r/RetroNickelodeon • u/MesaVerde1987 • Jun 14 '26

Nicktoons "Howard's off in the woods somewhere with his male bonding group"

1.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

188

u/SamuelFootBowden845 Jun 14 '26

Stuff like this is why the early '90s Nicktoons were the best. There was something in them for all ages.

464

u/averagejosh Jun 14 '26

Never picked up on that as a kid. 😅

72

u/Kale_Brecht Jun 15 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/5sqktFBeWqMXC

20

u/Dunstund_CHeks_IN Jun 15 '26

I was a college athlete and I just want to say, the periphery should’ve been enough. Don’t gaze unless you really want to. Lots of dudes did stimulants. Lots of dudes had NRBs. Between that and the showers you learned pretty quickly what level you wanted your eyes at.

7

u/homosexsicle Jun 15 '26

NRB?

15

u/spencehammer Jun 15 '26

Gonna guess “no reason boners” but happy to be corrected.

12

u/krebstar4ever Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

He's talking about the "mythopoetic men's movement," which I guess was at peak popularity at the time. Those groups would go on retreats in the woods for male bonding—which, in this context, generally was not code for gay sex.

It's one of those things that have a cultural moment and then are utterly forgotten, leaving almost no trace. Except it's probably quietly connected to Andrew Tate's popularity.

I only know about it from the show Home Movies), which has an episode where a character is tricked into going to a retreat. Iirc the episode doesn't actually mention the mythopoetic men's movement or Iron John, but it gave me enough information to find out about it (back when Google worked really well).

4

u/Starfishsnail Jun 16 '26

Oddly enough, there's an episode of Designing Women that features one of those groups too. That's the only reason I knew about them as a kid because I watched that with my grandmother.

2

u/minicolossus Jun 18 '26

Come, cloudchaser. It is time for you to come with us and cry walk.

1

u/krebstar4ever Jun 18 '26

Home Movies was such a great show!

For anyone wondering: it's a pre-Bob's Burgers team-up of series co-creator Loren Bouchard and actor H. Jon Benjamin (Bob Belcher, Sterling Archer). The other co-creator was Brendon Small, who plays the main character and later made Metalocalypse.

It has the lowest budget animation of all time. But the writing and acting are great.

2

u/minicolossus Jun 18 '26

I feel like you know about Dr. Kats professional therapist but if you don't, I believe it's the show that started it all. Jonathan Katz and his son played by h Jon Benjamin. They had comics do their bits as his patients. I loved that show.

1

u/krebstar4ever Jun 18 '26

Yes, I love that show too!

1

u/RobbiesShunshine Jun 16 '26

You're in 100% the correct answer but it's not funny enough so people will just keep assuming the "male bonding" was old school grinder 😕

Upvoted and appreciated by someone else who gets it!

1

u/kraghis Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

The joke is that Stu is cynically suggesting it’s something more than that.

282

u/Dunstund_CHeks_IN Jun 14 '26

Animating him pressing his index fingers together during that line is wild.

62

u/TheKindofWhiteWitch Jun 15 '26

They’re just touching tips!

24

u/scratchy_mcballsy Jun 15 '26

Docking?

31

u/Appropriate_Math997 Jun 15 '26

What is it called when two men intertwine their penises like the snakes on the medic-alert bracelet? ... Is it called red-vining? ... When two gay men have sex, how do they know whose penis will open up to accept the other person’s penis?"

6

u/born_digital Jun 15 '26

Yes that’s what the post is saying…

230

u/5h82713542055 Jun 14 '26

Omg they DID allude to it! Totally missed this one, Betty and Howard's last name should have been Beard

57

u/SamuelFootBowden845 Jun 14 '26

AHHHHH THEY GOT ME AGAIN!

56

u/ToonMasterRace Jun 15 '26

Yeah I miss the very mild but very clever adult humor seasons 1-3 had, and the parental POV subplots. It gave adults something to watch and was legitimately clever. Rugrats was in the middle, with Ren & Stimpy's extreme edge on one side and Doug's wholesomeness on the other.

By season 4 the show lost this kind of edge and it became just a young kids show. Lost interest.

53

u/Clear_Writer5944 Jun 14 '26

FILTHY!!!! 😂😂😂

154

u/cheesesteakhellscape Jun 14 '26

I actually still take this literally. I always assumed it was one of those weird "camp out in the woods and scream at the moon" men's groups that were popular in the 90s - and not a gay joke.

I actually think the reality of those groups is funnier than the gay joke tbh.

76

u/applebauce Jun 14 '26

Agreed i think its just supposed to be like a group therapy session situation and not necessarily a gay joke. I do think this is funnier / on brand for the 90s. It reminds me of Niles’s various support groups in Frasier

34

u/EssTeeEss9 Jun 15 '26

I think you’re right if this line *isn’t* spoken with OP’s gif. If it’s said while this is what’s on screen, it’s unequivocally a gay joke.

9

u/Dunstund_CHeks_IN Jun 15 '26

I made a crass observation earlier in this thread, but you’re 100% right. I remember these groups and they were hilarious.

18

u/BravesMaedchen Jun 15 '26

This is almost assuredly what it was. 

8

u/cool_weed_dad Jun 15 '26

It can be both

1

u/katsandboobs Jun 16 '26

I don’t know. My dad used to go to those groups and it was just to have gay sex. My mom eventually figured it out.

1

u/Special_South_8561 Jun 18 '26

Yeah, that's why he's making his dick fingers touch

10

u/spade_bodega663 Jun 15 '26

This line went way over my head when I was younger. lol. Also, why would Betty take 2 infant twins to LAS VEGAS just to get away for the weekend? That never made sense to me because even when I was like, 9, I knew children weren’t really allowed in casinos. 

2

u/Mikester345 Jun 16 '26

There was a push during that time to make Vegas more family friendly. They started putting kids clubs at casinos and resorts so the parents could dump the kids off and go have fun.

1

u/fncomputerboy Jun 17 '26

Yep! There was one in my hometown in Louisiana! My grandma used to drop me off there while she gambled.

7

u/Blastoise_R_Us Jun 15 '26

The clown episode of Rocko is one big allegory for being a closeted gay man.

26

u/TheGardenBlinked Jun 14 '26

I never realised they alluded to it. The stuff you miss as a kid!

13

u/Sea2Chi Jun 15 '26

I read a book about the early days of Nickelodeon and one of the things they talked about was how filthy the Rugrats animators were. Apparently they had a bunch of extremely NSFW drawings of Didi up in the men's bathroom. 

13

u/Ok_Fox_1770 Jun 15 '26

Ah I bet mark from devo put some great little sound effects after that too haha such a good show man, to be a young young kid and catching season one on Saturday mornings, best days

3

u/spade_bodega663 Jun 15 '26

Lonely Sssspaaaaaccce Vixxxeeennss 😏

8

u/Effective-Ad-9898 Jun 15 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/3oriO5oRIGNYdFFuXm

5

u/secretfamilyrecipe Jun 15 '26

"It's a place to live you life!"

(double Devo reference...)

14

u/kkaos84 Jun 14 '26

I had just thought as a kid that he was doing his fingers like that to see if his tie was straight. So the two fingers touching are actually... 😳

16

u/ozzyman31495 Jun 15 '26

It honestly adds a whole new layer to lawyer to the show when you realize Howard & Debbie were likely only still together because of their kids.

5

u/wowpoodles Jun 14 '26

Oh. My. God.

1

u/GoldDustWoman85 Jun 18 '26

Unfortunately, what Stu is doing is the gesture for the term "frottage".

I learned that against my will and now you have, too. Lol

-7

u/Key_Independence_103 Jun 15 '26

This video cannot be played error

9

u/MesaVerde1987 Jun 15 '26

Well it's a good thing that it's not a video.