. He was probably hoping for a delicious, tasty treat, but got the shock of his life instead! While reaching for a berry, a purple monster jumps out of the bush and runs off while clutching his groin in pain. We can all deduce what Rocko was really grabbing in this scene!

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Rugrats – Born Under Venus, Look For A…

We know we’ve already shown you a few scenes from Rugrats, but this show is filled with hilarious adult jokes that deserve to be included. During this scene, Tommy’s mother is talking to her friends about her current pregnancy. She says that the iconic Dr. Lipshitz says she’s having a girl. Angelica’s mother quips, “Well, you know what they say. Born under Venus, look for a-,” she gets interrupted by a work call, but we all know how that sentence was going to end. All the kids watching probably just thought it was a silly adult joke without discerning the true meaning, but the adults definitely got a laugh out of this one.

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Ratatouille – I Have This Tiny…

There are so many things to love about the movie Ratatouille. Not only is it hilarious, but it’s filled with moments of humor like this one that make it just as enjoyable for adult audiences as children. During this scene, the chef is trying to come clean about his little rat friend who’s been helping him out in the kitchen. However, he’s pretty awkward around Colette and starts stuttering over his words. He says, “I have this tiny… uh, little-,” and Colette instantly casts her gaze below his waist. Clearly, she thinks he’s trying to tell her about something completely different! Rewatching this scene is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.

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Ice Age – Size Matters

Many people are familiar with the phrase, “It’s not the size of the boat, but the motion of the ocean.” That’s helped a lot of men overcome insecurity about certain aspects of their physique, but apparently, the wooly mammoth in this scene doesn’t agree with the phrase. While arguing with this other creature, the wooly mammoth says, “If my trunk was that small, I wouldn’t draw attention to myself.” That’s kind of rude, but at least the kids watching wouldn’t understand what he was really talking about!

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Cinderella – Beads For A Necklace, Or…?

We’re going to give you one of the most subtly vulgar jokes we’ve found in children’s cartoons to wrap up this list. During this scene in Cinderella, her mice friends diligently try to gather up all the beads that broke off her necklace. Of course, we know that’s what’s actually happening in this scene, but this image makes it appear as though something very different is happening here. Thankfully, there’s no way kids would see this scene as anything other than innocent, but the adults watching probably gasped under their breaths when they saw this! Did we ruin your childhood with this last one?

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