Saturday Morning Cartoons – Ed, Edd n Eddy
So I have been given the honor of starting off a new segment, Saturday Morning Cartoons! In this I’m charged with looking back at the cartoons we used to watch every day before school and every Saturday when we scrambled to the T.V to see the ones we missed. I’ll also take a look at some of the newer cartoons on T.V today and see if I how the match up. So to start off my little sojourn into nostalgia, lets have a look at Ed, Edd n Eddy!
For those of you who don’t know Ed, Edd n Eddy was a trippy little animated series created by Danny Antonucci in 1999. It aired on Cartoon Network on January 4th, after Antonucci approached both Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon with the idea for the show but it took a while for the ball to get rolling as there were arguments over creative control which Antonucci eventually sorted out in a deal with Cartoon Network. The idea for the series came to Antonucci when he was dared to create a childrens cartoon ,up until that point he had been working as and adult cartoonist, and from that dare we got one of the best cartoons to ever grace our television sets and not only that but with 10 years under its belt we got the longest running Cartoon Network original cartoon to date. With an audience made up of 120 countries, let’s have a look at what made this cartoon so damn good.
The first episode, “The Edtouchables”, sets many of the series staples, most notably its slapstick humor, its resemblance to 60s and 70s era cartoons and its weird moments that we only really notice for what they are now that we’re all grown up. The first character we’re introduced to is the hilariously obsessively compulsive Edd or “double D” who is busy labelling everything in his room, from his ants to his slippers. He runs to his door after the doorbell rings and is treated to the age old pranks of the unofficial group leader, Eddy. Eddy runs riot in double D’s room before they speed down the street to Eds house. It’s right about here where the show gets weird. They sneak up to the window of Eds room in the basement of his parents house where he is watching T.V. We catch a brief glimpse of a rotating 3D skull on the screen before it swishes around to Eds face. Ed is, without a doubt, the idiot of the group, trailing behind Edd and Eddy and doing the worst things at the worst times. Before they can spend even 5 minutes in Eds room they’re outdoors once again and are running of to begin one of their “scams”.
The main focus of almost every episode is the boys longing for their favourite sweet treat, Jawbreakers. These comically large ball of condensed deliciousness are worth more than money to 
the kids of the neighbourhood, which we can see in a special episode where Eddy has a dream that their scam succeeds and they own more jawbreakers than anyone else. They get the idea to open up a jawbreaker bank, with different value jawbreakers and outrageous interest in the loans for all the other kids. This plays out how you might expect, with Eddy acting a bit Scroogey, Edd has the role of accountant and Ed is… Well, Ed is Ed.
Just how did this cartoon grow to be one of the most well known animated series’ in the world? Many would say it’s the weird humour the show is famous for and its classic animation must lend a hand towards its memorability. With it’s many funny side characters, like Rolf the strange and funny foreign kid, Johnny the stupid, loud kid who’s best friend is a plank, named Plank, which talks to him… Enough said. There’s also Eds spoiled, loudmouth little sister Sarah and her best friend, the seemingly timid and adorable effeminate Jimmy, who live to mess with the Eds plans. Then we have Kevin the skater dude who just thinks the Eds are “a buncha dorks” and who is constantly chasing after Nazz, the stereotypical unattainable love interest. Those were all the kids living in the infamous cul-de-sac but what about the kids living on the outskirts of the town? The three terrifying trailer park gals, the Kanker Sisters. Now I didn’t find out until recently that a canker is essentially a blister and it’s a perfect definition for these 3 sisters. These sisters are in love with the Eds, constantly trying to get them alone, always a pain to the Eds, an annoying little thorn in their side.
This show took things from everyday life and just exaggerated them and that’s why it got so big. Most kids grew up in a cul-de-sac and we’ve all known people just like the characters in the show, from the spoiled and screaming siblings to the foreign kid eating weird food and making references we don’t get. We’ve all had the problem of someone we really don’t like falling head over heels for us, that silly childhood infatuation and that’s why we loved this show. From it’s pranks to its scams to get some cash, it reminded the kids of things they did yesterday and the parents of the things they did many years ago. It poked fun at what we did when we were little and how seriously we took the silly things we occupied ourselves with.
Ed, Edd n Eddy started out as a cheap show and seemed like just another slapstick cartoon but after a few episodes it became something more a satirical little animation with so much social commentary, you could write a book on it. The shows great mix of slapstick and more serious humour is what ingrained it in our minds and hearts and long may it stay there as a classic Saturday Morning Cartoon.
[easyreview cat1title=”The Arcade Verdict” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”8 out of 10″]
