/ent/ - Entertainment

*The burger shack cook was depicted wearing a filthy apron
*It's strange to me that people think of today's media environment as been so permissive

In the 80's and early 90's in the UK the Wheetabix breakfast cereal mascots were a gang of skinheads.
It's been debated the skinhead look didn't have the same connotations as it did back then but I don't believe it since they changed their outfits to normal clothing toward the very end of their decade long advertising run. There's like a dozen separate commercials of them that aired.

good thread anon

changing media taboos can tell you about ideology

"Max Headroom", this was an unrelentingly scathing critique of television at the time. Even at the time people were shocked by how critical Max could be. One reviewer even joked that Max could be canceled because "it bites the hand that feeds it."
The ridiculously slick and Aryan appearance of Max is even satirical. Made to mock the immaculately handsome and groomed news anchors that the public was forming parasocial relationships at the time.
It's oddly prescient too. It predicted the privatization of "Sesame Street", the use of AI to "resurrect" dead family members, the 24/7 surveillance of people through media devices (the television also records the viewer while they watch. Something the public isn't aware of).
The TV execs are depicted as heartless, and perfectly aware that the publics addiction to TV makes their broadcasts effectively mind control.
The list goes on as to all the aspects of society Max Headroom lampooned. Again its at a level I've never seen again. Even the GTA series at its most biting doesn't come close.

Misopedia is openly encouraged in television and Internet.

What’s considered problematic would be showing fictional teens wearing risqué outfits

>There were ZERO adults or figures of authority that were trustworthy. Giving children the clear message that yes, they really are out to get you. A lot of shows in the 90's would claim to be deeply cynical, but this one was genuinely subversive.
I don't think you could make a show like this today that flat out says children should never trust adults, not even their parents. I've never seen a children's show like this again

Usually TV shows often do the opposite. They’re portray kids as covert evil while adults are altruistic. Adults are always portrayed sympathetically for their vices

Any media showing teenage romance/sexuality in a positive light without excessive awkwardness

I know this epitomizes American jingoism for many, but it was oddly contemptuous of the US and the military.
I always assumed that Cobra, the enemies of GI Joe, were simply an allegory for Soviets and 'The Red Menace' Since they were depicted as these massive hordes with nation state levels of military hardware like numerous varieties of ships, aircraft, tanks, bases, guns and even spacecraft, and the fact that they were labeled as 'terrorists' was simply done as a practical way to deflect criticism that the show glorified the US military. Which sounds strange now but was a controversial aspect of the cartoon since the very contentious Vietnam War had ended barely a decade prior.
But 'Cobra Commander' the leader of Cobra, is actually the wealthiest capitalist in the world. He's secretly the CEO of 'Extensive Enterprises' the largest corporation in the GI Joe universe. He's so wealthy that Extensive Enterprises resides on it's own sovereign city state on an island in the Pacific.
The island is has it's own currency and economy and is completely self sufficient. It's very developed with a city featuring a high rises including two World Trade Center like twin office buildings that can slide apart to reveal a NASA style space shuttle with launch pad hidden beneath
This isn't obscure lore in the show either. The very first episode shows GI Joe attempting to infiltrate the 'Extensive Enterprises' city state.
There's also the 'Fox News' episode where Cobra buys a television network and starts a propaganda war against GI Joe, successfully turning public opinion against them. 'Cobra TV' featured pretty salient parodies of TVs with pro fascist messaging. Like the "Smurfs" parody that taught children to beat up any other children that refused to conform to societal norms, or the PSA that taught people to distrust their neighbors because they're secretly werewolves. It was actually good satire of Reganite conservative proto-fascism.
There's another episode where GI Joe infiltrates a Cobra base and finds that Cobra Commander's minons are actually treated much better than the Joes. Their barracks features swimming pools, basketball courts and a free 24 hour cafeteria. Cobra Commander having not subscribed to the 'rugged individualism' that the Joes lived under.
The closest something things we have to GI Joe I think would be "The Boys" but that is a gory adult show. And "The Boys" seems more obsessed with the proclivities of it's Trumpian main character. And uses the classic liberal "If it wasn't for HIM, everything would be fine" trope. While GI Joe seems to just have this overall malice for American Society, particularly the Regan resurgence, it was made it.
GI Joe would make many a conservatives on social media, red with anger, if it were produced today.

>>9474
*'Cobra TV' featured pretty salient parodies of TV shows

>>9474
Thanks for writing this, I would have been embarrassed to reply ITT immediately after the reply right above yours.

I was thinking the other day about how Captain Planet debuted in 1990 and was one of the biggest kids' animated shows in the US in the 1990s, and one of the Planeteers was a Russian girl named Linka. This start, obviously, was when the USSR still existed, and one of the main protagonists on this American show was from the USSR, which, to my recollection, was just portrayed as a normal country with normal people living there. You couldn't even have a kids' character from the Russian Federation like this in the US today in such a massive kids' series.

>>9476
>was just portrayed as a normal country with normal people living there
gorbachev era though

>>9477
Yeah, but still.