This generation's cartoon.

[VG_Addict]

Every generation has their own cartoon.

Boomers: Looney Tunes.

Gen Xers: Simpsons.

Millennials: Spongebob.

What is the cartoon for Zoomers? Maybe Adventure Time?

 

[HunterMon17]

Honestly, I think it's a toss-up between SpongeBob, Loud House, Gumball, Teen Titans Go!, DuckTales, and Big City Greens (if we're only counting currently-running series).

Which generation do I belong to, millenial or zoomer?

 

[VG_Addict]

Honestly, I think it's a toss-up between SpongeBob, Loud House, Gumball, Teen Titans Go!, DuckTales, and Big City Greens (if we're only counting currently-running series).

Which generation do I belong to, millenial or zoomer?

Well, you were born in 2002. The cutoff point for millennial is 1997. I'd say you're a zoomer.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I’m going with Adventure Time. It was the first big hit in a long time on CN and was popular enough to be parodied on The Simpson’s. Phineas and Ferb is a close second as I still hear kids talking about that show despite the fact it ended years ago. Also do preschool shows count? If so, Paw Patrol is a contender. I work at an elementary school and I can’t take two steps without running into someone with a Paw Patrol shirt, backpack, lunch box, etc.

Honestly, I think it's a toss-up between SpongeBob, Loud House, Gumball, Teen Titans Go!, DuckTales, and Big City Greens (if we're only counting currently-running series).

Is Big City Greens that popular? It seems like I hardly ever hear anybody talk about it on line and I don’t think I heard any kids in real life talk about it.

 

[wonderfly]

Every generation has their own cartoon.

Boomers: Looney Tunes.

Gen Xers: Simpsons.

Millennials: Spongebob.

What is the cartoon for Zoomers? Maybe Adventure Time?

Simpson's was Gen X's cartoon? I would've thought it was something like 80's Transformers. Most Gen X'ers were in High School or fresh out of school when the Simpsons became huge in the early 90's....but yeah, everyone was watching that in the early 90's.

Well, you were born in 2002. The cutoff point for millennial is 1997. I'd say you're a zoomer.

Yes, early Generation Z. Are we really stuck with calling them Zoomers?

I’m going with Adventure Time. It was the first big hit in a long time on CN and was popular enough to be parodied on The Simpson’s. Phineas and Ferb is a close second as I still hear kids talking about that show despite the fact it ended years ago. Also do preschool shows count? If so, Paw Patrol is a contender. I work at an elementary school and I can’t take two steps without running into someone with a Paw Patrol shirt, backpack, lunch box, etc.

It feels like the time period between Spongebob's dominance of pop culture and the rise of Adventure Time is too small, to be considered a generational gap. I don't think we've seen Gen Z's cartoon yet.

 

[ToonJay723]

Every generation has their own cartoon.

Boomers: Looney Tunes.

Gen Xers: Simpsons.

Millennials: Spongebob.

What is the cartoon for Zoomers? Maybe Adventure Time?

Using cartoons that's been around for decades is tricky, because multiple generations could have grown up with them. For example Looney Tunes has been around since 1930 while the first Boomer was born in 1945, so there's another generation that grew up with them.

So using cartoons that only lasted, or mostly lasted with one generation I would say:

Boomers: The Flintstones

Older Gen X (Born in late 60s/early 70s): Superfriends

Younger Gen X (born in mid/late 70s): Transformers

Older Millennials (born in 80s): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Younger Millennials (born in 90s): Rugrats

Older Zoomer (born in 00s): Adventure Time

Younger Zoomer (born in 10s): ???

 

[Zanneck]

I'm going with a draw between Adventure Time & Regular Show. For something less popular.... Bob's Burgers.

 

[PapaGreg]

I feel like its kinda dumb to boggle a generation to ONE cartoon in fact one can make the argument that millennials also had Rugrats.

 

[Terror of Death]

Either Family Guy, Adventure Time, or My LIttle Pony. I hear gen z talk about Family Guy the most in public and it probably has the larger overall viewership of the three. However, AT and MLP probably have a bigger presence when it comes to the internet side of things. Online discussion, memes, gifs, fanart, fanfiction and the like.

 

[HunterMon17]

I’m going with Adventure Time. It was the first big hit in a long time on CN and was popular enough to be parodied on The Simpson’s. Phineas and Ferb is a close second as I still hear kids talking about that show despite the fact it ended years ago. Also do preschool shows count? If so, Paw Patrol is a contender. I work at an elementary school and I can’t take two steps without running into someone with a Paw Patrol shirt, backpack, lunch box, etc.

Is Big City Greens that popular? It seems like I hardly ever hear anybody talk about it on line and I don’t think I heard any kids in real life talk about it.

Well, they do play it a lot on Disney Channel (more so than their other cartoons at least), so I would think it must be.

 

[wonderfly]

Using cartoons that's been around for decades is tricky, because multiple generations could have grown up with them. For example Looney Tunes has been around since 1930 while the first Boomer was born in 1945, so there's another generation that grew up with them.

So using cartoons that only lasted, or mostly lasted with one generation I would say:

Boomers: The Flintstones

Older Gen X (Born in late 60s/early 70s): Superfriends

Younger Gen X (born in mid/late 70s): Transformers

Older Millennials (born in 80s): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Younger Millennials (born in 90s): Rugrats

Older Zoomer (born in 00s): Adventure Time

Younger Zoomer (born in 10s): ???

Yeah, that...that might work. I think Flintstones was mostly watched by adults at first, back in the early 60's (didn't it air in prime time?). I still think Boomers were more "Looney Tunes". Or Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Older Gen X might be "Scooby Doo", at it took off in popularity before Superfriends (and Superfriends didn't really become cool until "Challenge of the Superfriends" in 1978).

But yeah...that's closer.

EDIT: Oh wait, Scooby Doo transcended more than one generation, and you said you were trying to avoid that. But I don't know, if you count the reboots, then Ninja Turtles and Transformers transcended their original generations...

 

[JoeMabbon]

It won't be a tv show. Condensing a generation's animation down to a single cartoon isn't reasonable, but this generation's media consumption is sooo fractured that it might be impossible. Kids don't talk about cartoons like we used to and when they do, they don't have the same shared language of television viewing. When I hear kids discuss cartoons, they're talking about movies. If this generation has a cartoon, it will be Frozen, Despicable Me/Minions, or extreme long shot Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Is Big City Greens that popular? It seems like I hardly ever hear anybody talk about it on line and I don’t think I heard any kids in real life talk about it.

I've never heard anyone mention that show outside of this website.

 

[AlbanianCNfan]

I will say three words for this generation's cartoons.

They. Are. JUNK.

 

[wonderfly]

. When I hear kids discuss cartoons, they're talking about movies. If this generation has a cartoon, it will be Frozen, Despicable Me/Minions, or extreme long shot Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Holy cow, I think you're on to something! (except for "Spider-Verse", that's probably too new to toss into the discussion).

I think you may be right. The TV/cable/streaming landscape is too fractured (and has been for years). But big animated movies of the last decade, those are what unite Gen Z kids.

Frozen in particular, that's the movie of this generation. At least for younger Zoomers. For older Zoomers...well, if you stick with movies, the mid-2000's Pixar films (the era where Pixar could do no wrong) all fit for their generation. "Cars" in particular, my oldest son is an early Zoomer, and he loved that film growing up.

 

[RainbowCupcake]

Do adult cartoons count? If so, I nominate Rick and Morty. Can't go anywhere with young people without seeing t-shirts or buttons or hearing references to it.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Do adult cartoons count? If so, I nominate Rick and Morty. Can't go anywhere with young people without seeing t-shirts or buttons or hearing references to it.

That’s basically this generation’s South Park. Like 20 years ago it was not unusual to see kids as young as seven or eight wearing South Park shirts.

 

[Alexsketchy2004]

Definitely Regular Show

 

[wonderfly]

Been thinking on this. Some of this will match up with what's been said previously above, but....consider this my 2nd attempt:

I think there is a difference between "What cartoon did an age range of kids grow up with?" and "What cartoon defines a generation?"

For the first question, I'd break it up this way:

Early Boomers (born 1946-1955): Looney Tunes
Late Boomers (born 1956-1964): The Flintstones (or arguably "Rocky & Bullwinkle")
Early Gen X (born 1965-1972): Scooby Doo (or arguably "Superfriends")
Late Gen X (born 1973-1980): Hard to nail down one, but arguably Transformers (but also "G.I. Joe", "He-Man", "Smurfs" or "Thundercats").
Early Millennials (born 1981 to 1989): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Late Millennials (born 1990-1996): Spongebob Squarepants (or arguably "Rugrats")
Early Gen Z (born 1997-2006): Adventure Time (or arguably "Kim Possible" or "Foster's")
Late Gen Z (born 2007-2015): ?

As for what cartoon defines a generation, that may be more tied to what a generation finds "cool" (or what speaks to them) when they are adults. In which case:

For Boomers: Looney Tunes (or arguably Rocky and Bullwinkle) The Boomers became adults in the 70's and 80's, and there was no good adult cartoons at that point, so they reverted back to "Looney Tunes! It's good for all ages!" (which is true....)
For Gen X: The Simpsons (or arguably "Beavis and Butthead")
For Millennials: Family Guy (or arguably "Aqua Teen Hunger Force")
For Gen Z: "Rick and Morty" (or something to come?)

On a side note, here is the anime of choice for each generation:

Early Boomers: "What's anime?"
Late Boomers: Speed Racer
Early Gen X: Battle of the Planets
Late Gen X: Voltron (or arguably Robotech)
Early Millennials: Sailor Moon
Late Millennials: Pokemon (or arguably Dragon Ball Z)
Early Gen Z: Naruto
Late Gen Z: ?

 

[Red Arrow]

People born in 1997 were teenagers when Adventure Time premiered. Phineas and Ferb and Ben 10 were more popular than Kim Possible and Foster's.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Late Gen Z (born 2007-2015): ?

This is the age group I work with, and I’m going to nominate Steven Universe (mainly older girls), TTG (mainly younger boys) Gumball (everybody), or Paw Patrol (if preschool shows count).