The biggest mistake in a very good cartoon

WyreWizard · October 20, 2006, 04:43:53 PM

Yes, I have been sending posts to this board about the plausibility and reality flaws in films. Today, I decided to take a break from tearing films up and talk about reality and plausibility flaws in television cartoons. Yes, I know you're all thinking "Wyre would have a heart attack tearing up tv cartoons." But I'm not doing them all. I'm doing only 1. And that cartoon is everyone's favorite cowardly, greedy talking dog. Yep Scooby Doo! "Scooby-dooby-doo. Where are you? We got some work to do now. Scooby-dooby-doo. Where are you? We need some help from you now. C'mon, Scooby-Doo. I see you, pretending you got a sliver. You're not fooling me. Cause I can see the way you shake and shiver. You know we got a mystery to solve, so Scooby-Doo be ready for your act. Don't hold back. And Scooby-Doo if you come through you're gonna have yourself a Scooby Snack. That's a fact. Scooby-dooby-doo, here are you. You're ready and you're willin', If we can count on you, Scooby-Doo, I know we'll catch that villain."

Now what reality flaw does Scooby Doo have? Is it the fact it has a talking dog? No, there have been real dogs that have been able to some degree mimic human speech. One I've seen do it in a form of howling rather than growling like the Scoobmeister. Is it the fact Shaggy, Scooby's handler eats some rather odd and unsavory foods like chocolate-covered pepperoni pizza? No, I've seen people eat stranger things than that, like scorpions, centipedes, tree grubs and even poisonous snakes. Is it the fact that Shaggy eats the very Scooby Snacks that Scooby eats? No because I know that somewhere in NYC, there's a bakery that bakes pastries which are edible to both humans and dogs. All of those are plausible. So what is the biggest problem with Scooby Doo?

I swear, the Scooby gang always encounter the dumbest most stupidest criminals. These morons belong on America's Dumbest Criminals. These criminals always seem to exploit locals legends and disguise themselves as ghosts or monsters to scare people away from their criminal activities. In reality, this wouldn't scare most people away, but rather intrigue them. These stupid criminals by their lame attempt to discourange attention would be rather drawing a lot of attention to them. People these days are more intrigued by ghostly activity rather than scared away. I personally have never read of any real criminal case where the defendant(s) tried to cover their criminal activity by creating fake ghostly activity. If real criminals did this, then the job of the police would be a lot easier.

Of all the times Scooby and Company encountered fake ghost or monster activity, there was only 1 time where they weren't fake, they were very real. It happened on Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. If you ask me, that was the best Scooby Doo ever filmed.

Doc Daneeka · October 20, 2006, 05:53:10 PM

Actually, there are quite a few Scooby movies and spinoffs incorporating real ghosts. What I don't get is how people over the age of 4 were fooled by such cheesy costumes, or better, why they didn't find some silver bullets to use on said "monsters".

Yaddo 42 · October 22, 2006, 04:50:29 AM

Well since the ideal audience for Scooby Doo is four year olds and potheads, plausibility doesn't really figure into it.

All the old good arguments have been made all over the net, in every comic shop fanboy gathering, and at pot parties. But my favorite is: there are five of you, bumrush the guy in the "ghost" suit instead of building an overly complicated trap dependent on a cowardly slacker/wannabe beatnik/stoner burnout and a brain damaged lisping dog to be effective.

Although I want a house with one of those magic hallways that allowed the running highjinxs to ensue when the chase happened in most episodes. Maybe with a listen to that generic Hanna-Barbera kiddie pop music they played during those chases.

WyreWizard · October 22, 2006, 05:45:49 PM

Another cute thing about Scooby-Doo is those Rube Goldberg inspired traps that Freddy always builds and rarely works.

raj · October 23, 2006, 01:53:27 PM

What I don't get is why people assumed the Scooby snacks were made with pot. You've got two slackers who don't want to get off their butts, and to motivate them, you give them pot brownies? Yeah, right. The Scooby snacks needed to have some amphetamines in them.

Just Plain Horse · October 23, 2006, 02:37:22 PM

I have to be honest here, I HATED Scooby Doo. Second only to the Flintstones of All- time Most Hated cartoons on my list. Scrappy-Doo didn't help it much...

Acidburn · October 23, 2006, 03:35:44 PM

I am not a big fan of Scooby either....unfortunaly my son absolutly worships the show. So I have to sit and suffer through movies and tv and games and anything else you can imagine.

ulthar · October 23, 2006, 07:01:08 PM

How can you hate The Flintstones? Classic stuff - Fred is great. I kinda see him as a forerunner to Al Bundy on the "Men of the House to Admire" list.

On a trivia note, I never realized until a couple of months ago that the voice of Scooby was also the voice of Astro on The Jetsons: Don Messick. He also voiced Bamm Bamm (and a bunch of other characters).

peter johnson · October 23, 2006, 11:29:55 PM

Ah, yes -- Don Messick -- Would that we could have his career . . .
Scooby Doo is without doubt the dimmest, dumbest piece of bad Korean animated *censored* ever to be shown on TV --
Why why why it enjoys popularity on any level has always eluded me.
It simply reeks. Why bother picking holes in it, when it simply sucks across the board, per se?
* * *
Here's a new topic: Hey! Them toilet paper commercials sure is dumb, eh? That ain't really real, what they do on the TV there . . .
peter . . . oh, I give up . . .

Yaddo 42 · October 24, 2006, 01:47:30 AM

I liked it when I was little but the arrival of Scrappy-Doo was the beginning point for when I realized how awful it was. Then I grew sick of the various incarnations rerun over and over and the inclusion of Scooby-Dum in the opening of one permutation of the show when he was in only a few episodes. The celebrities guests during part of the run, Batman and Robin made sense to a kid, Sonny and Cher I knew who they were, Mama Cass drew a blank in my young mind, but even I knew (from my father who was a fan of their old films and shorts) that Laurel and Hardy were long dead. The gang never learning from their mistakes, the sameness of the plots, Velma never buying a headstrap for her stupid glasses, yadda yadda yadda....

The Flintstones? They much better the first time around when they were called The Honeymooners! But I'm a weirdo who doesn't even like The Honeymooners all that much.

raj · October 24, 2006, 08:48:50 AM

The utter cheesiness of Scooby Do is what I like.
Scrappy, however, is just lame.

WyreWizard · October 24, 2006, 11:09:17 AM

Just Plain Horse Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have to be honest here, I HATED Scooby Doo.
> Second only to the Flintstones of All- time Most
> Hated cartoons on my list. Scrappy-Doo didn't help
> it much...

"Tata-ta-tada!!! Puppy Power!!!" Scrappy Doo made me laugh because he always seemed to be in denial of his uncle Scooby's cowardice.

Ash · October 24, 2006, 05:02:18 PM

What was the name of that grey dog? It was Scooby's cousin or something.

Mr. Lobo · October 24, 2006, 07:12:54 PM

That was Scooby-Dum. He was Scooby Doo's Billy Carter.

Just Plain Horse · October 25, 2006, 08:18:34 AM

WyreWizard Wrote:
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> "Tata-ta-tada!!! Puppy Power!!!" Scrappy Doo
> made me laugh because he always seemed to be in
> denial of his uncle Scooby's cowardice.

Scrappy also suffered from what I call "short man's syndrome", which is basically the need to compensate in attitude and agression what he lacks in stature... I think everyone was in denial that Scooby had an unbearable speech impediment.

(How can I hate the Flintstones? 'Cause they suck. I think of them as an animated version of The Honeymooners)