Like how the animated series for The Mask was titled Naqaab, a more colloquial Urdu word, and not Mukhota, the dictionary word for a mask. When the network switched to Hindi, it weirdly helped me sense the nuances of language. My eyes learnt how to differentiate the angular lines of upright warrior Samurai Jack, from the squiggly lines of the pre-teen con artists Ed, Edd n’ Eddy. The Powerpuff Girls broke the idea of “boys’ cartoons” and “girls’ cartoons”. I’m pretty sure the first metal guitar riff I ever heard was the theme song to Swat Kats. Tom & Jerry from the 1940s and Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones from the 1960s sat as comfortably next to The Centurions from the 1980s as they did next to Swat Kats and Dexter’s Laboratory from the 1990s. The fact that an entire channel was dedicated to cartoons blew my seven-year-old mind. Up to that point, kids’ shows were relegated to an hour or two on weekends or in the evenings. That second word made all the difference: Network. To answer this, let’s travel back to the early 1990s. The official Cartoon Network Twitter handle has since dismissed the rumour in a series of humorous tweets, but this little drama made me wonder: Why does Cartoon Network matter so much to millennials? Peculiarly, most of the people sharing these messages were in their late twenties and mid-thirties. Within hours, social media was rife with “RIP Cartoon Network” and “Thanks for the memories” posts. Animation announced a merger, which led to an unfounded rumour on social media that this was the end of Cartoon Network. On October 14, 2022, Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros.

Ed Edd Eddy Games