>Character starts off goofy, a bit dull, but with good intentions

Are you not familiar with flanderization?

>>78463428
I think that guy was 'flanderized' from the start

On another note are there cartoons which do the opposite?

>>78463772

<On another note are there cartoons which do the opposite?

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers sort of did it. Mr. Whiskers acted smarter as the show progressed.

>>78463772
King of the Hill possibly but at the same time I think Hank was flanderized into a blander person.
At first he was a bit rougher and angrier, I couldn't see Hank having ptsd because his wife was acting too much like an independent woman.
>>78463428
Lazy Writing, being a retard makes jokes at the expense of their intelligence easier.

I find it weird that Flanders has become the poster child for dumbing-down characters. Season 1/2 Flanders was just plain a different character. There was nothing pious about him, nor was there much depth to him, he was just the "one-upping neighbor" stereotype and they decided to go in a different direction with him (like they did with many characters).

>>78464113
he started as a nice neighbour and became a christian fundamentalist;
then the movie returned him to being a nice neighbour

they also have that on/off joke of him being ripped and muscular

>>78464209
Like I said, they changed his character. But he wasn't a complex, well-written "nice neighbor" character, he was just a shallow foil for Homer's insecurities as a father and provider. Every single line he gets is aimed at one-upping Homer.

They didn't take a complex character and turn him into a cardboard cut-out, they took a cardboard cut-out and changed him into a different cardboard cut-out and then gave him a little depth.

File: 1358105786373.png (171KB, 335x358px) Image search: [Google]

171KB, 335x358px

>>78463428
>>Character starts off goofy, a bit dull, but with good intentions
>>As the series progresses, he becomes cool, competent and overall a better person
Why don't more shows do this?

>>78463428
Because it's funny

Duh.

Cosmo. He was on par with wanda in the earlier episodes with the deeper voice.

>>78464374
You don't exactly NEED an idiot to make things funny, but it makes things easier, and since you've got to crank these episodes out on a pretty regular basis, Easy is preferable.

>>78463428
Steve didn't have good intentions in the first episode though. He was a petty, selfish prick who tried to get Ethel fired because he felt threatened by the fact that she was a better park ranger than him.

What makes that episode funnier in retrospect is that later on in the series he finds out that his ranger of the month medal is just a Snapple cap they painted gold and the only reason he even has it is because his mom would fuck Woody every so often.

A better question would be how could you bare to watch more than one episode of this show?