Why are all kid cartoon leads these days "positive role models"? What happened to selfish...

Why are all kid cartoon leads these days "positive role models"? What happened to selfish, mean and generally bad people cartoon leads?

People complain if the tv doesn't do their parenting for them.

positive role models always are a majority in comparison to mean characters

Because parents let TV do their job for them now. It's awful.

>What is Teen Titans Go

Mordecai and Rigby, Grunkle Stan, everyone on TTG. Also I don't watch Gumball because its shit but isn't Gumball kind of a dick?

Lincoln Loud ain't no saint either.

It's been bothering me too about modern cartoons. We used to have main characters who were unlikable, horrible people, sometimes even outright evil, and it was alright as long as they were fun to watch, and now you just don't see it anymore. Kids' cartoons have become a lot softer and more "comfy" in general. I really want to see some mean, cynical humor again.
don't think those main characters are supposed to be good role models as much as "characters a kid would want to be friends with". And Grunkle Stan isn't a main character.

they want teen girls to fall in love with them and draw porn on tumblr for free advertising and merch sales

Cartoon creators are much more even-keeled now than John K.

Selfish, mean-spirited characters trigger people's delicate feelings too hard.

You would call Alex Hirsch more even-keeled than John K?

I suppose that's because most cartoons, popular cartoons, are more serious in tone; they have a more solid story they try to stick to. Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Wander Over Yonder (WOY is a special case, however)...
That means that if you want a serious story you need a main character you can take seriously, and if you make him a bad person you´ll be delving into a darker segment of entertainment. I don´t have a problem with those characters, but for a cartoon whose main audience is kids that is inappropriate. You´ll be making him a villain protagonist or an anti-heri you're supposed to sympathize with and that doesn´t fly well with many people. Also, kids have a pretty basic understanding of good/evil, and having them rooting for a serious bad person will be very difficult.
In episodic comedies, such as Rem and Stimpy and other classics, you are not supposed to take seriously what horrible people the characters are and you are just supposed to have a good laugh, not question story or morality. That's my take on it. Regarding WOY, you have both elements of an episodic narrative and a wider story, but that's why you have two protagonists, an all loving hero and a villain, and the villain ends up being more heroic than the hero villanous.

Died of brain cancer, as all jerks tend to end up.

Alex was more than stable enough for the executives not to throw him off his own show.

blame the network. there are some cartoons with terrible people as main characters currently, but everything else is marketed with a type of brand. (transformers, MLP, etc)
any show that is standalone is either a hit or miss with ratings. majority of cartoons on now are either strictly marketed to teaching young kids/babies lessons, standalones like Wander over Yonder/Gravity Falls/etc, or have such a huge brand to them that they dont need to work that hard to get viewers.
the network cares about money and the current trend is "action + story + jokes + occasional niceness = money"
anything else is on Adult Swim.

A show about nothing with unlikable characters?
Who would even make such a thing?

people got sick and tired of jerk main characters (similar to how jerk main characters were a result of people getting tired of the "forced" good role model characters of the 80's)

...

>Parent's groups getting pissed off and threatening to sue anyone who does not make nothing but positive characters for kids.
>Random politicians making this their soft feelgood contributing agenda threatening companies

It's a trend, eventually it will swing around like said

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It's not even about role models. They make generally boring characters.
Too he fair old cartoons had also alot of lame push overs like Doug.

Hmmm, really makes you think. (I think this show deserved an opposite reaction from critics)

so does Sup Forums like asshoels or nice guys?

im getting mixed signals here

Assholes are funnier.

...

That may very well have to do with the fact that Sup Forums is not one person.

Nice guys are funny when they're happily oblivious or are just faking their smile to try and keep their anger back