Somebody told me that Nickelodeon has this rule where they can't say the word, "Dead" in it's Nicktoons. I think that's a stupid rule, what do they think it is, a cussword?
They had that rule for Nicktoons at some point in the 90s and early 00s. In Rocko's Modern Life, they renamed the Chokey Chicken to the Chewy Chicken, and most references to dead was removed from Nicktoons in the 90s. In the early 2000s that rule was starting to die off and they started using that word again. I don't know why they used that rule in the first place, it was kind of dumb.
I guess it's sort of like the dubs of some of these Japanese animated shows. If I recall correctly, death or kill couldn't be mentioned for those either.
Yeah Nickelodeon's a kids network so they've always been a bit sensitive towards the kind of subversive, adult humor that other cartoonists found amusing. In Jhonen Vasquez's case there was an episode of Invader ZIM called "Game Slave 2" where this annoying kid named Iggins was supposed to die at the end but Nick told him not to do it so he came up with this bizarre ending where he flies away and Nick's reaction was "Are they making fun of us?!".
I like Nick, but I think Cartoon Network is a lot less strict.
Nick's rules kind of started because of John K. and the hard time he gave them on Ren & Stimpy. After that they wanted to have more control and were more instructing on shows like Angry Beavers and ZIM until they finally had more kid-friendly quality cartoons like Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, and Fairly Oddparents. And that's the reason they have them on all the time.
Its kinda funny if you think about it. Back in the 90's you could get away with saying HELL and you wouldn't get in trouble, Now they're getting stricter.
=50 ways to describe Happiness=
2/50: Happiness Is telling a Joke and people find It funny 1/30/10
========================================= Drew: Where's your mother? Angelica: She's in the shower. She says she has to wash away the stench
They have gotten stricter. Yesterday, I saw the Rocko's Modern Life episode where Heffer sells his soul to the devil and later winds up in hell. No way a kid show gets away with that these days.