Right around 25 years ago, Saturday morning unleashed a cartoon crossover so epic that the likes of it had never been seen before on television and will probably never be seen again.
The cause, getting kids to “Just Say No!” to drugs was a noble one. The execution? Well, I’m a child of this era and I can tell you, my generation went on to use its fair share of drugs. I’m not blaming the weirdness, overuse of psychedelia and corny tone of this cartoon for all of that. Some of it, sure.
So lets look back at the show with 15 GIFs that celebrate some its strangest moments. These are high quality GIFs, because we love you, so they might take a while to load.
Blah, blah, blah. We know you want to watch your favorite cartoons, but here are old people you don’t care about. Blah blah.
What’s in the box? What’s in the boxxxxx? Oh, it’s Corey’s big brother Michael’s realistic-looking stash. No flower petals or other metaphors here, these are drugs, kids.
We’re sure this is an anti-drug cartoon, right? A few, but definitely not all, of the cartoons are toys or other objects that come to life in Corey’s room. Kermit was an alarm clock.
Drugs are bad, m’kay! They do bad things to your body. This is one of the cartoon’s most effective messages.
Drugs are alive and they talk to you and tell you to do things. This charming dude is called Smoke, and he represents Michael’s addictions.
Bugs Bunny finds one of Michael’s joints. He is not happy. Actual dialogue “What’s dis, a joint? So what’s the big attraction?”
The action in this cartoon gives every indication that what we’re seeing is actually Michael hallucinating on a drug trip, although Corey interacts with Winnie The Pooh and other toons, so either she’s hallucinating or Michael is having hallucinations about her. No logic or rhyme or reason is followed. In this scene Michelangelo from the Ninja Turtles lectures Michael and then flushes him down the sewer.
Don’t skateboard high, kids.
Here’s a scene where Michael physically abuses his sister Corey for harshing his buzz and being a narc. It’s kind of intense for Saturday morning, but in this special all the rules are broken.
Again, we’re sure this cartoon is anti-drug, right? Because a big portion of it is psychedelic scenes like this.
Or this, where Miss Piggy nearly drinks Michael, but spits him out.
Amid all the psychedelic stuff they sneak in a topical reference. This is the Berlin Wall, which had just came down. In real life, Alf was not involved. That we know of.
Michael finds Daffy Duck in a fortune telling tent and Daffy shows him his future. Looks like he’ll be dead in a year, but turn into a zombie first. This is the poop your pants, scared straight scene, but it’s undercut a bit by Daffy’s banter.
Corey decides that if she can’t beat Michael, she’ll join him, but big brother has a change of heart right before she can dip into his stash.
And then defeats Smoke in cartoony fashion. Happy ending, all the cartoons go back to normal, but Michael knows Smoke might come back if he gets another hankerin’ for drugs.
If you’re old enough, what are your memories of this special? Share on our forums.
