5 ‘90s Cartoon Characters That Today’s Kids Could Never Understand (Even Though Their Shows Hold Up)

The 1990s were a great decade for animation, but not all of the era’s characters are likely to resonate with the kids of today. Throughout the tail end of the 20th century, animation seemed to hit a real hot streak. A perfect storm of the relatively low cost of animation combined with the potential for unique visual styles saw cartoons surge in prevalence, and the ’90s featured many classic cartoons, some of which are still going strong today. For those of us who made a habit of watching these excellent animated shows, their characters became a staple of our formative years.

However, animation has changed, and many of the elements that made up the cartoons of yesteryear have since died out. Certain character traits, design ideas, and even entire narrative concepts have been largely discontinued, to the point that today’s cartoon-loving audience might actually struggle to find any entertainment quality in ’90s animated shows. To modern audiences, the following cartoon characters aren’t likely to make any sense, even though they helped define the ’90s for many of us.

5) Daria Morgendorffer (Daria)

Daria is remembered today as a cult cartoon from 1995 that aired on MTV, but for those who watched it in the ’90s, it was so much more. It followed the high-school exploits of the apathetic titular teen, exploring her relationships with her peers, parents, and teachers in Lawndale, a fictional, totally average American suburb. Managing to combine light sitcom elements with ’90s teen angst and plenty of alternative music, Daria is a show that feels so blatantly rooted in its era. Watching it back now is all but certain to evoke a strong sense of nostalgia in those who remember the 1990s, but for the kids of today, it likely wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense. The attitudes and ideas of the show are largely things that modern teens can’t associate with, as the 30 years since Daria aired have seen huge societal shifts. Sadly, its original target audience is now old enough to have teen kids, and, ironically, those teens are unlikely to appreciate Daria‘s brilliance.

4) Ren Höek (The Ren & Stimpy Show)

In the years since The Ren & Stimpy Show aired, it has become something of a legendary piece of ’90s animation. Remembered as a truly vulgar animated show that managed to pack its frenetic stories with innuendo, adult visual gags, and lightly disturbing imagery, The Ren & Stimpy Show is often considered a cartoon that would never be made today. In the ’90s, it was perfectly normal to deliver something as erratic and chaotic as The Ren & Stimpy Show to a younger audience, but today, kid-friendly animation typically avoids the sort of unhinged ideas that Ren & Stimpy embraced. Stimpy himself was relatively harmless, as he was the well-meaning foil, but Ren was often the source of the show’s most disturbing stories and elements. Kids today aren’t likely to understand the appeal of the loud, bug-eyed, irascible character, and while The Ren & Stimpy Show‘s legacy lives on, it simply wasn’t made to appeal to today’s generation.

3) Eddy (Ed, Edd n Eddy)

Ed, Edd n Eddy is another cartoon from the 1990s that would likely not appeal to today’s kids. It followed the exploits of the titular Eds, but it’s the trio’s leader in particular that has aged the worst. As well as being the ringleader of the group, Eddy was often the driving force behind their adventures. His constant need to seem cool or interesting was the source of many stories, and his willingness to hustle the neighborhood kids for cash was well-documented. Eddy is the kind of kid that has effectively gone extinct today. Not only do kids spend less time out playing than they did in the 1990s, but social media has radically transformed how young people connect with one another and portray themselves to the world. The sad truth is that kids like Eddy still exist, but the way they’ve evolved among modern kids makes them unrecognizable, and that makes Eddy especially hard to relate to for the younger audience of today.

2) Dexter (Dexter’s Laboratory)

Dexter’s Laboratory is an iconic cartoon that started airing in 1996 and officially ended in 2003, and it helped define the childhoods of many ’90s kids. It followed the titular character, a young and diminutive boy genius who spent most of his time working in a secret lab hidden in his bedroom. His main source of irritation was his carefree older sister Dee Dee, who often caused mayhem by tampering with his inventions or intruding on his work inside the lab. There are many aspects of Dexter’s Laboratory that today’s kids would find odd or confusing, especially as some of the supposedly outlandish technology Dexter creates is now commonplace. Additionally, Dexter’s distinct manner of speaking — a deliberately hard-to-place blend of various European accents — makes him hard to understand in a more literal sense. Though the show remains truly excellent, it seems as though Dexter’s Laboratory just wouldn’t appeal to a modern young audience in the same way it did in the ’90s.

1) Rocko (Rocko’s Modern Life)

While there are many great animated shows from the 1990s that hold up, Rocko’s Modern Life has lost a lot of its original charm. Don’t misunderstand: the show remains incredibly entertaining and enjoyable, and for those who watched it in the ’90s, it’s sure to hold a huge amount of nostalgic value. However, the thing about Rocko’s Modern Life is that the modern life it sought to poke fun at is no longer quite so modern. The show’s core premise revolves around Rocko and his friends encountering various everyday situations that were familiar to its audience, then offering a satirical or lightly cynical viewpoint on them. With so many of its central ideas now obsolete, Rocko’s Modern Life — and, by extension, its protagonist — simply wouldn’t be able to connect with the younger generation of today. The show itself is still worth watching, especially for fans of ’90s cartoons, but it isn’t likely to enthrall the kids of the 21st century in the same way it did for 1990s kids.