I think the key thing is what the show is being directed towards. For example, Itchy and Scratchy really isn't anything more then a more violent and bloody version of Tom and Jerry. I don't mind them because they are essentially crazier, cracked up versions of Tom and Jerry and simply the Simpsons version of them.

The gag is seeing them beat the bejesus out of each other, and the fact they are not cute looking or generally seeking "decent" forms of play makes it easier to find it funnier. However to me, Tree friends seems more like someone's form of venting, like a "kill the thing you hate the most" TV show.

This show just seems like someone's visualized fantasy of ripping cute toons into a million bloody pieces because the creators probably find characters like Disney toons, Care bears, and etc nauseating. To me, there will ALWAYS be shows you hate and you wish not to see again, but this, this is just cruel.

Even if I didn't grow up on toon characters similar to the Tree friends in my cartoon days, I still cannot for one minute stomach such a god awful, heart wrenching, and unnecessarily brutal show that not only pushes the gore factor over the edge, but does it to characters who DON'T belong in that element.

Now sometimes its funny, like when South Park did the imagination land 3 part episode, that was funny because some of the toons did adult things and the jokes weren't solely based on ripping the cartoons to shreds because they hated them. Tree friends takes characters who are innocent and essentially harmless and puts them through worse treatments then your average horror movie does.

Now maybe some people find the reversal of cute and cuddly to gory gruesome funny, but not this way. You can make violence funny without going to such extreme measures of visualizing your hatred of cartoon characters some people grew up with and turning it into something like this.

The most important thing I feel that makes violence funny is either stupid violence, or eliminating the pain factor. Monty Python's Black knight felt no pain and had both arms and legs chopped off, and it was funny because he didn't stop, he just kept going and acted like he didn't feel anything at all.

The Tree friends feel everything. They weep, they cry, they run around screaming making it worse, hurting others, and just seeing their faces like that its just....ugh. It may sound hypocritical of someone who watches both R rated movies/TV shows and kids cartoons, but I don't find this mix pleasant or entertaining. To put it bluntly.....it hurts me to watch this show, it really hurts.

It'd be like watching someone pull teeth or having to watch Frankie scrub the floors in "Imposter's" or Mac being put through Hell in "Surprise for you", that's how strongly I feel against Happy Tree Friends, but I mean no offense to fans of the show. It's just how I feel.

It's all just personal taste I suppose, Mr.M. I for one can't imagine how people can enjoy torture movies like "Hostel", but they do.
It makes me wonder if entertainment will become more and more violent or family friendly in the future. I guess that's up to future generations.

I actually enjoy Hostel but that is set up in an entirely different setting and environment. Sex is essentially the point of that movie, sex in a foreign place where there isn't a whole lot control of policing going around.

It's an adult plot for an adult movie for adult characters, where as Tree friends is kids characters in adult show but I see what you mean about tastes.

Excellent point. I forgot that Hostel was still a story driven movie. As far I can tell, based on what others have said, HTF is just a violent for the sake of violent.
I'm almost half asleep right now so I'll probably get some sleep before I try and process this stuff so I can attempt to make a thoughtful post.;)

This show sounds stupid IMO. That coming from a guy who has laughed at some of the deaths in Predator. =X

Well, after seeing so much fan-stuff inspired by this show, and after viewing what y'all had to say about it, I went on to the show's site and actually watched some of it.

Yeah, it was pretty disturbing. While I can stomach the violence (strangly enough), I'm with jekylljuice and Mr. Marshmallow here. It's not exactly something I'd want to watch regularly, and I just don't like seeing the cute cartoon critters being harmed to that extent. Yeesh. Poor animals. I rather like cute cartoon critters, but c'mon. This is a bit much.

A while back I watched an ep of this out of morbid curiosity. I then watched the rest of the eps that were out of the time due to it being a total train-wreck. It's horrible, but you can't look away. (Though I actually had to look away at some points. Oddly enough I can handle some cartoon gore, but when it involves bones or eyes or skinning I can't stand it.) I nearly threw up afterwards. Yet for some odd reason I go back to the website to look at a new toon out of, again, morbid curiosity. (And I always regret it.)

I don't like it. I don't find it funny at all. :/

The only merit it has is that it stays away from perverted humor 98% of the time. I consider perverted humor to be below excessively violent humor.

or a combination thereof 8D

I went back for another look. Not quite so bad the second time around as far as the shock value goes but it rapidly becomes very predictable; if you see a sharp object, you know that someone will eventually be impaled on it, if you see a lit cigar then you know that something or someone will soon either burn or explode, etc. I've seen fanfics that were less predictable. The gore factor gets old very fast; you know it's coming, you just don't know how long you have to wait for it. There's no real plotline as far as I can tell; it's pretty much just an excuse for the writers to indulge in the butchery of small forest creatures in various ways, all of which are painful, both for the animals and the viewers. One wonders who exactly is the target audience for this stuff. On the plus side it's not badly drawn, and there's no real dialogue (which would take too much creative effort to write and would distract from the rupturing organs). For me the highlight of the show was before it began, when I was treated to a short commercial featuring the rockin' Erin Esurance, the only cartoon character I'd ever buy insurance from. ;D

That isn’t quite true. I’ve written ten thousand word articles on the characters, so I’m pretty sure it’s not just mindless violence. The characters have depth and there are actually plots. There just isn’t any continuity.

The person who animated those Erin Esurance advertisements actually worked on a few special episodes of Happy Tree Friends.