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Television

10 Bizarre Kiddie Cartoon Conspiracy Theories

By Jennifer Lewis on

You know what really creeps us out? This, this, this, and kids’ TV show conspiracy theories. The Internet is full of ‘em, and they’re slowly but surely ruining our childhoods. Well — maybe only the particularly gruesome ones are truly messing with our minds, but how are we supposed to handle the widely acknowledged idea that the Rugrats babies were dead the whole time? Of course, far-fetched theories as such should be taken with a grain of salt, but we can’t help but sprout goosebumps at the thought of a sad little Chuckie Finster ghost. After the jump, we’ve gathered 10 fascinating cartoon theories that will leave you itching for some series marathons, if only to prove or disprove these wacky proposals. Support or challenge ‘em in the comments, and feel free to make up your own. … Read More

Comics

The Debut Comic Strips of 10 Famous Cartoons

By Jennifer Lewis on

Folks, this might come as a shock, but the original Charlie Brown didn’t have zigzags on his shirt, nor eyebrows above his alarmingly wide-set eyes. Okay — maybe we’re being a little nitpicky with the eyebrows, but there’s certainly something strange about good ol’ Chuck in his 1950s Peanuts form. The same goes for Jon Arbuckle, whose eyes have grown tenfold in size since the downer’s first Garfield appearance. While wandering the depths of the Internet for our previous roundup of early character sketches, we kept bumping into these fascinating first comic strips of Charlie Brown, Garfield, Calvin, Hobbes, and more. So, since it’s always enjoyable to note the not-so-subtle changes in popular characters, we decided to save said strips for a roundup of their own. Click through for a good laugh, a bit of history, and ten debut comic strips featuring our favorite cartoon characters. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we were amused that an astrophysicist schooled perfectionist director James Cameron about inaccuracies in his portrayal of the night sky in the original Titanic film. We saw cats in a tense standoff with watermelon. We were interested to see how MTV Art Breaks pans out. We realized the… Read More

Pop Culture

The Peculiar Inspirations Behind 10 Cartoon Character Names

By Jennifer Lewis on

There are pretty much no rules when it comes to cartoon character names. So, if you had the exciting opportunity to name one, where would you look for inspiration? Your favorite weird friends? Your favorite politicians? Your favorite songs? Every now and then, we’ll come across a well-known cartoon’s truly peculiar background story. Really, who would’ve thought that Scooby-Doo would be the direct result of a Frank Sinatra song? Check out the fun inspirations behind ten cartoon character names after the jump, and hit the comments to let us know about the others that you’ve discovered over the years. … Read More

Art

Monstrous Versions of Pop Culture Icons

By Alison Nastasi on

Artist Alex Pardee did his part in the protests against the SOPA/PIPA bills. He created a monster savvy series of artworks titled Icans. At first, the name seems like a weird play on the word “icons.” After all, Pardee creates disfigured versions of pop culture notables like Fred Flinstone and Batman. He explains on his blog, however, that the Icans series humorously speaks to the recent piracy act controversy:

” … Whether SOPA passes or not, I will continue to take any licensed character, or pop culture icon and do whatever I want with it for art’s sake, because ICAN. Also, I just want to conduct an ongoing experiment to see if ICAN take any cool icon from pop culture and make it way shittier by “re-imagining” it. So far, much like Hollywood does most of the time, the experiment is a super fun success!”

Hit the jump for bloated, but loveable, versions of Garfield and other pop culture friends — who we suspect would explode like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man if we squished them with love. … Read More

Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we followed along as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off played out live on Twitter and Foursquare. We learned how to pronounce some seriously tricky author names. We wondered why those bullies on Community felt the need to go and pick on an adorable little show like Glee. We were disappointed… Read More