So much of my childhood was spent watching Nicktoons, it’s like Nickelodeon was basically a third parent to me. I don’t know what that says about me, but it’s the truth. I learned many a life lesson at an early age from watching Doug and Hey Arnold – probably my two favorite Nicktoons if we’re ranking things here today on SoBros Network. Growing up as an only child, I don’t think it’s unrealistic of me to say that I learned a lot of my social interaction skills from watching Nickelodeon as opposed to out in the field. That’s probably a psychological rabbit hole we don’t want to go down today. Nonetheless, those childhood memories are undoubtedly why I see an image like this scroll across my Twitter timeline, and am completely floored by it.
Mentally, I’m here pic.twitter.com/IBYQJIg8XV
— Chavíto (@1DOPEKEV) May 6, 2021
To this day, I don’t know why that seemed like a practical idea for a literal child. Like, that’s a big city – wouldn’t that be at least a little bit dangerous given you could just climb a ladder and be on top of Arnold’s room? And, if you knew that the only thing standing between you and completely robbing the place was a beat-up old man and a kid, it could be a goldmine. Surprised they never had to deal with that, to be honest. Maybe there’s a fanfic idea in there somewhere. Y’all can have it – I ain’t got the time.
Anyway, there’s no place for practicality in the world of Nicktoons. The fact is that all of us that grew up watching Hey Arnold wanted that room for ourselves. Can you imagine having all that space to yourself as a grade schooler? Can you imagine having a ladder that you’d climb right out of your room directly onto the roof? Again – seems super dangerous for children, but it sounded really freakin’ fun at the time. And, the ceiling is glass? You could just sit there and stare at the stars every night….or you could enjoy a good thunderstorm with the rain splattering off the glasses. So damn cool. By the way, the city’s lookin’ real real nice in that photo. It’s giving me a strong sense of nostalgia and a yearning for the simpler times of childhood. SMDH – we’re getting emotional here on a Monday morning.
If you’re starved for Hey Arnold content in 2021, you can check out this piece I wrote on Mickey Kaline. Also, if you’re super into Nicktoons, check out our latest episode of Phone It In, on which Rooster and I dive into where Spongebob Squarepants ranks among Nicktoons, and some of the weird parallels the show has to mental illness:
Listen to “Ep. 21: Spongebob Squarepants and Mental Illness” on Spreaker.Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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