Top 20 Unexpectedly Dark Episodes in Kids Cartoons

so what's your happiest memory squidward um let me thank you [Music] welcome to watch mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 unexpectedly dark episodes in kids cartoons your mind's too polluted to use your ring yes as you race through time the whole world went to all my family's tiny flaws and imperfections magnified a thousand-fold by my new vision certainly we were never meant to see this clearly for this list we'll be looking at episodes of kits cartoons with dark elements that were mostly uncharacteristic to the rest of the series we're also taking into consideration how messed up the plot of the episode was and will be excluding anime just be on a lookout for spoilers number 20 it's a wishful life the fairly oddparents when our bucktooth main character is berated for every good deed he's done that day he decides to teach everyone a lesson by wishing he didn't exist bye you know what i wish i was never bored timmy is then transported to an alternate timeline where it turns out everyone is better off without him what's worse is that jorgen tries to send him to what is conceptually similar to hell [Music] when timmy is able to steal jorgen's wand he laments wondering if everyone else's sadness is worth his existence he decides it's not and accepts his fate but i'll be doing is making everybody's life worse i can't do that to cosmo and wanda mom and dad it all turns out to be a test but it's still a pretty shocking plot number 19 the ultimate enemy danny phantom ever since danny phantom was granted ghostly powers he tried to use them for the betterment of the people around him which is why it was so surprising to find out in this tv movie that he was the one who destroyed the world during an experiment gone wrong all of dany's friends and loved ones died the big explosion at the nasty burger you tucker danny's family and it was all your fault as a result dany asked vlad masters to remove his pain i.e his ghost side this resulted in vlad and dany's ghosts fusing to create dark dany where it's implied they killed human dany this would be a very touching little reunion but of course i surrendered my human half a long time ago this darkness is brought even further when you see the evil fusion then attempting to kill all the characters we love number 18 are you happy now spongebob squarepants squidward has always gotten the short end of the stick but no one expected the show to insinuate him ending it all squidward realizes that he doesn't have a happiest memory prompting spongebob to try and create one for him look i don't need a happy memory so just get back to your culinary grease factory and leave me alone unfortunately his efforts fail sending squidward into a deep depression locking himself away for weeks it's here we see one of the darkest images ever drawn in the series squidward takes a rope and ties it up implying he's decided life isn't worth living i can't seem to get happy maybe this will help it may have been a bait and switch but by the end of the episode squidward has a mental breakdown leaving his depression unresolved are you enjoying the hors d'oeuvres [Music] at a certain point his pain is no longer funny number 17 catch a falling star ben 10 ultimate alien ben tennyson has battled all sorts of monsters but battling a toxic partner is something we don't think the omnitrix is kitted out for when famous actress jennifer nocturne helps break her former kidnapper carl nesmith out of prison ben can't figure out why do you have the gauntlet i found it right where you said good girl in only a few hours captain nemesis lives again as the two escape together carl commits atrocious crimes while jennifer remains unfazed even almost killing ben herself jennifer has pitted all of her dreams of a normal life on carl who only reciprocates her feelings when she's useful to him yes it all sounds wonderful but there's something i have to do first what's that destroy ben tennyson but why can't we just go i'm sure you know what's best this episode tackles the very real issue of manipulation in toxic relationships which is a bit different from fighting aliens number 16 the same as it never was teenage mutant ninja turtles the 2003 series of tmnt has a couple of dark episodes throughout its run however none of us expected our heroes in a half shell to die on screen when donatello is sent to the future he discovers things took a turn for the worse in his absence you've been gone over 30 years donatello 30 years it can't be splinter was killed the brother split up mikey lost an arm and shredder has taken over the world in a last-ditch effort to stop this horrible timeline from happening the turtles charge shredders hq dying off one by one all right donny we'll do it one more time but please tell me we have a fighting chance the saddest part is seeing raphael crawling over to his estranged brother leo to spend his final moments with him leo [Music] [Applause] it's the teenage mutant ninja dead guys number 15 web world wars reboot they'll summon the attack drones you've got to stop them getting back through the portal sometimes the internet can feel like a black hole that destroys everything it comes into contact with and for the people of mainframe this was literally the case as seen in this dark episode of reboot world web wars served as the season 2 finale of the hit show and ended on one of the darkest cliffhangers of all time nothing can stand in our way mainframe is ours bob was betrayed by megabyte and launched into the dangerous storm of the world wide web leaving the question of his fate unanswered until the third season premiered mega bite you won't get away with this number 14 to heck and back rocco's modern life even though it aired on nickelodeon rocco's modern life likes to push what they could get past the sensors in this episode heifer finds himself choking to death after swallowing a chicken's rib cage while rocco tries to revive him heifer meets peaches in what is quite obviously hell despite heifer's food habits being played for laughs the cartoon gets quite dark as heifer is exposed to his various gluts and his sins and how he would be punished now turn to channel three sure where's the remote you poor fool still don't know where you are do you there is no remote [Music] it gets even scarier when peaches starts appearing out of nowhere when he thinks he's safe the cartoon likes to play with adult jokes from time to time but the cartoon went a little far for a watershed time slot number 13 elephant issues tiny toon adventures there is a reason why this episode got pulled from the air the segment one beer follows buster plucky and hampton as they come across a beer in the fridge buster peer pressures his friends into taking a sip what are you thinking buster let's drink it drink it but buster this isn't like you i know but in this episode we're showing the evils of alcohol the trio go on a bender stumbling around clearly drunk and alienating their friends if underage drinking wasn't enough the characters take a police car for a joy ride and fall off a cliff to their deaths while the episode is very self-aware that it's supposed to deter kids from alcohol it still shocked people enough for the episode to be banned from fox kids i hope the kids got the message yeah drinking's uncool so do we get to do a funny episode tomorrow number 12 heavenly puss tom and jerry the adventures of this cat and mouse duo is filled with endless violence but the characters have only ever died a handful of times blue cat blues sees the two characters await a train to run them over after losing the girls of their dreams however heavenly puss pulls no punches after tom and jerry engage in a typical chase tom is crushed by a piano and ascends to heaven but once he gets there he is rejected for how he's treated jerry if within that time you can obtain the signature of that little mouse on this certificate of forgiveness you will be permitted to pass it's here we find tom pleading with jerry to forgive him before he gets sent to the red hot place down below turns out it was all a bad dream and tom has never been happier to see jerry number 11 jimmy static shock in the lead-up to a community center halloween party shy kid jimmy gets relentlessly picked on by nick and his friends stop it stop it i mean it i mean it don't not cool nick give me a break hawkins after some violent pranks jimmy disappears worrying his peers virgil and his dad go to jimmy's house where they discover that he's stolen his father's gun and plans to confront his tormentors at the school we see jimmy bursting into tears of anger as richie tries to talk him down lots of things aren't funny breaking my computer wasn't funny shoving me in the locker wasn't funny jimmy you're right i'm sorry man but just as jimmy lowers his gun he gets tackled by nick's friends accidentally shooting richie in the process it wasn't fatal but it was a frighteningly real situation nonetheless number 10 phineas and ferb get busted phineas and ferb my mom quick mom look before it disappears imagination is a wonderful thing to have though not everyone would agree as seen at disney's hit cartoon phineas and ferb in this episode candace finally catches the titular pair in performing their usual dangerous antics leading them to get sent to reform school i'm sorry but this is really for your own good the story takes a dark turn when the pair have their imaginations forcibly removed from their brains through intense brainwashing a concept that gets even darker considering it serves as a disturbing metaphor for growing up creative acts are imitatable and dangerous using your imagination is morally wrong though the whole thing turned out to be a dream that didn't save the episode from being incredibly dark i never actually busted phineas and ferb i am so happy number nine way of the dd dexter's laboratory [Music] being cooped up in a lab all day is no way to get through life despite what dexter might think luckily this boy genius had his sister deedee to free him from the clutches of his stressful work resulting in his spiritual awakening as he finds inner peace however that peace goes as quickly as it came after dexter destroys his own lab before promptly returning to his life of scientific solitude resulting in one of the most downbeat endings of any episode in the series number eight perfect courage the cowardly dog this show always bordered on the scary with plenty of episodes using chilling ideas to drive the comedic situations courage gets himself into but the series finale haunted many children's dreams during this episode no matter how much he tries he can't seem to do anything right you did it wrong just like you painted the chicken coop wrong and you did a lousy job repairing the windmill his feelings of inadequacy manifests in the hallucination of a schoolteacher called the perfectionist who berates him throughout the story it all comes to a head when courage starts having bad dreams where a cgi creature soothingly tells courage you're not perfect you're not perfect [Music] [Applause] the sudden animation switch is weird enough but this one among many other moments makes the entire episode nightmare fuel number seven mind pollution captain planet and the planeteers captain planet is a wisecracking superhero who works with his team of young environmentalists to tackle issues that beset the planet with a kid-friendly setup like that everyone probably ended up scarred after this episode when verminus scum introduces a new drug called bliss the entire town gets hooked including linka and her cousin boris but once you've felt bliss none of that will matter scum convinces the two to attack their friends who can't summon captain planet because lincoln's mind is polluted but then boris collapses after taking more bliss dying and link his arms this killed him i'm sorry no you are lying boris it's me lingard with her minds now cleared the planeteers summon captain planet who isn't slinging puns like he usually does incredibly angry with scum for going too far they defeat the villain but the trauma remains number six twisted sister the powerpuff girls the first thing we need is sugar this episode of the cartoon network original series is as memorable as it is heart-wrenching and tragic when blossom bubbles and buttercup want a new sister to help them fight crime they half-hazardly recreate the professor's experiment and make bunny who comes out a bit off just us that's right you're our sister too after bunny messes up crime fighting and is sent away by the girls she eventually returns to beat up every criminal in townsville before exploding from her body's instability saving the day for the first and final time admitted just the description of this episode was enough to bring a tragic tear to your eye she was good after all we were the ones who were bad number five holly jolly secrets adventure time wait a second man i know this case the ice king is easily one of the most interesting characters in adventure time as well as one of the most tragic as seen in this two-part episode after discovering the ice king's hidden videotapes finn and jake learned the dark story behind the mad ice wizard that he was once simon petrikov an antiquarian who discovered the ice crown hello my name is simon petrikov i am recording this tape so that people will know my story as the crown corrupted his mind simon was driven mad causing him to drive away the love of his life leaving him a shadow of his former self this tragic origin story made holly jolly secrets one of the series's darkest episodes even more so than evergreen just watch over me until i can find my way out of this labyrinth in my parade and regain my sanity number four haunted teen titans he's not coming back you know that's all that's left of him obsession can drive a person insane and in teen titans robin was that person in this episode of the hit series robin ponders over slade's defeat and wonders if he is truly gone a question that begins to haunt him as he starts to see the villain everywhere he goes you're not real i'm very real could you have gotten all those bruises from someone who wasn't there robin is driven mad by the hunt for slade who turns out to be nothing more than visions caused by a hallucinogenic chemical the whole affair serves as a metaphor for paranoia and ptsd which is what made this episode one of the darkest in the series sometimes i feel like i'm the only one still looking for him the only one who can stop him number three fail safe young justice attention you have entered the boundaries of earth space fail-safe is easily one of the most relentless and horrific episodes of a kid's cartoon in recent memory the episode kicks off with the death of the entire justice league following an alien attack to make matters worse the team is forced to take the league's place and defend the earth themselves the one thing the aliens cannot destroy is hope but after artemis dies the rest of the team is picked off one by one before suddenly waking up and finding out the whole scenario was a simulation made real by miss martian's powerful psychic mind leaving everyone devastated by these real emotions for a fake experience we know that young justice was supposed to be mature but not that mature what you experienced was a training exercise number two the puppet master avatar the last airbender what i'm about to show you i discovered in that wretched fire nation prison one of the most dangerous forms of bending in the world of avatar the last airbender is blood bending the act of bending the water within a person's blood to control their movements it was first introduced in the puppet master which told the story of hama a former prisoner of the fire nation who escaped by developing this dark technique which she continued to use to harm innocent civilians they threw me in prison to rot along with my brothers and sisters they deserve the same desperate to stop hama and save her friends katara is forced to use blood bending herself an axe that leaves her in tears with such a dark premise a tragic villain and a horrific technique the puppet master was perhaps the darkest and creepiest episode of avatar the last airbender congratulations katara you're a blood bender before we unveil our top pick here are a few honorable mentions drab city care bears the bears slowly lose their colors as a depressing city sucks away their happiness it's the stone that's causing this [Applause] angelica's worst nightmare rugrats the fear of replacement is very real i'm the new baby i'm the new baby and you're the old baby see and you better get something straight right off the bat there is we bear bears friendly people in the neighborhood or is something else afoot the new neighbors they were saying stuff about how perfect and chubby i was and how they're gonna capture me before we continue be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one dark harvest invader zim say you're full of organs aren't you this episode is without a doubt the most messed up thing ever to be aired on nickelodeon when zim fears that his alien biology will reveal his origins he attempts to make his body appear more human and the episode quickly devolves into a full-blown horror movie as zim harvests organs around the school replacing them with everyday objects until his hunt finally ends and he steals dibs lungs seriously how did this one make it past the bigwigs at nick i'm afraid i don't know what you're talking about an alien harvesting human organs doesn't exactly make for great children's television but it does make dark harvest our choice for the number one unexpectedly dark kids cartoon episode do you agree with our picks check out this other recent clip from watchmojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos

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Keywords: Animated, Cartoon, Streaming, TV, adventure time, avatar: the last airbender, captain planet, courage the cowardly dog, darkest cartoon episodes, darkest cartoons, darkest episodes, darkest kids cartoon episodes, dexter's lab, episodes, invader zim, list, mojo, phineas and ferb, teen titans, the powerpuff girls, top 10, unexpectedly dark, unexpectedly dark episodes in kids cartoons, watch mojo, watchmojo, young justice

Id: 9zW7yb1GkWk

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 09 2021