But kids love nuclear waste mutations and post-apocalyptic life! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for kids shows with surprisingly dark premises. Spoilers may be ahead!
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00:00 "Nothing will ever change. I'm stuck on this train forever."
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for kids shows with surprisingly dark premises.
00:10 Spoilers may be ahead.
00:12 "Time for your dissection."
00:15 "Uh, guys?"
00:19 Number 20.
00:21 Genetically conjoined animals navigate life in a world populated by humanoids.
00:26 CatDog.
00:27 Sometimes siblings may feel like they're joined at the hip, but that saying is very literal when it comes to CatDog.
00:33 The premise of the cat and dog brothers being fused together isn't the only thing that might creep out viewers.
00:38 The show had many unsettling episodes like "Meet Dog's Friends,"
00:42 where Dog decides to turn vegetarian after learning how meat is made.
00:46 "They make animals out of meat? I've been eating animals."
00:51 "See, you learn something new every day."
00:53 While it's a noble lifestyle change, it traumatizes Dog when he hallucinates sentient meats who torment him.
01:00 Another recurring element of the show is the ridicule that CatDog faces.
01:04 "Nice bucket funnel face!"
01:07 "As usual, you're a paragon of sensitivity. For your information, this is a bona fide medical device."
01:15 They're constantly treated poorly by characters like the Greasers and other citizens of Nierburg for being different.
01:20 Ultimately, that sends a pretty bad message to the show's audience of impressionable children.
01:25 "If you crush old 159, you'll have to crush me and Cat along with it."
01:32 "So where's the downside? Am I missing something here?"
01:35 "Stomp him like a cockroach!"
01:38 Number 19. Two teenagers are placed in bizarre and grotesque situations.
01:43 Mr. Meaty.
01:44 Things just went off the rails in Mr. Meaty.
01:46 "This french fry has 10 grains of salt on it. Stop wasting salt!"
01:52 The show is about Josh and Parker, two teenagers working at the fast food joint known as Mr. Meaty.
01:58 They'd often get into wacky antics, and that's putting it mildly.
02:02 They've burnt off a co-worker's nose, turned mall shoppers into zombies, and even had a stowaway vampire in their freezer.
02:09 "Help me, Josh, help me!"
02:11 "No! Her breath smells like the dead!"
02:13 And honestly, that's just scraping the surface.
02:16 Besides absurdly creepy episodes, of which there are plenty,
02:20 there are also so many off-putting character designs that the show feels like a fever dream.
02:25 "Yeah, it's okay, buddy. We'll be right back."
02:28 "So dizzy!"
02:28 "Let's get to the kitchen, okay?"
02:30 "I'm so dizzy!"
02:31 "Yeah!"
02:31 If you were someone traumatized by the show, just know you're not alone.
02:36 Number 18. A man who can't control his rage picks fights with everyone.
02:41 Dan vs.
02:42 "Hi, Dan. I just moved in next door. I'm a supermodel."
02:46 "I don't care who the IRS sends, I am not paying taxes!"
02:52 Sometimes you may feel like the world is against you, but eventually you learn to move past your problems.
02:58 Well, at least that's the ideal scenario.
03:00 Unfortunately, that's not always a reality.
03:03 Just ask Dan.
03:05 The star of Dan vs. lives a pretty miserable existence.
03:08 In each episode, he picks fights with just about anything and drags his friends into his messes.
03:14 "I have been wronged."
03:15 "Again?"
03:16 "I can't believe it either! I demand vengeance!"
03:19 "Who is it this time?"
03:20 "The worst, most devious subhuman of them all!"
03:23 "The mailman?"
03:24 "Close. The wolfman!"
03:27 Sometimes Dan's right to be angry,
03:29 but he always ends up going overboard in his quest for revenge and never changes, which is pretty sad.
03:35 In one of the first episodes, he develops a vendetta against the entire state of New Mexico.
03:41 Characters also get severely injured and there's almost a blood sacrifice that happens.
03:46 "What was that?"
03:48 "We'd better go check it out."
03:49 "What's a sacrifice?"
03:50 "It'll wait ten minutes."
03:52 This series stretches the definition of a kids show.
03:56 Number 17.
03:57 A young girl develops superpowers after being exposed to a radioactive substance.
04:02 The secret world of Alex Mack.
04:04 Getting superpowers is awesome.
04:06 Getting exposed to dangerous chemicals?
04:08 Not so awesome.
04:10 "Of course you should worry."
04:12 "For all we know, you could have been hit by something that's seeping into your brain cells
04:17 at this very minute and attacking your central nervous system and you're gonna turn into a
04:22 quivering mass of jelly."
04:23 When Alex Mack is nearly run over by a truck,
04:26 a radioactive substance from the vehicle spills onto her.
04:29 While she makes it out in the end, Alex discovers she has powers.
04:33 It might be cool, but it comes with a serious cost.
04:36 "Where did Alex go?"
04:37 Throughout the show, she constantly has to evade the chemical plant that made the
04:47 substance and keep her powers a secret from her own parents.
04:50 "Have you kids seen Alex?"
04:52 "Alex? No.
04:54 Apparently she had to stay late after school to try out for the basketball team.
04:58 Right, right?"
04:59 "Right."
04:59 "Basketball? I didn't know she liked basketball."
05:01 "Neither did I."
05:02 That's a lot for a young girl to deal with.
05:04 Her constant fear of being snatched and experimented on adds a creepy vibe to
05:08 the show that keeps viewers on edge.
05:10 Number 16.
05:12 Monsters Scare Humans For Assignments
05:15 Ah, real monsters!
05:16 Having to do homework can be scary.
05:19 But what if your homework was to be scary?
05:21 "You also know the results of last week's midterms are in.
05:25 And you passmongers have really let me down this time.
05:29 How hard could it be to scare the pants off an eight-year-old?"
05:34 In this show, monsters attend their very own school where they get a quality education
05:38 in terrifying humans.
05:40 Besides getting a crash course in how to frighten, these monsters have to regularly
05:44 travel up to the surface world to scare humans as part of their assignments.
05:48 The modern education system is haunting enough, so the idea of a school designed solely for
05:53 monsters to terrify us is pretty cruel.
05:56 "First a tooth fairy, now this."
05:58 The monsters in training can also give us plenty of nightmares already just by their
06:02 hideous looks alone.
06:04 Let's just hope class won't be in session for much longer.
06:07 "What are you looking at?"
06:09 "Sorry."
06:09 "Thanks."
06:13 Number 15.
06:14 A Boy Who Grew Up Inside A Talking Whale Joins A Creepy Pirate In Search Of Treasure.
06:19 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack
06:22 Creepy doesn't even really begin to describe this series.
06:25 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack revolves around a boy named Flapjack,
06:29 Captain Knuckles, and the whale Bubby.
06:32 We can't be the only ones who thought the idea of a young child living inside of a whale,
06:36 who is also their adoptive mom by the way, was odd.
06:40 "Am I in troubles?"
06:41 "No, no, no, no, no, baby.
06:43 I am not mad at you."
06:44 "You better stop poisoning my baby's head!"
06:48 Flapjack probably also should not be hanging around with Captain Knuckles either.
06:53 He's not exactly a great role model.
06:55 "There's only one way to handle people on the bad side of town.
06:59 Never do nothing for nobody.
07:02 And if that doesn't work, call them a sissy."
07:05 And the more the show went on, the more it weirded us out.
07:08 "She must have laid eggs on my head while I listened to your show!
07:12 Gross."
07:13 It'd regularly introduce us to some incredibly gross visuals,
07:18 and why don't we just leave it at that?
07:20 Trust us when we say you do not want to see what Peppermint Larry looks like
07:24 when he gets the candy flu.
07:26 While viewing the adventures of the Ninja Turtles now is usually considered fun for all ages,
07:39 their story is a little darker than you think.
07:42 "Yeah, we're unbelievable!"
07:45 "Geez, where's your off switch?"
07:47 After all, the original comics they first appeared in were not meant for younger audiences.
07:52 And that distinctly dark tone was especially reflected in the 2003 cartoon.
07:57 As per usual, the Turtles, along with their mentor Master Splinter,
08:01 get transformed after being exposed to mysterious mutagen ooze
08:05 and grow up to become crime fighters.
08:07 "I took pity on gathering them up in a coffee can."
08:11 "Oof!"
08:11 That'd be all well and good if not for the terribly dire situations
08:21 they so often find themselves in.
08:24 Anyone else remember that one episode where they were almost dissected?
08:27 Number 13.
08:36 Passengers can't leave until they work through their traumas.
08:39 Infinity Train.
08:41 "Ugh, there has to be a way off this train that won't kill me."
08:45 The Infinity Train is definitely one of the most unique forms of therapy we've seen.
08:50 It may look like a regular train, but don't let that fool you.
08:53 Inside are infinite environments of virtually anything you could imagine.
08:58 Passengers who get picked up are assigned a number that goes up or down
09:01 depending on their actions as they pass through the cars.
09:04 The goal is to get the number down to zero so they can leave.
09:08 "Your number's going up! You're losing progress, Miss Tulip."
09:12 "What progress?"
09:13 Spoiler here, but the number basically represents how well they're working
09:16 through their personal problems.
09:18 While the train's purpose is technically good,
09:20 riding this locomotive is an undeniably dangerous experience.
09:24 Working through unresolved issues is a lot easier said than done,
09:28 and some traumas can take a lifetime to heal.
09:30 "Nothing will ever change."
09:34 "I'm stuck on this train."
09:35 "Change? I'm stuck on this train forever."
09:38 Number 12.
09:39 Teenagers are transformed into animals and have to fight brain-rotting parasites,
09:43 Animorphs.
09:44 "Is it happening? I feel weird."
09:49 This adaptation of the popular Animorphs book franchise
09:55 arguably might not be the kind of show that could be made today,
09:58 at least not for an audience of kids.
10:00 The show follows a group of teenagers who meet an alien
10:03 and develop the ability to morph into various animals.
10:06 It's soon up to them to stop an evil species known as the Yerks from conquering Earth.
10:11 These critters are the worst!
10:13 They control people by sneaking in through their ears, and yeah, that's pretty nasty.
10:18 "They must have a host to live in. On Earth, their hosts are humans."
10:24 The fate of the entire world resting in a bunch of teenagers' hands
10:28 can also be pretty stressful.
10:30 If you really think about it, they were essentially enlisted into a war overnight.
10:35 "It is done. The power of change is in their flesh."
10:41 Number 11.
10:43 Children solve crimes with the help of a ghost, Ghostwriter.
10:47 Meant to get kids to love reading and writing,
10:49 Ghostwriter taught us that words definitely have power.
10:52 The show centered around kids from Brooklyn who essentially became detectives
10:56 with the help of a ghost named Ghostwriter.
10:58 "Hey, what's Ghostwriter doing?"
11:00 "Warning, do not over-eat."
11:08 Admittedly, despite having a ghost involved, the show wasn't too haunting.
11:12 "Nobody else sees that."
11:14 "Shh! People will think we're nuts."
11:17 Don't get us wrong, there were still some creepy moments,
11:19 like that episode with the slime monster Gooey Gus.
11:27 "Very funny. Okay, Casey, you got us again."
11:31 But what really makes this show so disturbing
11:33 is actually a detail that was shared after it already ended.
11:37 Kermit Frazier, a writer/producer for the show,
11:40 revealed that Ghostwriter was originally an enslaved person
11:42 who was murdered after escaping during the Civil War.
11:45 It definitely adds a layer of dark realism to everything.
11:48 Number 10.
11:50 Psychedelic blobs dance around the screen, Booba.
11:56 Even the title Booba sounds disturbing and threatening,
11:59 like an ancient incantation that can raise the dead.
12:02 In actuality, Booba is just a nonsense word,
12:04 and the title of this extremely disturbing children's show
12:07 from the United Kingdom that aired in the early 2000s.
12:11 The Boobas are terrifying and psychedelic alien creatures,
12:14 complete with sparkling fur, enormous unblinking eyes,
12:18 and retractable necks, who do little else but dance around
12:22 and direct mysterious noises towards each other.
12:25 While children may enjoy the colors and music,
12:27 the rest of us are left in horror as we watch the rituals
12:30 of this weird alien race.
12:32 Number 9.
12:37 A demonic headmaster terrorizes the children of his school,
12:40 the Demon Headmaster.
12:42 "We must set things in motion."
12:44 Every child thinks that their headmaster or principal
12:47 is some kind of evil entity,
12:48 but that is actually the case in the Demon Headmaster,
12:51 and it is terrifying.
12:53 This is a show from the UK,
12:55 and it concerns a student named Dinah Glass,
12:57 who does battle with her titular Demon Headmaster.
13:00 He has green eyes, manipulates and controls the students,
13:03 and eventually tries ruling the world
13:05 by accelerating evolution and building a hyperbrain.
13:09 School is supposed to be a sanctuary for children,
13:11 and the idea of its leader controlling the students
13:14 and causing them harm is a pretty disturbing concept
13:16 to imagine, particularly for parents.
13:19 Number 8.
13:20 Basically every story.
13:22 Goosebumps.
13:22 "Take it off me! I hate this place! I hate this place! I hate it!"
13:26 The 90s were clearly the peak of children's horror.
13:30 Not only did "Are You Afraid of the Dark Air?"
13:32 from 1990 to 1996,
13:34 R.L. Stine also terrified us all with goosebumps
13:37 throughout the mid to late decade.
13:39 And let us tell you,
13:40 most of these stories were downright disturbing,
13:43 even for adults.
13:44 "I'm not afraid of the dark."
13:46 "I'm not afraid of the dark."
13:47 These include a haunted mask that molds to the wearer's face,
13:50 a creepy dummy that terrorizes children,
13:53 a haunted house that needs blood,
13:55 and a father who is apparently turning into a plant.
13:58 We're surprised the children who watched this show turned out okay,
14:01 because these are some straight up scary stories.
14:04 [Screaming]
14:06 Number 7.
14:08 An alien tries to enslave the human race.
14:11 Invader Zim.
14:13 "Watch as I bring a royal audience to the downfall of the world!"
14:17 "Downfall of the human race!"
14:19 The concept of aliens is equal parts terrifying and wondrous to human beings,
14:23 particularly kids.
14:25 But in the case of Invader Zim,
14:26 they are definitely more scary than wonder-inducing.
14:30 The premise of this unsettling and disturbing show
14:32 is that an alien named Zim integrates himself into society
14:36 and attempts to enslave the human race.
14:38 Zim's pursuits lead him to do some extremely nasty things
14:41 like plucking out eyes,
14:43 murdering his classmates,
14:44 and performing operations we're sure he's not qualified to perform.
14:48 And to think, this was a cartoon on Nickelodeon.
14:51 "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."
14:53 Number 6.
14:54 A dog is constantly terrorized by paranormal entities.
14:57 Courage the Cowardly Dog.
14:59 "Courage."
15:00 [Screaming]
15:02 Courage the Cowardly Dog has to be one of the scariest and darkest cartoons of all time.
15:07 The basic concept of the show is that Courage and his owners,
15:10 Eustace and Muriel Bagg,
15:12 are tormented by scary supernatural entities.
15:15 And the cowardly Courage must do what he can to protect them from danger.
15:19 The pilot episode shows some pretty gruesome imagery involving chickens,
15:24 and it only gets worse from there.
15:25 [Screaming]
15:28 These aren't innocent supernatural stories.
15:30 They are legitimately scary,
15:32 disturbing,
15:33 and disgusting stories filled with some blood-freezing imagery
15:37 that will undoubtedly stick in your mind.
15:39 We can't imagine how children take to it.
15:42 [Growling]
15:44 Number 5.
15:45 Alien creatures communicate through gibberish and display human children in their stomachs.
15:50 Teletubbies.
15:50 "Hello."
15:52 [Screaming]
15:53 What is it with children enjoying these freaky alien shows?
15:56 Teletubbies has always had a bit of a reputation for being creepy.
16:00 After all, it features strange-looking creatures who speak in alien gibberish
16:04 and broadcast human children on their stomachs,
16:06 eat custard,
16:07 room with an intelligent vacuum cleaner,
16:09 and live under a sun composed of a human baby's face.
16:12 Talk about an acid trip.
16:13 [Giggling]
16:15 The show is well-known for its surrealism,
16:18 and like most surreal fiction,
16:19 it has a tendency to really get under your skin and creep you out to no end.
16:24 Artistic?
16:24 Sure.
16:25 Disturbing and unsettling?
16:26 You betcha.
16:27 "Again! Again, again!"
16:30 "Do it again!"
16:30 "Yeah!"
16:32 Number 4.
16:33 Two animals are constantly scammed by the devil.
16:36 Cow and chicken.
16:37 "My science project."
16:40 While cow and chicken is often presented as a comedy,
16:43 its basic premise is quite disturbing,
16:46 and the episodes are full of dark humor and unnerving surrealism.
16:49 For one thing,
16:50 chicken and cow have delirious parents whose upper halves are mysteriously absent,
16:55 so their home lives are none too happy and more than a little creepy.
16:58 On top of that,
16:59 they frequently encounter someone from hell called the red guy,
17:03 also known as the devil,
17:04 who obviously does numerous disturbing things like drag chicken to the underworld.
17:08 "One more thing to try, but I can't remember what it is,
17:12 but it has something to do with your head and this saw!"
17:16 It's surreal,
17:17 it's dark,
17:18 and it's full of eerie scenes.
17:20 Seriously,
17:21 what was with the cartoons of the 90s?
17:23 "Eh, shut up cow! Mind your own bees-
17:26 What?"
17:29 Number 3.
17:30 A boy and his dog live in a post-apocalyptic world.
17:33 Adventure Time.
17:34 "Adventure Time, come on grab your friends, we'll go to very distant lands."
17:39 Adventure Time is very fun,
17:41 but it's also incredibly dark.
17:44 The premise of the show is that two best friends,
17:46 Jake the dog and Finn the human,
17:48 go on adventures in the post-apocalyptic land of Ooo.
17:52 While the show is mostly innocent fun,
17:54 it also features a host of nightmarish villains,
17:57 including the Lich and Goliad,
17:59 a creepy baby sphinx hybrid with mind control powers.
18:02 "This castle is in unacceptable condition! Unacceptable!"
18:12 Other monsters include the Earl of Lemongrab,
18:14 a Frankensteinian creature who's downright horrifying,
18:17 and mysterious formless beings covered in teeth called Love Gloves.
18:22 Needless to say,
18:23 this post-apocalyptic world and the monsters inhabiting it,
18:26 are more than a little spine-chilling.
18:28 Number 2.
18:31 Two kids hold the Grim Reaper hostage,
18:34 The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
18:36 The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy certainly are grim,
18:43 as they contain two extremely disturbing and adult themes,
18:47 slavery and murder.
18:49 The two children keep the Grim Reaper as their servant,
18:52 and use his powers for their own means.
18:54 They also use him to gain access to the underworld,
18:57 which is filled with suitably unimaginable and nightmarish creatures.
19:01 "Don't be frightened by the look in my eye,
19:03 I'm just your average evil meteor from out of the sky."
19:05 Due to his servitude and the kids' manipulation of him,
19:09 the Grim Reaper often has murderous fantasies.
19:11 The concept itself is particularly disturbing,
19:17 but the show is also filled with terrible imagery and situations,
19:20 making this one of the most disturbing kids' programs.
19:24 "Yeah, terrifying."
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19:40 To this day,
19:52 The Ren and Stimpy Show is known for being one of the darkest
19:55 and most violent children's cartoons of all time.
19:58 The show was infamous for being needlessly brutal,
20:01 and numerous episodes were censored as a result.
20:03 One episode in particular was banned from airing on Nickelodeon
20:09 and resulted in the firing of series creator and showrunner John Crisvalusi.
20:13 While the show received critical acclaim,
20:15 parents despised the subject matter,
20:18 and it quickly gained a negative reputation for being disgusting and inappropriate.
20:27 Is there a dark kids' show concept we missed?
20:30 Disturb us in the comments.
20:32 Did you enjoy this video?
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