Top 10 Things Only Adults Notice in Animaniacs

“Rocket Man” will forever be associated with Elton John, but William Shatner’s spoken rendition has earned its place in infamy as the bizarro version. As surreally hilarious as Shatner’s 1978 interpretation is, you wouldn’t expect this epic fail to inspire a parody sixteen years later, on a show aimed at kids no less. Even after a long, long time, though, Shatner’s “Rocket Man” remains ripe for satire. At ​​karaoke, the Warners encounter a loosely-veiled caricature of Shatner hogging the mic, tormenting listeners. While kids can find humor in Willie Slackmer’s strange manner of speaking and singing, it’s safe to say they weren’t alive when Shatner attempted to launch a singing career. Some might not even be familiar with “Star Trek,” which also gets a shoutout.

Protecting their pet turkey, Mr. Gobble, the Warners confront a hot-headed pilgrim deadset on serving a particular bird for dinner. History buffs may notice that the pilgrim is named after Myles Standish, Plymouth Colony’s military adviser. The real Standish was also quite aggressive, although he had more than turkey blood on his hands. In addition to this history lesson, the episode teaches kids that “bird” can have another meaning beyond fine-feathered friend. “Animaniacs” would revisit this joke in Season 3 when the Warners are once again asked to hand over the bird. Although the show had moved to the WB, their censors apparently weren’t much more lenient than Fox’s.

For young film enthusiasts working their way through the AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies, they might notice that Charles Foster Kane sounds an awful lot like the Brain. In reality, it was the Brain who drew inspiration from Orson Welles. Maurice LaMarche has impersonated Welles in various projects, most notably dubbing his voice in “Ed Wood.” As the Brain, LaMarche channeled Welles’ ambitious and arguably diabolical nature. LaMarche mastered this voice by listening to Welles’ outtakes for a frozen pea commercial. He’d also use these outtakes to warm up on “Animaniacs.” This would be directly referenced in the episode “Yes, Always” where the Brain must record dialogue. The Brain’s lines are more kid-friendly than Welles’, but how many children were in on this inside joke?

We’re willing to wager that kids who grew up on “Animaniacs” didn’t see “Apocolypse Now” until later in life. They also probably weren’t aware of that war epic’s troubled production history, which was chronicled in the documentary, “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.” Both films provided inspiration for this episode where the Warners are tasked with tracking down a mad director whose feature has ballooned overbudget. While Mr. Director shares obvious parallels to Marlon Brando, he sounds like Jerry Lewis, who endured a similar production nightmare with his unreleased film, “The Day the Clown Cried.” This is referenced as well in Mr. Director’s “The Wretched Clown.” Adding another layer, writer Paul Rugg described the episode’s original script as a “disaster,” going through his own apocalypse.

Dedicating an episode to an adult-oriented film is one thing, but basing a recurring segment around Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” goes to show that “Animaniacs” was just as much for the adults. The trio that makes up the Goodfeathers is based on Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci. Kids may know that last name from “Home Alone,” but not from the foulmouthed Tommy DeVito. Pesto, Pesci’s pigeon counterpart, repeatedly references DeVito’s iconic “funny how?” meltdown. Where Tommy is just having fun with Liotta’s Henry Hill, Pesto always loses it on Squit. “Goodfeathers” also opened the door for parodies of “The Godfather,” “Raging Bull,” and other staples of Italian-American cinema that no kid has seen. Well, maybe New Yorker kids.

This entry is an exercise in how many dirty jokes you can get away with in less than a minute. When it comes to censorship, the best way to sneak in something risque is by disguising it with something educational. “Conjugation,” for example, is tied to grammar, but it sounds suspiciously close to “copulation,” another word that grade schoolers wouldn’t know. The “Animaniacs” writers take full advantage of this when the Warners are in class and the subject of “conjugation” comes up several times. Yakko’s initial misinterpretation is suggestive enough, but the scene keeps piling on innuendos. But hey, the censors can’t do anything because technically the young audience is learning, even if they’re not on the same page as Yakko.

Let’s be honest, kids and adults could learn more about politics watching “Animaniacs” than most cable news networks. Thanks to the show’s intro, we’ll always know that Bill Clinton plays the sax, which is one of the nicer references to the 42nd. For all the jokes at the former leader of the Democratic Party’s expense, Republicans weren’t any safer. In addition to Clinton, every U.S. president was fair game in “The Presidents Song.” The writers didn’t limit themselves to American politicians either, making a mockery of Saddam Hussein in one segment. This tradition of political satire would continue in “Pinky and the Brain,” which was perhaps even more savage, and the “Animaniacs” reboot, which has taken shots at Tucker Carlson and “bun control.”

Written by Sherri Stoner, “Bubba Bo Bob Brain” is among the most infamous “Animaniacs” segments thanks to an exchange with Dolly Parton. Having risen to country music stardom, the Brain finds himself sitting on the same couch as the “9 to 5” singer. Parton professes her admiration for the Brain, who responds with a line that kids won’t understand. Adults watching will think to themselves, “Did a mouse just say that… on a daytime children’s animated series… in 1993?” We’d say that this joke likely wouldn’t have been approved today. Then again, we wouldn’t have expected it to fly past censors thirty years ago either. So, who knows? In any case, this was a highly unusual introduction to the concept of growing bodies.

“Animaniacs” has a few characters who wouldn’t have felt out of place on the “adult channel.” Minerva Mink was so tantalizing that one of her episodes needed to be edited. While Hello Nurse didn’t ignite controversy back in the day, modern viewers might’ve been split on a sensually drawn woman who’s constantly being kissed without consent. Granted, kids may not think too hard about it, but adults would. This probably explains why Hello Nurse was only mentioned in passing on the reboot’s first two seasons. While some argue that the character wouldn’t work now, the original series did establish Hello Nurse as a multi-talented, independent career woman, subverting pre-conceptions. Had Tom Ruegger helmed the reboot, he would’ve promoted Hello Nurse to the studio CEO.

Before we say “goodnight, everybody” with our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

There’s a Car!, “Drive-Insane”
Boingy, Boingy, Boingy

Hello, Teacher!, “Chalkboard Bungle”
What Teacher Would Keep That in There, Anyway?

From Oedipus to Freud, “Survey Ladies”
Ya Kiss Your Mother with That Mouth? Actually, Don’t Answer That!

Where Squirrels Hide Their Nuts, “Slappy Goes Walnuts”
We Have a Feeling the Writers Weren’t Really Talking About Acorns

No Relation, “Noah’s Lark”
This is Why Buster & Babs Really Shouldn’t Be Siblings in the Reboot

You all saw this one coming, or at least adult viewers saw it coming. Beyond “Animaniacs,” this is arguably the most notorious adult joke ever to slide by in the history of family-friendly animation. Searching for fingerprints but instead coming back with The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, what ensues is an ingenious use of wordplay that doesn’t just go over the kids’ heads. It skyrockets over them into the stratosphere, eventually falling down and hitting them on their heads during adulthood. Hard to say what’s more surprising: that this joke made it to air or that there actually is a 1977 album by the Residents entitled “Fingerprince.” We’re not sure if the Residents realized how suggestive that title is, but Dot could’ve told them.