The DOWNFALL of Drawn Together: The Most OFFENSIVE Cartoon Ever Made

[Music] when it comes to adult animation there are a handful of cartoons that push the limit when it came to exploring their mature rating what could they get away with what would the sensors allow when was too much too much believe it or not there was a time when the Simpsons was considered too risque for television there was also a time when South Park was looked upon as Public Enemy Number One for its dark and offensive humor but there is a show that aired during the mid 2000s that was so unhinged so depraved so controversial that it made other adult cartoons look tame by comparison Drawn Together Drawn Together is the living embodiment of 2000's edgy humor and is often regarded as one of the most daring and Boundary pushing animated series of all time virtually nothing was off limits the show itself was an animated parody of house based reality TV shows that were popular at the time such as the real world and big brother but instead of having real people Drawn Together featured satirical copies of iconic cartoon characters instead walor with SpongeBob toot for Betty Boop and lingling for Pikachu to Dam a few but these characters were demented to the core even by 2000 standards Drawn Together had an exceptionally shocking and callous sense of humor did you tie her up and Chase did he have a big stick did you slap her around did he make you suck his do the show would run for three seasons with a total of 36 episodes and was surprisingly popular especially with the coveted college student demographic it was right behind South Park in the ratings yet drawn together would eventually be cancelled and took said cancellation very personally so much so that they would even mock South Park for its favoritism with Comedy Central and critics Drawn Together is the lamest show ever watching it was like watching taint dry and if I let you get a point you might get your time slot back why the would I do that what exactly happened how did such a successful Show get cancelled did it cross the line and why do the showrunners have so much contempt for South Park they obviously had an ax to grind and dedicated their directive video movie as a way of giving the middle finger to South Park you suck it why you suck it why don't you suck my little strap in folks the story for Drawn Together is truly unique uncomfortable and very bizarre it's a cartoon unlike anything else and I doubt we'll ever see something of its caliber ever again for the record this video was written and edited to comply with YouTube's ad friendly rules unfortunately we will not not be able to show the full context of drawn together but the history and the context behind the show will remain fully intact that being said if you do end up liking the video please consider leaving a like and a comment and perhaps even subscribing to the channel my team and I worked for over a year on this project knowing it could be compromised by YouTube for its subject matter but the history of Drawn Together is important and a surprisingly relevant story to tell also before we get to the video I would like to thank the sponsor of this upload factor it's November now which means holidays and the ever stressful end of the year crunch work school you know the drill now more than ever it is so tempting to just phone it in with fast food but what if I told you there was a better option one that is convenient and better than fast food Factor makes meeting your nutrition goals easier than ever before by delivering fresh never Frozen d approved meals right to your doorstep with Factor you don't have to waste money on fast food also you save time you've might have spent at the grocery store doing food prep cooking and cleaning dishes with Factor you're saving time getting flavor and the nutritional quality you need Factor's fresh never frozen meals are ready in Just 2 minutes so all you have to do is heat and enjoy for me the herb crust chicken is my absolute favorite also Factor has ketofriendly 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prestige dramas like The Sopranos and lost changed the standards of what audiences could expect from cable television they were establishing a higher caliber of Storytelling hourong High attention episodes that kept eager viewers coming back the following week for those who don't remember or physically did not exist before it the early 2000s was a very strange time for entertainment but with it came a few Slow Burn properties like Arrested Development or Freaks and Geeks which became Classic Series in their own right the boundaries for what was acceptable in a comedy show especially after Prime Time were being pushed to the furthest they could get away with this is likely due to the more relaxed content restrictions from sensors and networks for shows airing after 10 p.m. this time slot is considered just after prime time and when younger audiences are more likely to be asleep and avoid mature content now how accurate this is by today's standards is unclear but in 2004 access to late night adult oriented shows was more streamlined to channel surfing or watching recordings on too ah too a TV Guide Netflix delivering DVDs in the mail all Concepts that are are most likely foreign to younger audiences nowadays who have the blessing of instant gratification via the Internet like it is crazy to think that there was a time where people would sit and watch nearly 15 minutes of ads for 45 minutes worth of Television yeah to those who think a a one minute in video sponsorship is bad you have no idea what true suffering is uh getting back on topic mid 2000s television was truly something else what other era could give us both Dane Cook selling out Madison Square Garden and Jeff Dunham a problematic ventriloquist with racist puppets at the same time I still genuinely cannot believe that last one was real but hey here we are hell the guy even got a liveaction TV show and a cartoon based on one of his puppets Jeff dham truly ruled the 2000s with a cringy iron Fest go there an unusual kind of guy what makes you happiest in life like BMW he has a BMW yeah big Mexican woman oh my God now with this change in the TV landscape came a few distinct outliers especially in the world of animated adult comedies after a rocky few early Seasons South Park became a massive ratings giant for Comedy Central opening the door for other animated shows to follow suit though very few would even hope to capture the level of success then you got Family Guy a show that was resurrected from early cancellation on Fox due to the high ratings of reruns airing on Adult Swim along with its widely successful DVD sales times were changing in the mid 2000s and the demand for adult animated comedies was growing louder and louder admittedly this Cavalier environment for entertainment led to some relics of the time being difficult to rewatch now mostly because of how dated and uncomfortable some of the humor is comedy Central's Little Bush is probably the most mid 2000s things ever made and crank Anor is uh yeah maybe the less said the better well what you need to do is learn how to use a toilet so you're not going to bring this her back to me no I'm starting to like it but among these contemporaries an ambitious animated show on Comedy Central called Drawn Together emerged in 2004 it was developed by Dave jesser and Matt Silverstein both childhood friends and comedy writers from Englewood New Jersey up to that point the pair had work together writing for shows such as Third Rock From the Sun Greg The Bunny and the man show Once More it is crazy how much culture has shifted since the 2000s it is like night and day compared to today's [Applause] sensibilities Now Dave and Matt's original premise was simple yet effective an ensemble of Legally distinct cartoon characters living together in a house who would participate in various challenges and engage in humorous hijinks this was the mid 2000s and the reality TV Trend was in full swing so to take that concept and to put an animated spin on it well it was a stroke of Genius instead of having the stereotypical cast of liveaction actors we'd have cartoon characters from different genres of Animation all drawn in their respective Styles the concept worked as a joke in and of itself since a cartoon by its nature cannot be reality though since most reality shows are heavily scripted or at least manipulated by the people behind the show to a large degree you could also read the premise as a comment on the nature of reality TV in general in October of 2003 Dave and Matt pitched their concept to Comedy Central using a short test done and Flash The Producers were doing their best to sus out an audience by being upfront about exactly what to expect during the show as quoted in variety jesser States quote anything adults can do on a reality show we want our characters to do end quote and good Lord would they do that plus so much more the pitch meeting was a smashing success and Drawn Together was immediately picked up for seven episodes by the network with the series premiering the following year on October 27th 2004 animated hell was about to be Unleashed on the next drawn together I say we smash the cameras and blow the whole house up tensions in the house boil over let's do this then two chicks gelatin [Music] wrestle plus the best boardroom yet actually the only boardroom yet on this show someone is getting fired oh Drawn Together together an all new episode of TV's first animated reality show Wednesday at 10:30 oh by the way folks I got new merch I guess this is what the kids call a merch drop we got a boomer did I use that term right hopefully yeah this is the first official one I've done like some T-shirts before but look at this that's official you got the saber verse poster you get a beanie with my face on it you got my mug on the mug t-shirts long sleeve shirts Sab spark the whole gang is here so if you want to support the channel go hit up the link in the description down below again I really appreciate the support go check it out all right on that note back to the video I had to find help and nothing can stop me absolutely no o is that a hot tuby oh I hear they got officially license saber spark merch using their late night time slot to the fullest extent Drawn Together made fun of everything gay marriage racism basically every single form of abuse you can think of eating disorders and other things I absolutely cannot mention directly due to YouTube yeah thanks for that guys really appreciate not being able to talk about this thing in full context but hey them the breaks folks if you want to see the full version of this review the one that also includes uncensored clips of drawn together for full context then go check it out on my patreon right now link is in the description let's just say it's very dirty all right okay moving on so each week Drawn Together examines how the characters interact living in a house full of cameras and they're changing relationship Dynamics each member of the cast also fulfills a character archetype typically seen in reality TV shows of the era the The Outsider the gay one you get the idea think Total Drama Island but with more swearing and boobs and somehow less farting I know I was shocked too jesser and Silverstein knew this wasn't going to be a show for everyone they were deliberate in this by using provocative marketing for season 1 print ads and billboards use spicy images of Foxy and Clara with a tagline find out what happens when cartoon character stopped being polite and start making out in Hot Tubs with that kind of mission statement drawn together was destined to be an incredibly divisive program First Impressions from critics found the pilot both tasteless and offensive with most of the humor coming from the characters actually embracing the same stereotypes they claim to be ridiculing in one review from The New York Times writer Virginia heeren enjoyed the concept but felt that they could not stick The Landing when it came to satire Virginia said quote with the deck so skillfully loaded Drawn Together should hit joke after joke but somehow the show confines each character to one liners you want to look away and the characters do little but revert to type as if nothing the show's creators Can Dream up will ever be as satisfying as their preliminary character descriptions end quote despite this early fans have drawn together especially college students loved it for daring to go where other adult cartoons weren't willing to with a crude combination of violence sex and runchy humor additionally they had an incredibly lucky Wednesday night time slot immediately following South Park and right before The Daily Show with John Stewart this was the peak watch time for Comedy Central giving them consistently high ratings and proving it was a big hit for the network but resonating with a young demographic is one thing how does drawn together as a show hold up though especially now is the show still funny or relevant today the answer to that is uh mixed to say the least this is definitely an eye the beholder kind of situation folks let's start off with the nucleus of the show the characters like I said before the concept of drawn together was to bring together eight characters from different animation Styles and put them in a reality show style setting Captain Leslie hero is a parody of superheroes who embody various negative traits like being sociopathic chauvinistic and perverted his design is influenced by The Works of Bruce Tim and Max fer and his personality is a combination of characters like Superman Mr Majestic Hyperion and more Leslie is also prone to sudden fits of Hysteria a common Trope in superhero stories walor jebba sockbat is a hyperactive and gullible children show character who displays strange and unrealistic behaviors he's reminiscent of characters like SpongeBob and Roger Rabbit a princess Clara is a bigoted and religious princess who mocks Disney princesses like Ariel and Belle she's homophobic loves to sing and Carries herself as a bit holier than thou foxy love is a parody of the character Valerie Brown from the show Josie and the Pussycats she is a sharp tonged and promiscuous musician who solves Mysteries to bronstein is a chubby and egotistical old timey sex symbol who is modeled after Betty Boop she is attention-seeking self harming and often instigates conflict in the house probably the most abrasive character on the show Xander p wifflebottom is a parody of jrpg Heroes like link from The Legend of Zelda and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7 he's hyp sensitive gay and and effeminate by the way I always found it weird that Xander a video game character was included as a cartoon character but whatever then there's Spanky ham a sex obsessed and toilet humored anthropomorphic Pig who is based on various internet flash cartoon characters lingling is a psychopathic anime character who is influenced by you guest it Pokemon he Battles by using Supernatural powers and speaks in this pseudo Japanese with English subt titles and that folks is our main cast of characters along with them includes a let's say colorful Ensemble of Side characters such as the producer and huh others we won't go into detail about others you see many of you annoying cartoon characters show up at Hot Topic looking for merchandise from your insipid shows now one of the most interesting things about Drawn Together is the animation and how each character is rendered While most cartoons have a singular art style Drawn Together leans into the multifaceted sources that it's cast hail from Captain Hero is drawn with angular streamline Anatomy that bruised him popularized with Batman the Animated Series walor looks like something out of a nightmare episode of SpongeBob Spanky ham has flat colors and thick outlines reminiscent of the simple style of amateur Flash cartoons of the time he Lampoons Clara is drawn with colored outlines like characters from the Disney Renaissance foxy has proportions similar to Hannah Barbara cartoons and she lacks eye whites just like how the studio tended to draw their characters faces back in the day lingling uses more limited animation and frequently is drawn with speed lines and other anime exaggerations and tude is rendered in black and white probably the only character not directly drawn in the aesthetic of the source material is Xander since he'd probably be either a low poly 3D model or pixel art being a parody of video games but that was probably too technically complex or simply beyond the budget for the show so he's rendered in traditional 2D like I'm still blown away at how great the animation quality is especially juggling eight different character Styles at the same time we can credit the team at Rough Draft Studios for that because this show was no small feet to create is this your live action cow another strength of Drawn Together is the voice acting this includes terara strong cre summer Jess hernell Jack plotnik Adam Corolla and Abby McBride many of these voice actors are on record saying that acting for Drawn Together is some of the most fun they've ever had working on a show like they really brought their aame to this cartoon and yeah I'm sure it's got to be a nice change of pace to do something this outlandish after doing a ton of children's cartoons this is an acting job unlike anything they've ever had and ever will have first of all I love the guys who created that show Matt Silverstein and Dave jesser amazing guys two of my absolute favorite comic writers of all time I would go to table reads and read this stuff and I'd be like there's no way I oh there were a few lines there were a few lines I'm like I'm not saying that but but very few you know the scheme of things but it was more like I'm like it's going to be funny to see how much of this you know cuz I'm thinking like 80% of it it all made it to air it all made it to air the chances they took on that show there was they took the envelope put it in a paper shredder and set it on fire also I was told by folks on my Twitter that the Spanish dub for Drawn Together goes stupid hard and is a big hit in Mexico and other Latin American countries it is g no but that leads us to the Fiery Heart and depraved soul of Drawn Together the writing one of the Hallmarks of the show was its willingness to push the limits of what was considered acceptable in a cartoon especially back in 2004 while Comedy Central had other heavy hitter adult animation most notably South Park drawn together was much more of a shock comedy that push boundaries in a much more erratic irreverent fashion whereas South Park was evolving from simple juvenile humor of its earlier Seasons into becoming a bit more poignant with its social commentary drawn together was more like early South Park on steroids where humor was done mostly for humor's sake just to see how far they could push the line the show was often runchy filled with sexual innuendos and controversial social commentary the characters were all exaggerated caricatures designed to Mock and subvert the classic cartoon stereotypes they represented no social group sexual orientation or hot button issue was off the table for the show and the marketing reveled in egging on anyone with a stomach too weak to handle what the show is throwing at you the first episode of the series had foxy and Clara making out in a hot tub which was pretty edgy for 2004 and comedy Central absolutely ran with this using the image of them mid make out as the headlining image for promotion leading up to the series debut on the next Drawn Together two of these housemates will be exploitatively filmed as they make out with t primarily Drawn Together succeeded when they kept things simple using vulgar in-your-face comedy with a unique production design additionally I have to mention the wide variety of original music featured in the show they parody a ton of music music styles from show tunes ballads and more within the series starting right out the gate with black chick's tongue directly making fun of A Whole New World from Aladdin in fact only two episodes of the entire show don't have a musical number in them so I definitely appreciate the amount of time they put into making so many weird songs my personal favorite is sunshine but you can decide for yourself by checking them out online or on Spotify just for the love of God wear headphones otherwise you're about to get a ton of weird [Applause] looks there's a ton of creativity here but the show still has its fair share of weaknesses it wasn't just that drawn together was aggressively offensive and isolated Their audience on purpose rather it tried and often failed to deliver a barely shoehorned message at the last minute to address some kind of social comment alongside provocative comedy I guess they felt they needed one to justify the overall plot of an episode but I don't think they actually accomplished it and in some ways end up almost endorsing the same criticisms they claimed to be making fun of I get why the producers wanted to try and have it both ways but there's a lack of subtlety and balance in the storytelling that really dolls whatever message they were trying to convey even when most people probably would not have expected them to make a genuine statement in the first place they don't treat it seriously so why should we care let's use a season 2 Band episode Terms of Endearment for the scenario and yes I know was supposed to originally air in season 1 and was delayed due to fighting with the network I know don't be a nerd in the comments or be a nerd in the comments who cares Captain Hero accidentally gives foxy a brain tumor from using his x-ray vision on her this causes her to revert to a highly racist 1940s caricature and she has taken to a permanent erase facility along with a group of other Politically Incorrect cartoons The Mastermind behind this plan is revealed to be none other than Mickey Mouse a clear criticism of censorship used by the Walt Disney Company now they've had a messy history of denying the existence of racist cartoons from their own past logging them away in the Disney Vault to seem more socially conscience by today's standards I agree with them bringing this up as it's a good point to make even though it's an absolute Ely messed up and shameful part of History trying to censor or belittle the impact of how those depictions have affected generations of people is wrong in a direct parallel one of Disney's competitors Warner Brothers has been issuing disclaimers on digital and DVD editions of their older cartoons since 2006 with the following message for a company as large as Warner this statement is both candid but honest about addressing their controversial past headon by preserving history as it was we can actively work on making future media more inclusive for everybody this is the one thing I'm willing to praise past Warner Brothers for right now current Warner Brothers though do better this is embarrassing I'm talking about you zaz Lev so when did Disney start making similar disclaimers on their films well November 2019 when Disney plus was launched but the initial wording of these disclaimers actually got a lot of controversy with just a tiny blurb after the film synopsis daating quote this program is presented as originally created it may contain outdated cultural depictions end quote not inaccurate or harmful mind you just outdated language and phrasing matters you can't just handwave stuff like this away so yeah people were angry they did not make a stronger statement and after some input from Minority sensitivity groups Disney later fixed this disclaimer the the following year in October of 2020 circling back I agree with Drawn Together on wanting to bring it up but what sucks is that the character who addresses it Spanky ham is also the first housemate to actively enjoy Foxy's abrupt change in personality he's literally dancing with Glee watching her revert to an even worse stereotype than the show was already using for her like whatever they're trying to do with this I don't think the writers get how mixed the message comes across to an audience in a situation like this you can't have your cake and eat it too it comes across as a flimsy excuse rather than a genuine anti- censorship statement and keep in mind this is not the first time Spanky has used racism as his primary reason for helping somebody else and Super Nanny Spanky only wants to help lingling pass his driver's test to enact a pervasive stereotyp for own Amusement afterwards lingling ends up with a concussion with the other housemates blaming Spanky for the Fiasco unconvinced walor posing as a doctor uh physically adjusts Ling Ling's eyesight to see differently after he passes a driver's test Ling Ling's personality changes and other Asian characters accuse him of renouncing his Heritage until he undos a procedure at the end of the episode yeah everybody sucks here but Spanky got them involved for all the wrong reasons okay fine not everything needs to be treated with nuance especially in a show like this where Sol goes to die but what about the comedy itself is the show funny you know what uh yeah kind of if you're not easily offended or have a high tolerance for cringe and shock humor but is the comedy balanced uh not really the ratio of jokes relative to the story is high like I'm talking 70% jokes to 30% story it's incredible for Rapid Fire comedy because usually the jokes hit one after the other with some incredible onliners while rewatching it I was dumbfounded at how weirdly aggressive the humor was but I got to admit it got me to laugh sometimes even if the setup and delivery is solid often the plot gets so murky that it's difficult to keep track of which episode you're watching sometimes they just fully give up with the a plot and focus more on the B plot which the writers also directly address in an episode thank God I'm in the other story and while this isn't necessarily a bad thing it doesn't disservice the show as a whole you don't have to take every aspect of your story seriously but there should be a reason to care about what's happening or making it interesting enough to keep watching it did not start out this way though in season 1 they worked very closely to the original premise with each episode following a standard reality show concept I.E the real world American Idol big brother and and so on these competition framing devices help to Anchor the plot and tell cohesive arcs in 22 minutes all while still being outrageous and gross let's use episode 104 requium for a reality show as an example the housemates compete to get food for a week doing a completely insane and obviously unfair challenge the team who loses all go hungry and resort to drastic measures to eat bullied by Spanky walor manipulates Clara into singing killing her woodland animal friends for meat Captain Hero begins a transactional BDSM relationship with foxy getting paid with food for sexual favors toot binge eats grotesque amounts of food but takes terrible advice from both Xander and Foxy developing a series of Eating Disorders to lose the weight sure there's tons of edgy stuff at play but it makes sense for how things progress during the episode and by the end of season 1 this reality show framing device was dropped entirely it seems like they either ran out of Concepts they wanted a parody or straight up just got bored of using it as a result season 2 and three become more episodic and designed to maximize outrageous jokes along with a topical subject from the mid-2000s steroid usage gay aage and so on what started as a funny and invisivein becomes an overreliance on Direct references excessive running gags and homages that feel more lazy than reverential let's take a moment to remember some of our family who we've lost over this past [Music] [Applause] [Music] season may they all rot in hell amen they can start off kind of funny at first but quickly overstay their welcome becoming annoying and tedious to watch by far the extended running Gap tags are one of the biggest weaknesses of the show characters having lengthy conversations off screens farts that last way too long recycling animation it's like oh my God we get it just move on already but what got to me the most though was the characters degrading in quality over time going through the rough process of flanderization originally from TV Tropes uh this term refers to a character's established personality traits becoming overly simplified and instead becoming their whole personality for example the term is named after Ned Flanders from The Simpsons who goes from being Homer annoying but well-meaning goody to shoe neighbor into an exhausting Christian right Figure Head seasonal rot can happen to the best of shows over the years especially when changing writing teams or increasing episode demands from the network who often value quantity over quality but it only took a few seasons for the Drawn Together housemates to lose what little development they had the characters become and stay the worst versions of themselves especially in season 3 and the movie it's not enough that Clara is accidentally bigoted during season 1 being raised as a spoiled and isolated princess in season two they dial this up even further with Clara using her religious beliefs as both a shield and a justification for hatred she tries to stop a gay wedding between Spanky and Xander who were trying to get married for health insurance and later uses the veggie fables to repress Waldo's blooming sexuality by season three she becomes a fullon hyper conservative stereotype a racist homophobic fundamentalist Christian eagerly waiting for the Rapture Clara becomes so cruel and unlikable in season 3 that she's even willing to secretly poison and abuse walor on purpose to get positive attention from her housemates during the previous season and the lemon AIDS of to walk Clara was best friends with walor wanting him to run a lemonade stand with her obviously I'm not expecting there to be substantial continuity in a show like this but I think the writing really struggles when there's a lack of consistency in the character's relationships building over time they toy with the idea but It ultimately does not make that big of a difference when the plot demands otherwise like Spanky is almost always used as a bad influence on walor and lingling but frequently having him be the mouthpiece for the moral of the story is just a weird Choice considering he usually pushed them to those extremes in the first place the most consistent character from beginning to end is probably uh guess who Captain Hero whether or not that's a good thing in this case I really don't know personally I would have appreciated a little less incest from him not going to lie there's a a lot he does there's a there's aot there's a lot that he does uh you would think that like homelander is pretty bad uh-uh no homelander looks like a saint compared to Captain Hero and I mean it oh yeah that's what honestly frustrates me the most about Drawn Together the characters just become whatever the plot demands of them it makes it difficult to care or keep track of the story when each character eventually ends up being a homicidal unhinged monster and their individual arcs don't matter the showrunners themselves address this lack of consistency quite a bit with tons of meta jokes breaking the fourth wall talking about how much the show sucks but whether or not this acknowledgement actually proves or justifies anything is minimal mostly it comes off as an immature excuse to just be offensive without having any real purpose you can make a statement about something being wrong but when you keep showing worse depictions of it in the same show it renders the argument pointless and unnecessary Drawn Together frequently walks the line of being able to laugh at themselves but still acknowledges a lot of the criticisms leveled against them they go so far as to actually use a scathing review of the first episode from Entertainment Weekly with the characters launching a killing spree at the magazine office and confronting the writer why take the high road we can salt the Earth instead right unsurprisingly Drawn Together left a massive impact on the animated television landscape many people loved it and many people hated it hell the show was so influential that it even inspired the Anime Studio gyex to create pany and stalking it's wild to think that between the two series pany and stalking is still the more reserved of the two but despite the success of drawn together and running for three seasons despite despite being a huge hit with a sought after demographic the show would implode by its own hands drawn together was on the verge of cancellation but it was not about to leave before giving the biggest middle finger to both Comedy Central and South Park on its way out a drone to get a heid cancell canell despite the high ratings of drawn together it was always on the brink of cancellation for a number of factors first off it was was extremely expensive to produce with each episode costing roughly $700,000 each and an estimated 9 months of production time which gradually impacted their airing schedule unsurprisingly animation is not cheap second given the subject matter of the show most advertisers did not want to be associated with drawn together even if the viewership was high which uh yeah can't say I blame them like can you imagine the look on the face of an executive from a company after seeing their commercial attached to Drawn Together Ford tough the only truck for sexual predators like Captain Hero yes oh I like that don't I and finally and most embarrassingly the creators of the show jesser and Silverstein grew complacent during season 3 lacking the same passion and motivation to get done on time they actually admitted to this claiming the second half of season 3 was so bad because they were actively wasting their time watching too much YouTube and playing Halo on their XBox listen Dave Matt we've all been there but you never publicly brag about it nobody will feel sorry for you that was the reason why season 3 had a staggered airing schedule part one aired in early October of 2006 then took a long break until part two aired the following year in October of 2007 with a musical clip show acting as a series finale which is like exceptionally lazy and lame to [Music] us character It All Hang Out million together let's all relive This creepy Captain Hero moment was a strange problem for Comedy Central to Grapple with they had a hit show that was their second highest rated program on their Network and it also appealed to college kids a highly coveted and fickle demographic but to get there they had to constantly deal with boycotts from advertisers along with protests from religious and family oriented morality groups who wanted to take the show off the air all right TV reviewer you've gone too far and who are you to tell what the hell no wonder you hate the show you're everything we make fun of this folks was the source of drawn togethers eventual downfall they jeopardized the Network's bottom line and could not bring in enough money to justify sticking around and whatever good faith Comedy Central still had with jesser and Silverstein was diminishing fast they assumed that by still maintaining high ratings Comedy Central would keep backing them up when things got heated but in the end the lines they crossed and the enemies they made became too much for Comedy Central to handle in March of 2007 fans grew concerned after hearing jesser and Silverstein have begun working on a show for MTV and signed 2-year development contracts with 20th Century Fox was this really the end of their beloved show well the answer was both yes and no and folks this leads us into one of the worst aspects of draw drawn togethers history the horrendous featurelength movie now I'm not the first person to mention this train wreck on YouTube because its reputation is honest to God just that awful but trust me the context here is essential in order to understand the complete downfall of Drawn Together announced in late 2009 but originally premiering at South by Southwest in March of 2010 the Drawn Together movie which was titled the Drawn Together movie the movie was in intended to be a last Harrah necessary closure for fans who felt disappointed by the sudden cancellation of their beloved series Jester and Silverstein were so intent on making sure the DVD release turned a profit that they passed on their royalties directly to Comedy Central however despite the last minute Hail Mary what the fans got was an unwatchable pile of garbage that even the most DieHard fans hate with a passion from the very beginning of the movie movie the most obvious change is the lower quality of the animation it was an uncanny downgrade since the studio had a limited $1 million budget to work with for the entire film and opted to have it done in Adobe Flash and TB boom to save money the animation was done by Sixpoint harness the same comedy behind wowwow wubsy LT gy and Dick Figures now I'm sure that the animation team worked hard on it but uh I'm sorry it just looks awful and can't properly capture the same quality fans were used to on TV folks I cannot stress enough how unpleasant ugly and boring this movie is the amount of Spite and petulant rage in this film makes it unbearable to watch with a a thinly veiled plot devolving into their Petty one-sided rivalry with South Park the story premise is that the Drawn Together gang discovers that their show has been permanently cancelled in favor of an obvious parody of South Park Captain Hero dates a corpse because of course he does meanwhile the evil Network head sends a robot voice by Seth McFarland named uh no the timing here Israel yeah that's that's its name Israel to erase the Drawn Together characters from existence prepare to be ER Israel must kill you all I guess Seth McFarland owed them a favor or something because a jesser and Silverstein also wrote on The Cleveland Show so hm not a good explanation but it's the only one I have that or maybe a Blood Oath who can say the movie reveals the main cast of characters are conically doppelgangers of actual iconic cartoon characters the group meets the new Show's Rising Star wanting her help she claims the show can be vulgar as it wants as long as it makes a point Alla social commentary and joins them on a trip to make a point land a magical place where they can find relevance again Clara dies at the halfway point of the movie in a dungeon that features the Rhino guards from Disney's Robinhood for some reason and toot is only there for like half of the runtime living in Bedrock and pregnant with Barney Rebel's child presumably because it could not afford any additional screen time for Tera strong the only mystery you've ever solved is the mystery of the empty uterus and everyone dies by accidentally getting erased at the end there I saved you 71 minutes of your life go read a book instead okay so I'm being mean right now but hey uh so are the producers when they made this travesty look self-awareness doesn't mean anything without tangible signs of improvement just because you joke about something being crappy or lazy does not mean it's an excuse to not try especially when you've been given an exceptionally rare second chance to complete the story's ending the way you wanted to people can tell when you don't put effort into something and they're not going to mindlessly watch your film just because the drawn togethers gang is in it they're here for the comedy the characters playing off each other the things that made them keep watching these three seasons of the show on TV in the first place but the movie threw it all away in a very callous and self-righteous manner I think the showrunners really struggled with this as the vibe of the movie is so nasty and bitter that I can't imagine anybody watching it is completely sighting with them including fans now it's entirely possible Jester and Silverstein actually did get a raw deal from Comedy Central but they were annoyed with the obvious favoritism of South Park by the network or they were frustrated with the lack of consistent marketing and merchandise available to promote it in fact the show Runners bring up this lack of available merch and the season 3 two-part special lost in the parking space face apparently jesser and Silverstein had been told by comedy Central's marketing team that drawn together was having an exclusive t-shirt release with the retail store You Guessed It Hot Topic Hot Topic they got everything a suicidal pretin won except for parents who listen they were Beyond pumped coring the rest of the staff to go to their local mall and check out the goods however the stores clerk had no idea the show even existed calling it quote drawn to what now after scaming around in the back the team eventually managed to find them a few officially licensed t-shirts badly crumbled up and stuck under another box huh yeses I got to admit that's got to be profoundly frustrating imagine your show not receiving the same lucrative merchandising opportunities as Family Guy or Invader Zim in the mid 2000s it's not great for morale at the very least but I don't know uh how things ended just feels weird and gross to me even with all the obvious passion and dedication from the voice actors looking back on it now I can't help but feel like the showrunners still squandered what they had that this movie is them publicly licking their wounds and forcing the audience to watch it scab over in gruesome detail that they took their success for granted somehow somehow got a limited budget for a movie after being cancelled and still use that time to crap on the network and complain about a show with better critical reception rather than give the fans a more complete and satisfying ending it's one of the most poorly aged aspects of drawn together as a property exacerbating all of the weakest aspects of it as a show if you want to talk about a genuinely great screw the network finale I think the ow housee pretty much nailed it it's clearly not a one for one comparison as they're obviously super different in subject matter audience and tone but they were both massive outliers for the respective networks with most of their marketing coming directly from the fans Word of Mouth sure the three-part finale for The Owl House is definitely rushed in sections and not every question was answered by the ending but the absolutely worked their asses off on it kept the show trending online for weeks and made Disney look like complete idiots for cancelling it so abruptly in contrast the Drawn Together movie exemplified the worst tendency of the showrunners and its failure ended up actually justifying comedy Central's decision to cancel the show so wow this movie just keeps on going it's hear it's a long thing this movie how we get out a bad idea actually might very well be a bad idea but um Dave Dave uh he needed the money so I had Matt Matt married into money who the hell would ever want to listen to this in an article promoting the movie from animation World Network jesser and Silverstein address their thought process for choosing a Twist villain quote the South Park spoof in the movie is a dig at critics who complain that Drawn Together isn't like Stone and Parker show but we didn't want to be like South Park Drawn Together is like the junior varsity team at Comedy Central South Park is the varsity team they're clearly the better show they go after things they hate we only hurt the ones we love end quote yeah you seem really unbothered by [Music] it regardless comparing South Park to Drawn Together is like apples and oranges they're very different but people can like them for similar reasons the writing structure for South Park is generally straightforward mostly focusing on a singular a plot and the real conflict comes from how the characters react to new situations or roadblocks achieving a goal there's an insightful video on YouTube of Matt and Trey coaching NYU students with their writing process and it's worth your time if you haven't seen it before right so so what I'm saying is that you come up with an idea and it's like okay this happens right and then this happens no no no it should be this happens and therefore this happens but this happens therefore this happens now I totally get why some people see South Park as being too preachy or annoying because so much of its humor can be dependent on topical jokes when it's great it's because they know how to keep the story consistent and still have enough time to let the jokes breathe they also use Autodesk Maya to animate each episode with a team of 70 workers that can get most new shows out within a week now that is completely unrealistic for most 2D animated Productions but it's another reason why South Park can respond so quickly to current events as well as guaranteeing a consistent airing schedule most mostly I find this rivalry unfortunate and sad drawn together was a wildly excessive but funny show that had a ton of fans but how the showrunners handled criticism at the time was childish and embarrassing if you're going to make a show that relishes and being offensive and dumb just own it but you can't be surprised if that results in consequences that makes your show less financially viable like it or not television is an industry geared towards turning a profit first and retaining viewers second that has only become more obvious with the streaming Wars losing subscribers left and right by removing programming to save money in that regard I think it's interesting to see so much renewed interest and Drawn Together now there's always been a demand for edgy comedy but in our current landscape with everything being sanitized to not irritate Brands there's more of a gray area that separates sincerity and humor versus being provocative and knowing what will get people watching yes drawn together was able to use shock and awe to attract an audience but in the end it was that very same shock that would be its downfall and lead to its cancellation talk about a double-edged sword goodby CR World ow in conclusion drawn together was undeniably a product of its time and is a mixed bag of both good but mostly bad the show wasn't afraid to rock the boat during an era of already vulgar and Politically Incorrect comedy but it also didn't have anything all that compelling to say either it was at the right place at the right time with basically no filter and everybody to offend many people did not take Drawn Together seriously back in the day because the creators themselves refused to do so now it has the legacy of being a well animated but mostly pointless post of a TV series with a ton of potential but none of the discipline required to fully take it to the next level it sucks because I genuinely do enjoy many aspects of the show but the end of the series and a terrible movie ended up validating Their Own Worst fears when you live in the shadow of a bigger show you have to actively work hard to stand out and earn your moment in the spotlight being offensive for the sake of just being offensive is indeed a reason to exist but if you can't demonstrate that you can handle more than that well then it's a reason with a brief shelf life jesser and Silverstein have gone on to have a number of production and writing credits most notably The Cleveland Show solar opposites and housebroken however there's still a huge wake Left Behind from drawn togethers cancellation they've gone on to say that they'd love to do a reboot if given the opportunity but I doubt anything will come from that at least not from another mainstream TV network willing to to take that kind of risk now it's possible that a smaller development company might be willing to give them a shot but maybe as more of an online property with the runaway success of hasman hotel and smiling friends two edgy comedy series built from the success of their online creators the demand for outlandish comedy is definitely still there it'll just be a matter of whether or not they're able to work in today's Ever Changing landscape and whether they genuinely have something to say this time I'm a goddamn a mess I'm an alcoholic I have a bit of a temper I'll cut you you dirty poock and I can't stop eating despite its controversies drawn together was beloved by many fans for its edgy and daring humor the show was designed to challenge societal norms and push the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in a cartoon while some people felt that the show went too far in its depiction of controversial topics others felt that it was a necessary and important voice in the world of anim drawn together was a show that was not afraid to take risk and push the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in a cartoon while it often resulted in controversies and accusations of insensitivity the show's creators and fans argued that the show was meant to be a satirical commentary on these issues and that its humor was meant to challenge and subvert harmful stereotypes regardless of one's opinion on the show's controversial nature there is no denying its impact on the world of animation and pop culture while causing waves during its initial airing in the mid 2000s the series went on to be appreciated for its bold nature unique approach to animation and surprising moments of levity as the years went on it was actually named one of the 60 greatest cartoons of all time in 2013 By TV Guide which by the way I'm just surprised as you are that TV Guide still existed in 2013 despite its flaws drawn together was a show ahead of its time with taboo topics used as a BAS bis for its Jokes which consisted of masturbation paraphilia kinky sex homosexuality gay marriage abortion rape incest pedophilia ministration spousal abuse racism homophobia xenophobia anti-Semitism necrofilia terrorism graphic violence and death the list of problematic content on display in this show reads like a greatest hits of human depravity in 2004 when the show first aired the world was a different place and the fact that I can say something like that about a time I was alive for and recall makes me feel absolutely ancient the internet was just starting to gain traction and social media was non-existent this meant that push back against controversial content was limited to Word of Mouth and news reports today the social landscape is much different any past offense no matter how small or how long ago can be uncovered by anyone on social media and result in widespread backlash or even potentially career-ending consequences this is why it's unlikely that a major company would even attempt to produce a show as daring as drawn together in today's world the concept of the show alone invites backlash which is evident in the ongoing discourse surrounding it today regardless of facing criticism Drawn Together became a massive hit with three seasons and a dedicated fan base this was largely due to the fact that people were not as sensitive to these types of topics at the time and there was no platform for open public criticism like there is nowadays with social media despite the fact that most of the offensive comedy in the show was trying to be a commentary on the absurdity and the ideas themselves the tolerance for commentary like that in today's social climate is almost non-existent today social media is like an ongoing popularity contest where everyone is trying to prove how much better they are than everyone else and indiv individuals are subject to scrutiny from complete strangers at any given moment enjoying a controversial show like drawn together would not only invite backlash from social media users but it could also result in an individual becoming Persona NG grada online it's doubtful that a show like drawn together would even make it pass a month of airtime if it was produced today talking about one's enjoyment of it publicly online would only invite trouble from these self-righteous and and judgmental social media mob in that regard it seems like an impossibility for a show like this to even exist as an independent web production in today's social climate let alone run on network television from a major corporation they just get slaughtered in the court of public opinion unless there's a Titanic shift and cultural norms it's doubtful we'll see something as blatantly risque as drawn together anywhere outside of 4chan thread in the end Drawn Together isn't Timeless but it's definitely a product of its time it's a snapshot of the media landscape of the 2000s and goes to show how much has culturally shifted since then perhaps with proper Nuance drawn together could have avoided cancellation if it took the same approach as always sunny when it came to dark comedy but the series pushed the envelope in such a way that it was only a matter of time until it would implode but whether you liked it or not drawn together was definitely a unique experience and one of a kind and it will forever be remembered as the most offensive cartoon that ever aired on television it's okay sweetie our long National nightmare is over he can't hurt us anymore the important thing is that you survived we all [Music] survived [Music] a [Music] yeah

Channel: Saberspark

Views: 1,092,330

Keywords: saberspark, saber, animation, drawn together, comedy central, cancelled, cancellation, offensive, cartoon, most offensive cartoon ever, offensive cartoon, homelander WISH he could

Id: EaQJzTWt5VI

Length: 60min 49sec (3649 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2023