Board 8 > The 100 Dumbest Events In Children's Television History

(+) Yeah! (+)

Don't forget skipping Little Garden. Kids love dinosaurs, so why would they even do that??? The only theory I've heard that kinda makes sense is they wanted to get to Chopper faster

I remember that day of play thing only because I remember hearing people mocking it

hombad46 posted...

Don't forget skipping Little Garden. Kids love dinosaurs, so why would they even do that??? The only theory I've heard that kinda makes sense is they wanted to get to Chopper faster

I didn't even know/remember that one. I swear there is always another terrible decision with that show.

You can tell they had no idea what the show was. They just bought the rights in a bundle of anime rights and went, 'huh this one looks fun'.

#71: Corporal Capeman

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/4/AAAG8cAAEn_W.jpg
Holder of the title of World's Worst Superhero before Florida Man took the crown.

Not to be confused with Captain Caveman, an actually decent cartoon character, Corporal Capeman was a self-styled superhero who showed up in the (mercifully short) second season of Inspector Gadget. Calling himself Gadget's assistant, he immediately set about attempting to help the inspector solve crimes, despite the fact that neither Gadget nor any of his friends wanted or needed his help. He bumbles even more than Gadget, and he acts like a complete jerk to Brain for no apparent reason (other than the fact that Brain doesn't seem to like him, but can you honestly blame him?), and fans immediately loathed this guy, no matter how much the writers and producers tried to foist him on us. He honestly might be the most unnecessary character in animation history. He's redundant as comic relief because you have Inspector Gadget (and Brain a little bit) for that. He's redundant as someone trying to help Gadget out because you have the infinitely more competent Penny (and I say that despite her getting captured half the time) helping him out. He's the definition of uncalled for: nobody asked for him, nobody wanted him. Inspector Gadget was already in trouble before Capeman came in for a landing, but this guy was definitely the nail in the coffin, and the show ended shortly after he debuted.

I've Got Batman in My Basement isn't even the worst episode of BTAS, we'll see if the actual worst one comes up later.

Speaking of dumb Nickelodeon programming gimmicks, I cannot wait for Nick Studio 10 to appear here, that could honestly be number one.

Just recently watched I've Got Batman in My Basement and I gotta say it certainly is not good. Wasn't good then, isn't good now.

#70: Big Bad Beetleborgs

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/1/AAAG8cAAEoAF.jpg
It's like Jay Leno had sex with Smurfette. The only reason I know that they didn't is because that would've made the list too.

In 1996, Haim Saban was riding high off the success of Power Rangers, and even though VR Troopers AND Masked Rider had failed, he was gonna try again, dammit! And so, once again, he spliced a bunch of Japanese sentai footage together with new American filmed footage and we got... Big Bad Beetleborgs, in which three comic book obsessed kids go to a haunted mansion and get beetle themed superpowers from a bunch of monsters and some blue guy named Flabber. Flabber is the source of much of the show's comic relief and, as mentioned before, he looks like a blue Jay Leno. The action itself was typical Power Rangers-style fare but without the cool music and with generic looking vehicles rather than cool robots. The villains were totally forgettable, save for maybe one guy in season two (which was called Beetleborgs Metallix and the theme song was basically the original show's theme song but with "Big Bad Beetleborgs" replaced with "Beetleborgs Metallix") who looked like what Beetlejuice might've looked like before he died. The thing about Big Bad Beetleborgs is that it's probably the wackiest of the post-Power Rangers sentai footage ideas to date, and yet it ended up being one of the most successful... which, again, we're sort of grading on a curve because Masked Rider and VR Troopers both bombed. Regardless of this show's middling level of success, there's no way this concept could've been made by someone who wasn't under the influence of some kind of drugs. The mansion/Flabber scenes were exceptionally cringeworthy, and apart from the show's annoying theme song and Flabber, there's nothing memorable here to speak of. Big Bad Beetleborgs represents the post-Power Rangers sentai adaptation era at its absolute dumbest, and proved that Power Rangers truly did catch lightning in a bottle.

this write-up has forced the vr troopers theme back into my head, dammit

I remember liking Beetleborgs a lot as a kid. I always thought it was well received and stopped getting material because they ran out of sentai footage to use or something.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

this write-up has forced the vr troopers theme back into my head, dammit

yeah, same

Nah Beetleborgs was great! Watched the hell outta that as a kid. The toys were some of my favorites too!

I have no doubt that it was actually terrible, however, and if I watched it today I'd be embarrassed but I have no problem living in nostalgia with this one.

Maniac64 posted...

A plot important whale being turned into an iceberg.

I started reading One Piece last year and I had to look this up, it's so funny lol. I vaguely recall watching some on the 4Kids One Piece way back in the day, but I had no idea it was that bad to the source material in so many ways.

#69: Katy Perry On Sesame Street

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/4/5/AAAG8cAAEoAd.jpg
This episode of Sesame Street is brought to you by the letters "Ohhhhh" and "myyyyyy".

Katy Perry was a rising star in 2010 when she was invited to perform a fun sketch with Elmo on Sesame Street based on her hit song "Hot and Cold". In it, Elmo would play hide and seek, and she would track him down, singing whether she was "hot" or "cold" depending on where Elmo was. The sketch itself was fine, not risque at all, albeit a tad on the cringey side depending on how much one likes Elmo. However, once the sketch was uploaded to Youtube, it immediately received backlash due to Perry showing way more cleavage than is typically seen on Sesame Street. Though she wasn't showing all that much (and even the parts of her chest that were bare were covered by a mesh), people still got upset, to the point where the sketch had to be pulled from an upcoming episode, and eventually even taken down from Youtube until the heat died down. And... yeah, as fun as the sketch was and as pretty as Katy Perry is, it's a bit bizarre that Sesame Street didn't go with a more conservative outfit. Indeed, even the producers of the sketch said that they would've covered her up a bit more if they knew how bad things were going to get. Still, the backlash far exceeded what was really warranted. and it came off an incident where the only one who really looked good in the end was Katy Perry. She had a lot of fun on the show, and ended up spoofing the incident several times in subsequent weeks, including a memorable Saturday Night Live segment in which she shows off a lot more skin. She took it in stride, while everyone else was left looking as silly as the sketch itself was. Even the Sesame Street characters themselves poked fun at the incident, with Elmo expressing later on that he wanted to have another "playdate" with Katy Perry, and Grover asking George Stephanopoulos if his own Super Grover outfit was too revealing.

I barely even know or remember what Beetleborgs was, I'm not sure if I even watched it myself, but I do remember being aware of its existence and perceiving it (at the time) as being popular. So it most likely was a case of the target demographic being too young to understand that it was bad, and therefore actually liking it.

Maniac64 posted...

I wonder if 4kids One Piece gets in here. So much crazy poorly thought our censorship. Zoro being changed to Zolo. People being scared of cork guns and rubber hammers. A plot important whale being turned into an iceberg. A dead mom being "put in the dungeon" instead, and then presumably left there after the villains are defeated because the crew stay around for days afterwards and nobody mentions her, including her daughters.

Oh the show seemingly ending with the strawhat crew being killed by falling wreckage.

I dunno, I've always found the criticism of this dub to be slightly overboard. Like when you compare it to some previous dubs like Card Captor Sakura and Yu-Gi-Oh I absolutely feel like One Piece stayed truer to its source material, and that many of those changes had pretty decent reasoning behind them:

-Zoro/Zolo was a legal issue.
-Cork guns and rubber hammers are tonally consistent with Usopp's weapons, and if you straight up aren't allowed to show realistic guns I'm not sure what the other option is (YGO edited them out completely, for instance, so you had people threatening each other with their pointer fingers...)
-Nobody knew Laboon was important at the time (but this one was still a big error and shows why you shouldn't make cuts without really thinking them through)
-They 100% implied Bellemere died or was executed in the dungeon.

IMO the bigger issue here was the theme song that was off-putting to begin with and then got progressively worse each time a new crewmate joined.

but i'm also a big bad beetleborgs apologist so maybe my taste is just. bad.

RySenkari posted...

Grover asking George Stephanopoulos if his own Super Grover outfit was too revealing.

This is a good time to point out that the writing on sesame street is amazing

Look up some of the crumby pictures sections such as lord of the crumbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nN9lNJuqG4

I have no idea how they have kept it so good for so long.

I mean even the Katy Perry sketch with Elmo was cute and fun (albeit a bit cringey), but DAMN the response was way overblown and they really should've anticipated that and covered her up, even if her outfit was quite nice :p

RySenkari posted...

#70: Big Bad Beetleborgs

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/1/AAAG8cAAEoAF.jpg
It's like Jay Leno had sex with Smurfette. The only reason I know that they didn't is because that would've made the list too.

In 1996, Haim Saban was riding high off the success of Power Rangers, and even though VR Troopers AND Masked Rider had failed, he was gonna try again, dammit! And so, once again, he spliced a bunch of Japanese sentai footage together with new American filmed footage and we got... Big Bad Beetleborgs, in which three comic book obsessed kids go to a haunted mansion and get beetle themed superpowers from a bunch of monsters and some blue guy named Flabber. Flabber is the source of much of the show's comic relief and, as mentioned before, he looks like a blue Jay Leno. The action itself was typical Power Rangers-style fare but without the cool music and with generic looking vehicles rather than cool robots. The villains were totally forgettable, save for maybe one guy in season two (which was called Beetleborgs Metallix and the theme song was basically the original show's theme song but with "Big Bad Beetleborgs" replaced with "Beetleborgs Metallix") who looked like what Beetlejuice might've looked like before he died. The thing about Big Bad Beetleborgs is that it's probably the wackiest of the post-Power Rangers sentai footage ideas to date, and yet it ended up being one of the most successful... which, again, we're sort of grading on a curve because Masked Rider and VR Troopers both bombed. Regardless of this show's middling level of success, there's no way this concept could've been made by someone who wasn't under the influence of some kind of drugs. The mansion/Flabber scenes were exceptionally cringeworthy, and apart from the show's annoying theme song and Flabber, there's nothing memorable here to speak of. Big Bad Beetleborgs represents the post-Power Rangers sentai adaptation era at its absolute dumbest, and proved that Power Rangers truly did catch lightning in a bottle.

I didn't mind Beetleborgs so much. It's largely forgettable and the recasting of the red beetleborg between seasons threw me off, but it felt like a precursor to FOX/ABC Family style of shows to come like Big Wolf on Campus*. I think the monster stuff was the best part with the Beetleborgs shuffled in to sell toys/the show. It wasn't a great show, and I don't think it should be this high up the list.

*I tried to think of other shows, but somehow unlocked the memory of the Flash Forward theme (the Ben Foster & Jewel Staite show, not the post-Lost copycat**) and it's driven all other thoughts out.

I am also thankful I've got this nostalgic harmonica ditty playing on loop and not "Troopers. Three. Virtual Reality."

**Wow, a write-up about a trend-riding failed show and my brain takes a long roundabout to another trend-riding failed show. Lost & Power Rangers can both claim fame to having some legitimately terrible coattail riders. Invasion, Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, The Event, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, Alcatraz, Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, Revolution.

hombad46 posted...

Don't forget skipping Little Garden. Kids love dinosaurs, so why would they even do that??? The only theory I've heard that kinda makes sense is they wanted to get to Chopper faster

I'm thinking about this more. Rainbase had to make zero sense in that show.

Mr 3's return is his show debut. Nothing he says will make sense. His powers won't be explained. Sanji referencing his previous call with Crocodile will make no sense.

Did they just cut the Rainbase casino as well?

Mega_Mana posted...

Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog

oh this show fuckin slapped too

I mean I haven't watched it since I was a young child but I liked it then!

Big Bad Beetleborgs was literally my favorite show at one point as a kid. It dethroned Animaniacs for me.

There was something about how it combined Power Rangers action with lots of comedy that made it work for me. I wasn't a big fan of PR like everyone else was, so Beetleborgs was how I got my fix.

#68: Plop Plop

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/7/AAAG8cAAEoAz.jpg
The toilet is supposed to represent the show's haters, I think?

Teen Titans GO! is the controversial successor to Cartoon Network's Teen Titans series, and to say it's "controversial" is an understatement... this show is reviled by many, though it's been one of the highest rated shows on the network over the past decade, arguably achieving a level of success the original show never did. There are some genuinely funny moments, and the voice actors seem to be having lots of fun as well, so for all the hate the show gets, the existence of Teen Titans GO! itself isn't nearly dumb enough to make this list. However... there is one especially dumb moment from a 2019 episode called "The Chaff" that absolutely deserves a spot, and some of you might already know what that is. In the episode, Control Freak attempts to get the show canceled by replaying "outtakes" that include Cyborg attempting to park his robot with bad results and the team fighting Brother Blood's giant robot butt. While these scenes are rather inane in and of themselves, they ultimately do end up getting the show canceled, which means that Beast Boy and Cyborg have to come up with an idea to save the show. They do so... by cutting a minute long rap about pooping in the toilet. That's... pretty much it. They rap about pooping. No actual poop is shown, so this doesn't cross over into grossout territory, but for several verses, the two sing repetitive lyrics about pooping. I don't know whether it's supposed to be a jab at their critics or their fans, but the rap gets the show's audience back and gets the show uncanceled, and the episode ends. Even considering the young audience who enjoys the show, this is just insulting. There's dancing plungers and toilet paper rolls, the lyrics are insanely repetitive, and eventually even the other Titans join in. In a show infamous for dumb humor, the fact that this song still manages to stand out is a pretty clear indication of just how bad it is. While "Plop Plop" didn't hurt the show's popularity at all (though it did manage to get the episode pulled in a few countries), it certainly didn't do anything to help Teen Titans GO's reputation for crass humor.

Kenri posted...

oh this show fuckin slapped too

I mean I haven't watched it since I was a young child but I liked it then!

I was just about to say this as well! Had toys of all the knights except the female knight (looking back I have a pretty good idea on why that was the case) and just like the Beetleborgs they were in a constant rotation for playtime lol

My guess is teen titans go is just hated by some teen titans fans because it is a completely different show.

I've seen a bit of it and it seemed amusing enough, but obviously it's just officially produced fluff fanfiction

Everyone watching Totally Spies: This better not awaken anything in me.

(I love the show. Hoping the new season is good.)

Anyway predictions

The Great Gazoo (Flintstones)
Arthur's Big Hit (Arthur)
Mime for a Change (Powerpuff Girls)

If Anime is on this list then...

Ash Shinnoh/Kalos League defeats (Pokemon)

I've got another prediction: Cartoon Network's CN Real programming block.

I always confused Big Bad Beetleborgs and Masked Rider (which was a year earlier) won't be surprised if that shows up on the list.

Going back to the Arnold Magic School Bus thing, wasn't there a thing with that episode that a real life guy came on the TV afterward to explain that wouldn't really happen if you took your helmet off in space? I remember that very distinctly.

Big Bad Beetleborgs was something I enjoyed immensely as a kid. I got to watch it again like 10 years ago and it was awful for almost all of it but as a kid you won't care and I'll be honest I didn't even notice the casting change when I was younger.

VR Troopers>Beetleborgs.

#67: Disney Continues Sonny With A Chance After Demi Lovato Leaves

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/2/AAAG8cAAEoCm.jpg
Apparently, Sonny took the chance with her.

Sonny With A Chance was a Disney Channel sitcom that debuted in 2009. Intended as a vehicle for Camp Rock star Demi Lovato, it starred Lovato as Sonny Munroe, a teenager from Wisconsin who gets her big break when she's given the opportunity to join an All That-style sketch comedy for teenagers called So Random! The show alternated between Sonny's struggles as a fish out of water in Los Angeles and the sketch comedy itself, and even had a few episodes which were just episodes of So Random, showing only the sketches as if the in-universe show existed in our world, a relatively unique concept for a Disney Channel show even if the sketches themselves weren't terribly clever. But behind the scenes, Demi Lovato was struggling with mental health issues (which would later be diagnosed as bipolar syndrome). Rather than delay the upcoming third season of the show, the producers decided instead to spin off So Random! as its own series. Originally intended to be a temporary measure until Lovato's return, it ultimately would be the last season of the show, and while the So Random! segments had never been good (though they had been relatively popular with viewers), without Demi Lovato, they just lacked even the tiny spark that they did in Sunny, as Disney's attempt to move forward and salvage the series as a Disney-fied version of All That fell way, way short, to the point that even diehard Sunny fans began to lament the direction the series had gone. Even bringing in a bunch of guest stars and musical acts just couldn't save the show, and with no sign of Demi Lovato in sight, the plug was ultimately pulled on So Random! by the end of 2012. While keeping the seat warm for their star's return was somewhat laudable, the way the spinoff played out was anything but, and a potential Disney Channel star vehicle that started with a bang ultimately went out with a whimper.

#66: Buffalo Gals

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/3/AAAG8cAAEoC7.jpg
They came out, all right.

Cow And Chicken was one of the original Cartoon Cartoons, and was known for its absurdist humor and its love of sexual innuendo (with more butt shots than pretty much any cartoon ever aired up to that date), but Season 2's "Buffalo Gals" was not only completely over the top, but was positively loaded with offensive stereotypes of lesbians, complete with a group of motorcycle riding women who literally break into people's houses to chew on their carpet. I'm not making this up, they REALLY went there... not only that, but one of the Buffalo Gals was actually flirting with Cow... depicted as a seven-year-old child on the show. In the episode, the Buffalo Gals break into Cow and Chicken's house, and Cow is enamored with them, eventually following them to their hidden campground. Eventually, Chicken has to show up and fight them off to rescue Cow once she becomes disillusioned with them (which, being a seven minute cartoon, happens very quickly, with about 30 seconds of that seven minutes just taken up by a performance of the classic "Buffalo Gals" song). I'm not sure what the writers were thinking that kids would get out of this episode, but needless to say, this one courted controversy from its first (and ultimately only) airing. It was a different time, to be sure, but even back in 1998 this was never going to fly, and you can't even defend this one on comedic grounds: the episode wasn't even funny. Cow And Chicken was always surreal and controversial, and sometimes it was at its best when it was at its most bizarre, but this was just offensive, and it blows my mind that somebody signed off on this.

I remember when my niece's crazy evangelical grandma had a total freak out and forbade my niece from watching Cow and Chicken because she thought Red Guy was literally Satan trying to corrupt her mind. Good times.

But yeah, the Buffalo Gals thing is still legitimately unbelievable. They really aired that on television. Wild.

Watched the first two seasons of Star vs. Evil and kinda felt they were botching the long term world building and character arcs, so I never picked it up again and mostly forgot about it. The introduction of Mina actually played a role in my decision, as that episode was one of the most annoying pieces of television I've willingly sat through. That they ended up turning her into the main antagonist is honestly fucking hilarious, and i love it as an outsider looking in, but man, that had to suck for the fans that stuck around.

Anyway, this is a fun topic.

I have no memory of Buffalo Gals...woooow.

#65: The Voltron: Legendary Defender Shipping Controversy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/4/2/AAAG8cAAEoDi.jpg
Can't we all get along?

The Netflix cartoon Voltron: Legendary Defender came out in 2016, as a revival of the classic Voltron IP. Though largely seen as an excellent action cartoon and a great update of the original material (with the exception of the show's controversial final season), it was no stranger to controversy over the course of its run, perhaps none greater than the shipping debate between the pairings of Shiro/Keith and Keith/Lance, also known as Sheith and Klance amongst the fandom. There had been countless ship wars before, many of which saw flame wars and fandom stupidity, but the Sheith vs. Klance debate took things to a whole new level of toxic fan-dumb behavior, thanks in large part to the role that communities like Tumblr now played in fandom discourse. Over the course of the series, both the Sheith and Klance pairings had hundreds of thousands, if not millions of devotees. Klance proved to be slightly more popular, but Sheith had a large following of its own, and fans didn't know which, if either, would become canon. Ultimately, Klance fans, seeing Sheith as an existential threat, began fusing the language of social justice with their arguments. Instead of saying Sheith was "stupid" and "had no chance of ever happening, so nyah", now they began to argue that Sheith was "incest" due to the two having a "brother-coded" relationship, or "pedophilia", because Keith knew Shiro before Shiro had turned 18. These arguments turned the ship war from a matter of simple preference to a matter of morality, and using these arguments, Klance fans began attacking Sheith fans with vicious threats, doxxing, hate mail, and suicide baiting. When Shiro's voice actor Josh Keaton defended people's right to ship what they want, he was sent death threats, as was Pidge's voice actor Bex Taylor-Klaus. Leaked art of the show was posted online, and the leaker refused to remove it unless Klance was made canon. Ultimately, Shiro hooked up with another guy entirely, and Lance and Keith didn't hook up with anyone, so the whole ship debate was a moot point, but the damage was done. The proship vs. anti discourse that roils online communities to this day, with daily death threats, harassment, and doxxing toward artists, writers, and shippers, is a phenomenon largely confined to the past few years, and the Voltron shipping debate is one of the most likely candidates for Patient Zero. If it's possible to identify a single point where modern fandom became the complete trainwreck it is today, one can point at this show.

Shipping discourse was insane, but also the last couple seasons just weren't very good in general. At least that was an excuse to jump ship as it got crazier and crazier in the Fandom.

Then She-Ra came around and Vlltron was yesterday's news.

RySenkari posted...

#66: Buffalo Gals

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/3/AAAG8cAAEoC7.jpg
They came out, all right.

Cow And Chicken was one of the original Cartoon Cartoons, and was known for its absurdist humor and its love of sexual innuendo (with more butt shots than pretty much any cartoon ever aired up to that date), but Season 2's "Buffalo Gals" was not only completely over the top, but was positively loaded with offensive stereotypes of lesbians, complete with a group of motorcycle riding women who literally break into people's houses to chew on their carpet. I'm not making this up, they REALLY went there... not only that, but one of the Buffalo Gals was actually flirting with Cow... depicted as a seven-year-old child on the show. In the episode, the Buffalo Gals break into Cow and Chicken's house, and Cow is enamored with them, eventually following them to their hidden campground. Eventually, Chicken has to show up and fight them off to rescue Cow once she becomes disillusioned with them (which, being a seven minute cartoon, happens very quickly, with about 30 seconds of that seven minutes just taken up by a performance of the classic "Buffalo Gals" song). I'm not sure what the writers were thinking that kids would get out of this episode, but needless to say, this one courted controversy from its first (and ultimately only) airing. It was a different time, to be sure, but even back in 1998 this was never going to fly, and you can't even defend this one on comedic grounds: the episode wasn't even funny. Cow And Chicken was always surreal and controversial, and sometimes it was at its best when it was at its most bizarre, but this was just offensive, and it blows my mind that somebody signed off on this.

I hated cow and chicken as a kid.

But the moral of this story is dont piss off everyone at once. Cant imagine anyone was ok with their kids watching that

Buffalo Gals flew completely over my head when I watched it I think, I just thought it was a weird episodes. Which, being Cow and Chicken, was pretty normal.

But holy shit shipping wars will never not be stupid.

Did anyone predict Bronies yet? I imagine they have to be here

I disliked Cow and Chicken since it was too weird for me. But I'd still watch it if nothing else was on since there wasn't a whole lot else to do at my grandma's while she babysat us.

RySenkari posted...

If it's possible to identify a single point where modern fandom became the complete trainwreck it is today, one can point at this show.

I'd actually argue is goes way further back than 2016! Not a kid's show but the shipping in Supernatural from what I've heard was wild. I only started watching in like 2019 or something so I didn't have any first hand experience with that. CW shows in particular have had terrible shipping fandoms actually.

My favorite thing about Sonny With A Chance is that it was originally titled "Welcome to Mollywood" and it was about a girl named Molly trying to get into show business. They then changed it to "Welcome to Holliwood", changing the character's name but still making sense. They then changed the character's name to Sonny and, by god, they still wanted the series title to be a silly pun even if it made a lot less sense (maybe the show should have changed to be about her becoming a weather girl...)

MysteriousStan posted...

I'd actually argue is goes way further back than 2016! Not a kid's show but the shipping in Supernatural from what I've heard was wild. I only started watching in like 2019 or something so I didn't have any first hand experience with that. CW shows in particular have had terrible shipping fandoms actually.

Sherlock is part of it but it's just one link on the chain. "Superwholock" was the amalgamation that started the real clusterfuck.

One might try to argue Homestuck had this problem just as early, but there wasn't really, like...ROOM for shipping discourse in that Fandom. Anybody who was on board at the time knows what I'm talking about.

Damn you're right. As a major Who fan I completely tuned that shit out but yeah definitely remember the "Superwholock" unholy shipping trinity now that you brought it up.

They're so intertwined that I even misquoted which one you even brought up in the first place lol.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

One might try to argue Homestuck had this problem just as early, but there wasn't really, like...ROOM for shipping discourse in that Fandom. Anybody who was on board at the time knows what I'm talking about.

Every ship was viable in there so it was just a free for all of shipping. Not just with pairings but what relationship quadrant you will put it in!

Fandom has always been terrible. The internet just let it be more terrible. Stephen King wrote Misery in 1987 about just this and Im sure you can find even earlier examples of the concept cropping up!

Edit: Actually Doctor Who is a perfect example as it was probably a lot worse before the series revival and the internet. There were high status toxic superfans influencing people and all that

The modern mode of fandom shipping wars definitely started in Harry Potter fandom on LiveJournal, you cannot argue this

Apparently its actually down to Xena.

Toxic shipping has been around forever, but from a relatively outside perspective, I'll agree that Voltron is where it started to get really bad in the animation sphere. Heard numerous horror stories from friends who watch lots of animated shows, which is something that never happened before.

Ashethan posted...

I always confused Big Bad Beetleborgs and Masked Rider (which was a year earlier) won't be surprised if that shows up on the list.

Helpful distinction:

Masked Rider had a three-episode soft launch crossover at the beginning of Power Rangers Season 3.

Beetleborg costumes were cameo villains riding horses on the moon in Forever Red.

Re:Sonny

But "So Random" gave us Shayne and Damien! And also Matthew Scott Montgomery and more Allisyn!

https://youtu.be/cP1m0bGsQCk