Widely-memed and much loved children’s TV classic Arthur was way more edgy than we ever realised as kids.
In a 1999 episode of Arthur the hit kids show parodied the positively-filthy South Park and nobody realised until now.
The cheeky homage to one of the 90s most controversial cartoons appeared in Arthur season four in an episode called ‘The Contest’ where the Arthur gang compete to write a story.
Each story is acted out in a different animation style and Buster’s story about alien abduction is animated in the South Park style:
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The delightfully light-hearted homage to South Park not only mirrors the animation style but also the aliens and Kenny death scenes which were so iconic in the early seasons.
Obviously because it’s a children’s show Buster doesn’t die but they hold the joke just long enough to make you nervous.
I love it when you discover something new about a well loved children’s TV show, something like this also shows the writers had a real edgy sense of humour which they hid within the wholesome children’s entertainment programme.
I guess they got away with it for so long because in 1999 the audiences for Arthur and South Park were so radically different.
I for one am glad this piece of unexpected edginess exists and has been hidden in plain sight for all these years.
