Happy Tree Friends

[Mr. Marshmallow]

Originally Posted by jekylljuice

I mean, at least in I & S the gutting and dismembering is as a result of the deliberate actions of a very sadistic rodent (even if his feline victim is totally undeserving). With Happy Tree Friends, on the other hand, the characters are all just so darling and, well, happy, and are really just out for a good time in which to enjoy one another's company. I have to agree with Mr. M about the crappy, crummy feeling that tends to seep in whilst watching them befall one tragic, bloody accident after another. C'mon, they're so damned adorable. I really don't want to see them die.

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.