Drawn Together - Content

Content

Drawn Together is an animated show that is adult-oriented and laden with black comedy. The humor is largely satirical in nature, its primary focus being the mockery of stereotypes. Some episodes have heavy emphasis on homosexuality or bisexuality, with some episodes (such as "Gay Bash" or "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special") solely devoted to these topics. Kinky sex is a common topic of conversation; several of the characters have extremely perverse sexual tastes, and the show makes frequent reference to masturbation, paraphilia, and BDSM. Death and violence are also constant themes. Nearly all episodes feature at least one death, and several episodes feature characters going on killing sprees or perpetrating massacres; often they are horribly maimed as well. Even the main cast die with great frequency only to return alive and uninjured, often within the time frame of a single episode (a satire of how cartoon violence never has any negative consequences). The show breaks the fourth wall regularly.

Despite the show's overt and underlined obscenity, the characters' innocent and sensual sides are often the main driving force of the plot (alongside comedic non-sequitur moments intended to parody standard plot lines). This adds romantic comedy, melodrama, action film, war film, court drama and other genres to the pool of spoofing material. Sincere feelings the characters are forced to experience (and comic disregard of thereof) seem to add integrity to the plot and imbue every episode with a genuine moral message, made more efficient by constant spoofing of moral message cliches like "character X has learned a valuable lesson".

The show's content is controversial, partially for its explicit dialogue and graphic violence, but primarily for the casual attitude the show takes toward taboo subject matter. A great deal of the show's humor revolves around making light of difficult topics such as abortion, rape, incest, pedophilia, gay marriage, spousal abuse, racism, homophobia, antisemitism, necrophilia and terrorism. The extensive use of stereotypes is another controversial aspect of the show, though the intent is actually to make fun of bigotry. As Jess Harnell states in the DVD commentary for "Hot Tub", "Most of the racism on the show is coming from people who are so obviously stupid about it; it really isn't that threatening." (Jewish people are mocked, including creators and principal cast member Tara Strong.)

Other content known to be featured on some episodes are occurrences of natural disasters, depictions of authoritarian dictators and sexual fetishes.

Though the two shows are stylistically dissimilar, the coarseness of the humor in Drawn Together has led to frequent comparison with South Park, the show that immediately precedes it on the network. South Park was thought to be extremely profane upon its premiere seven years earlier. By 2004, the preceding cartoon had dropped its TV-MA warning bumper, and almost immediately following, a TV-MA warning was shown before episodes of Drawn Together.

Drawn Together is heavy with popular culture references. Animation is a major source of material; as mentioned above, many characters from comics and animated cartoons make cameo appearances and often are the subjects of parody. However, numerous live action films, TV shows, and video games are referenced as well. Reality shows are another prime inspiration, not surprising given that Drawn Together is presented as a reality show that takes place in a cartoon world. However, although many of the first-season plots made extensive use of the reality show scenario, this aspect of the show has largely been de-emphasized in later episodes. The spoofing of film and television clichés is another common theme on the show; many Drawn Together stories are parodies of overused plots from TV and movies.

Although the characters come from different cartoon worlds with different laws of nature and behavior (Princess Clara's fairy tale kingdom, Xandir's video game reality, Captain Hero's universe of super-heroics with set rules for hero/villain behavior), no explanation for how these worlds co-exist is given. All seem aware that they are in fact animated cartoons and that live action creatures exist.

Another hallmark of the show is its loose continuity. Events in different episodes contradict each other, as there is a loose sense of canon. One such example is in "The Other Cousin", in which Toot is pictured with a penis, but whether or not she actually has one is debatable. Another is Foxxy's various and contradictory stories about her son Timmy (one involves selling him on the black market, another involves her accidentally shooting him after believing him to be rabid, when he was really just brushing his teeth). Often plotlines exist that do not make any kind of internal sense, such as Foxxy, who is in her twenties, having a teenaged grandson. Some episodes even start with a fake recap of events supposed to have happened in a (non-existent) previous episode. According to Executive Producer Bill Freiberger, "Very little on Drawn Together can be considered canon. If you try to find continuity on this show you'll drive yourself nuts. The only thing that's consistent is we try to make the show as funny as possible. And we'd never let a little thing like continuity get in the way of that."

Occasionally, episodes of Drawn Together are shown with less editing for content during Secret Stash, a Comedy Central program aired on weekends at 1 A.M. that showcases movies, comedy specials, and animated programs with uncensored language. Though Secret Stash programs typically have the nudity still censored, Drawn Together is an exception to this. Some nudity not seen in the original broadcast is shown in the Secret Stash version, while the nudity in other scenes is censored with a caption reading "DVD only"; this is done as a way of promoting the show's DVD releases.