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What is Gen Z's defining cartoon?
- Thread starter out_of_touch
- Start date
Any cartoon from the Late 2000s onward is culturally/stylistically part of the Gen Z era. 90s-Early 2000s era is Millennial. 70s-80s cartoons are Gen X.
Spongebob is 100000% the show that defines millennials, at least from my experience. Definitely not The Simpsons.
Late Millennials perhaps, but as I and many other early-mid 80's Millennials have said, for us it's The Simpsons, hands down. I was in high school when Spongebob first started airing, nobody my age was watching it.
Gen Z can keep Spongebob even though the best seasons (1-3+movie) aired in late Millenial territory
but golden age Simpsons (seasons 3-8) was peak animation so that one belongs to us
but golden age Simpsons (seasons 3-8) was peak animation so that one belongs to us
Oldest millenials were graduating high school in 1998, 1999 actually.
The youngest millenials not the older. Millenials. I was in high school when the show premiered and I wasn't watching it. None of my friends were. It was Simpsons and then moving onto family guy.
This is the correct answer. I was born in 1981 so I stand on the dividing line between Millennials and Gen Xers. For older Millennials, The Simpsons was definitely the defining cartoon that's aged very well. We watched plenty of other cartoons in the 80s (there were a ton) and things like He-Man, Thundercats, and Ninja Turtles were huge. But most of those cartoons were pure children merchandizing shows that you kind of cringe when you watch it as an adult. Whereas The Simpsons was multi-layered with the merchandizing/toy angle for Millennials, In-Jokes for Boomers, and digs at Gen Xers. When I watch The Simpsons now as an adult I now get all the Boomer/GenX jokes. Even if some of the references are a bit dated, I don't cringe watching it like I would other 80s early 90s cartoons.
I think this is why The Simpsons have moved to the top of the list for most Millennials for the most defining cartoon. All the Simpsons quotes didn't start appearing until the mid-2000s when a good chunk of Milliennials and Gen Xers bought the DVD boxsets and finally got old enough to appreciate and understand all the humor.
My defining cartoon
I'm with you on that. And I was like 15 when it came out.
Late Millennial here. Was 4 when Spongebob first aired. Parents wouldn't let sibling and I watch Simpsons until the 10's.
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I have never seen a single episode of Spongebob in my life, but I'm an old millenial.
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I also think Pokemon should get a shout-out. I'm a late Millennial so I was already an older teen when Pokemon came out, but I played the original Pokemon Red on the original Gameboy and watched the fist season or two of the TV show since it aired after school when I was doing homework. My kids who are Gen Zers watched the latter Pokemon seasons and movies and play all the current Pokemon games. So I'd argue if not the TV show, the Pokemon franchise has been able to span multiple generations. It's part of the reason why Pokemon GO exploded initially and became such a phenom. Ironically it's now mostly the older Millennials that still play that game.
EDIT: I've also never seen a single episode of Spongebob. Obviously I've heard of it, but it came after my time and it never really looked interesting to me. I think Spongbob is definitely a young Millennial thing with a pretty sharp dividing line.
EDIT: I've also never seen a single episode of Spongebob. Obviously I've heard of it, but it came after my time and it never really looked interesting to me. I think Spongbob is definitely a young Millennial thing with a pretty sharp dividing line.
ehhh spongebob is from 99, right? hardly just a millennial thing...
okay i know like two of these shows - never watched any of them thoAny cartoon from the Late 2000s onward is culturally/stylistically part of the Gen Z era. 90s-Early 2000s era is Millennial. 70s-80s cartoons are Gen X.
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