Cartoonish Comfort: The Lasting Nostalgia of Animated Sitcoms
- Shanai Tanwar
- Nov 19, 2025
- 4 min read
One of my earliest memories as a child involves me sitting in front of our family TV, cereal bowl in hand, watching an episode of Little Einsteins. I remember patting along on my lap to get Rocket, the friendly spaceship, to launch, and hearing Vivaldi’s Morning Mood orchestrated as the animated children on screen encouragingly asked me to identify the shapes in the scene. This was my first experience with characters breaking the fourth wall, and the echoes of Vivaldi’s symphony would linger in my memories for years to come until I’d seen the episode again, a few months ago, as an adult.
Pre-iPad baby era, spending all your time as a young one in front of a screen wasn’t exactly considered normal—and my parents weren’t the kind to take that “idiot box” stuff lightly. Cable cartoons and animated movie DVDs composed the entirety of the multimedia collection available to kids in the 2000s. When I could, I devoured every cartoon catered to children my age during our sacred, cherished TV time. I think of my childhood as a network blend of Teletubbies in Arabic, Dexter’s Laboratory in English, and Phineas and Ferb in Hindi, since I lived all over the place and was fiercely attached to my animated friends. If you say Cartoon Network or Boomerang around me today, you will see me erupt with true childlike wonder… at the ripe age of 24.
As it turns out, watching cartoons didn’t have to be the be-all, end-all of childhood. There are no rules regarding the “acceptable” age to watch animated shows, and luckily for me, by the time adulthood slapped me in the face, there was no lack of animated sitcoms available to stream online. I quickly found myself enamoured by the captivating animation style of Rick and Morty, the eloquent yet hilarious way in which Bojack Horseman approached the nuances of depression, and saw my own familial dynamics mirrored in shows like F is for Family.
For those of us who watch animated sitcoms as adults, there’s a curious comfort in reverting to cartoons. It’s about how, after a long day of dealing with the world, reading the news and being bombarded with information on your phone that feels all too real, you can unwind with a cosy blanket and a cartoon that really speaks to you. Kind of like staring into the sun on a hot day, really, but with a pair of effective sunglasses on—it takes the pressure off, and looking at reality feels much more bearable. The secret lies in the medium—it is especially the style of animating adult shows in cartoon formats that appeal to viewers like myself. Suddenly, we aren’t grown ups dealing with the bureaucracies and brutalities of being an adult, but are transformed into that inner child that yearns to watch colourful worlds move hyperflexibly before our eyes.
The rise and continuing popularity of animated adult shows is attributable, in part, to this retrograde desire from a predominantly cartoon-watching cable-tv audience that’s now grown-up. The other side of it is that streaming services, aka the “new” cable tv, has made it a lot more viable for animated tv shows to test experimental waters with diverse audiences and see what really sticks.
According to an analysis by 3VISION, a content industry consultancy, six of Netflix’s animated titles reflected in the top 20% most viewed shows on the platform in 2023. The success of independent shows, such as Archer which first premiered on FX, not only led to their acquisition by Big Streaming platforms, but also inspired Netflix and others to launch their own in-house adult sitcoms.
There’s much to be said by way of variety, too. If you’re feeling particularly hormonal and want to reminisce about your first period, watch an episode of Big Mouth. If you’re a romantasy/medieval enthusiast, tune into Disenchantment to see the wild antics of tomboy bisexual Princess Tiabeanie, her pointy-eared elf (aptly named Elfo) and their resident devil, Luci. Or if you’ve just fought with your mom for the third day this week, maybe it’s time to watch some Bob’s Burgers for some feel-good family energy. For every flavour of emotion, there’s an animated show out there somewhere.
Creativity, another defining aspect of the genre, brings a whole new touch for any nostalgic viewer. Each animator brings a unique approach to their characters, imbuing them with hyperrealistic, surrealistic qualities that make for a good laugh (or a good cry). Whether it’s Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s signature anthropomorphic animals on screen or Matt Groening’s upper-lip heavy characters, there’s room to appreciate what each style of animation can achieve by leaning into the absurd. It’s also different from shows with real humans, because real teenagers won’t just wake up one day with a lifesize furry Hormone Monster standing beside them. But it’s exactly these possibilities that allow an animated show to achieve the pinnacle metric of audience engagement—a dynamic emotionality that taps into your core when all other semblance to reality is removed.
Combining complex, adult societal and interpersonal themes with cartoonish colours and characters is the perfect recipe to allow your inner child—and outer adult—to flourish. As Amanda Scherker writes, “Today, the ravenous adult animation audience can enjoy the nostalgia of Saturday morning cartoons while perversely reveling in content that feels so very unlike what animation is ‘supposed’ to be.” And there’s comfort to be found in this duality that encourages us to turn back the clock to a time that felt as easy as counting 1,2,3 while singing along to Sesame Street.
Edited by Hannah Tang, Co-Editor of Film & TV
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