The trending hashtag became a platform for people to share the cartoons that shaped their lives and the enduring lessons that stuck with them, even as all those birthday party memories and the names of kindergarten classmates dribbled out of our ears and became forgotten.
The cartoons appearing in #CartoonsTaughtMe tweets ranged across decades, with both 20th century and 21st century cartoons well represented. While most of this spread came from age disparities between the posters—there’s a gulf of decades between those who grew up with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985) and We Bare Bears (2015-present)—the trending hashtag was also loaded with classic cartoons that few Twitter users likely saw when they were first created. Popeye, for example, has been scarfing spinach since 1933, with a popular television series that ended in 1963. The most famous Tom and Jerry cartoons also hailed from the 1960s, while Daffy Duck beat up Hitler in 1943.
While many cartoonophiles are shared lessons pertinent to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, from most it was a respite from their shelter-in-place isolation, with the #CartoonsTaughtMe hashtag serving as a platform for lessons in sociability.
But while #CartoonsTaughtMe ranged across topics, with people sharing both earnest and joking lessons, or applying the hashtag to politics or to their dating lives, what remained consistent was positivity. With some exceptions, we treasure the lessons we took from our childhood cartoons and, seemingly, left behind the bad to cherish the good. It’s not Raphael’s surly attitude that most endures from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’s the beauty of pizza.
Whether you’re sharing or taking lessons from #CartoonsTaughtMe, it’s a hashtag loaded with fun GIFs and childhood nostalgia. Check it out for yourself, it may surprise you what from your childhood is still shaping the lives of the people around you.
