Why Cartoon Network Banned This Insane ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ Episode for 15 Years
· Vice
The Cartoon Network series Dexter’s Laboratory ran for four seasons from 1996 to 2003. Though primarily geared toward younger viewers, the showrunners decided to try something a little unusual during the show’s second season. For one episode, entitled “Rude Removal,” the main characters, Dexter and Dee Dee, actually do a fair bit of cursing, albeit in censored form. But while the vulgar dialogue is bleeped out, an uncensored title card shows Dee Dee giving the finger as Dexter moons the audience.
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The episode revolves around Dexter creating a Rude Removal System in order to extract the rudeness from his sister, Dee Dee. After getting into a fight, Dexter and Dee Dee wind up in the machine together, inadvertently creating nasty clones of themselves. These ill-mannered doppelgängers then proceed to wreak havoc in the kitchen when Dexter’s mother calls them for lunch.
In a sequence straight out of an early South Park episode, Dexter and Dee Dee’s clones drive their mom nuts with their foul language and tear the place apart in search of more desirable food.
Cartoon Network Refused to Air This ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ Episode, Even With the Swearing Bleeped
“Hey, where’s the f—king candy?” Dee Dee asks, as she tosses items from one of the kitchen cabinets. “F—king watch where you’re throwing that,” Dexter yells back, in response to getting hit in the head with a can. This eventually culminates in the real Dexter and Dee Dee being punished for their clones’ wild behavior. When their mother finally catches up and threatens to wash their mouths out with soap, Dexter looks at the camera and says, “Oh, s—t.”
Cartoon Network’s Senior Vice President of Original Animation, Linda Simensky, thought the episode was very funny, but it was ultimately deemed too obscene for broadcast, even with all the bleeping. It would occasionally get screened at animation festivals, though it wouldn’t be made available to the public until 2013. Toward the end of the previous year, Adult Swim asked its Twitter followers if there was still interest in seeing the unaired episode, and the replies were overwhelmingly positive.
“Rude Removal” was officially released on YouTube and the Adult Swim website shortly thereafter. You can watch the full episode above.
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