When was the last time you sat down and watched a cartoon? Was "The Bugs and Daffy Show" a staple of Saturday mornings? Was your little brother or sister taking over the remote? Or maybe you were watching "Saturday Night Live" a couple weeks ago. Or maybe it's none of those. If you ask most college students, more and more of them are answering, "Last night. Why?"Cartoon Network, Comedy Central and Saturday Night Live are all forerunners in the newest, greatest animated craze: cartoons for adults. No more skipping through pretty fields or chasing roadrunners off cliffs. This is the newest most cutting edge animation, featuring some of the most sarcastic and scathing humor on television. Pioneered by the likes of "Beavis and Butthead" and "Ren and Stimpy," these "primetime cartoons," as they are called, are now all over cable TV. They are unbelievably rude, sometimes repulsive and never politically correct.

They are also pee-your-pants hilarious. Varying in animation style, and even in geographic origin, these 'toons are more intelligent and more observant than most current television shows.

But before we wallow in the present, we must first look back into the past. When "Ren and Stimpy" was first broadcast on MTV and Nickelodeon in 1990, people went insane - and I mean that almost literally. My parents were thoroughly grossed out ... and so was I. I never stomached an entire episode of "Ren and Stimpy." The boys I knew liked it because it was gross; they didn't get it either. The show was actually a quite brilliant satire of both modern living and of cartoons themselves, and creator John Kricfalusi was the first animator to draw such disgusting subject matter in such perfect detail. His mix of simple, yet elegant, animation during times of great motion punctuated with incredibly detailed (and incredibly gross) still shots continue to influence animators at this very moment.

While "Ren and Stimpy" went for gross-out shock value on Nickelodeon, Mike Judge was gathering together every idiotic and politically incorrect bone in his body to create "Beavis and Butthead." Premiering on MTV's "Liquid Television," and running from 1993 to 1996, these morons made terrible comments about everyone around them, called musicians and their videos stupid and spawned endless imitations. They even made their own movie, "Beavis and Butthead Do America," and faced a lawsuit in 1993 about the content of the cartoon. But most importantly, they broke down the doors of Political Correctness that had taken over most of television. Beavis and Butthead were unabashedly uneducated, utterly rude and totally focused on sex. Parents were absolutely appalled, and children were absolutely enthralled.

"Liquid Television," which started running in 1991, also introduced the world to "Aeon Flux," a Japanese cartoon that - along with "Sailor Moon" - began the wave of anime which would hit the United States. Currently, half of the shows aired on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" are anime programs - and that doesn't count the endless reruns of "Pokemon" and "Dragonball Z" that are featured during the daylight hours. "Aeon Flux" also ushered in an era of extreme violence and bizarre sexuality in cartoons. People got their legs cut off, or were killed in graphic ways, while Aeon was busy seducing the males around her with a mix between the sexy and the grotesque.

While most shows on "Liquid Television" were products of pseudo-intellectualism and really trying to make a statement about the world and the advancement of animation as an art form, the new wave of cartoons for adults are out for one thing: to make you laugh, by any means possible. The animation world has been revolutionized once again by the likes of "South Park," "Space Ghost, Coast to Coast," "Aqua Teen Hunger Squad," "Sealab 2021" and "The Ambiguously Gay Duo."

Two of the most influential of these cartoons aren't even on Cartoon Network. "South Park" is not only one of the funniest cartoons to come out in the past five years, but is also now a permanent part of the American lexicon. If you heard anyone say "They killed Kenny!" or try to imitate Cartman, there would be no doubt in your mind what they were talking about. This crudely drawn and utterly rude show has taken over. Their movie, "Bigger, Longer and Uncut" was a smash at the box office. They've also managed to make fun of or bash just about every type of person in America without really pissing any of the groups off. Sure, parents complained about the language being used, but they could barely get their reasoning out between their giggles. How do they do it? They're just funny. The show is simply hilarious every single time.

"The Ambiguously Gay Duo" and Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" run in the same vein of offensiveness. The former, a mainstay of "Saturday Night Live," has managed to make fun of every homosexual stereotype and expectation while leaving viewers in uproarious laughter instead of uproarious protest. The latter is a new show that is featured on "Adult Swim" and is one of the funniest and most offensive pieces of animation on television today. Following talking and, er, floating fast food (Frylock, a container of fries; Meatwad, an uncooked wad of meat; and Master Shake, the biggest asshole you've ever met in the form of a milkshake) through their every day lives, it's hard not to be overcome with laughter as they piss off their neighbor and try to keep themselves amused.

If you're looking for something funny but not so aggressive, you can check out "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast," a cartoon talk show that interviews real people with 60's cartoon action hero Space Ghost as its utterly inept host. Add in a couple other hilarious characters and interviews where the stars seem completely unsure of what is going on, and you've got yourself an easy half-hour of laughs. Or "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law" where a washed up superhero busies himself representing other cartoons that are being sued, or are suing each other. Girls have started to flock to the "Powerpuff Girls" as a source of inspiration, and "Samurai Jack" is a new action cartoon that actually delivers action, with a pop culture edge.

Cartoons have been dismissed for years as something just for kids, but the tides are slowly turning. Political satire, reactionary commentary and rebellion against stereotypes are the new subject matter that is being expressed so subtly underneath the humor and shock-value of these cartoons. The world of animation is no longer being relegated to a Saturday morning distraction, nor should it be; it's an art form - one that is extremely hard to master - that, when paired with intelligent content, is just as legitimate and informative as any news commentary program. And a lot funnier, besides.