Over the duration of the summer, I spent a lot of quality time with my four year old brother, Thomas. He happens to be a very intelligent little kid, so I didn’t find it hard to carry on a conversation with him. We did, however, watch a lot of television during this bonding time. One would think, spending your summer days watching children’s television would be a very enjoyable, even nostalgic experience, though I was terribly mistaken. “Thomas,” I would say, between episodes of Monster Quest on the History Channel, “why do you insist on watching such mind numbingly boring shows?” He would just look at me, clearly offended and later ask my mother, forlornly, if it he really did only like boring shows. She would assure him it wasn’t true, he had a fine taste in television, and then would scold me for picking on a preschooler. I suppose what’s considered boring is subjective, and it got me thinking about what I felt he should be watching. That’s when it dawned on me. The shows I watched as a child, along with my generation, most likely single handedly destroyed our minds. Actually, if we were to really get down to it, our generation may have just missed the turning point in television. We were old enough, for example, when Sponge Bob hit the scene, to know not to aspire to that. As for my sixteen year old brother and his friends, this new finding explains a lot. Personally speaking, I know that when I was a kid, I used to imitate certain shows I liked. What girl didn’t want to be Stephanie Tanner or Clarissa Darling? Who didn’t want to be Corey Matthews or Roger Klotz (okay, Roger’s a stretch; but hey, at least Doug wrote in a journal everyday). It seems like certain cartoons, especially ones prevalent today, essentially teach kids how to act like, well, idiots.

Here’s a list of eight shows, while they may have been great, you’d never want to see anyone imitating…for the sake of society.

1. Sponge Bob Square Pants
2. The Fairly Odd Parents
3. Rocco’s Modern Life
4. Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
5. Animaniacs
6. Keanan and Kel
7. Ren and Stimpy
8. Kablam

Please note the number of characters that had their tongues permanently hanging out the sides of their mouths.