An animated show that originally aired on Cartoon Network has been slammed as "cringe" after a scene featuring a woman twerking and doing the splits resurfaced.
An excerpt from Sym-Bionic Titan, which ran for one season from 2010 to 2011, was shared to Reddit's Cringetopia forum last week by ExtremeOmniCode, who simply captioned it: "A kids show..."
It was created and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, who's also behind The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Primal.
The plot follows three alien beings from the planet Galaluna: the first being Ilana, a princess, followed by Lance the soldier, along with their humanoid robot, Octus.
The trio crash-land on Earth while trying to escape their war-torn homeland, and try to fit in as high-schoolers in Illinois, while avoiding the clutches of an evil general who's after them.
The scene in question shows the robot Octus masquerading as his human form, Newton, and fellow high-schooler Kimberly "Kimmy" Meisner.
Thought to be from Episode 10, Lessons in Love, Kimmy comes over to Newton's to study math, when she gets up and puts some music on, and begins dancing to lyrics of "Shake it, bake it, booty quake it, roll it around."
She begins twerking, with close-ups of her chest and bottom, and seductively pulls up her top strap, which falls down with her vigorous shaking.
A slow-motion hair flip, a back spring, the splits and sliding down a lamp end the sequence, which culminates in her pushing the homework across the table with her foot to Newton.
At the end of the routine, he simply furrows his brow and says "no."
His brief piece of dialogue is one of the only things commended in the scene by Redditors, who found the length and attention to detail too extreme.
ExtremeOmniCode, whose post sharing the clip amassed more than 33,000 views, praised the show, but said: "It was pretty amazing and very well-written, it had so much potential and CN really wasn't where it belongs (More like Adult Swim).
"But I admit that this scene was still cringe mostly because it's aired towards kids plus a very detailed animated minor twerking is pretty strange. I couldn't watch it with a straight face.
"I still hope for a continuation though, preferably on Adult Swim this time."
Thornaad wrote: "The animation, the music, the intention. Everything was bad. Except for this last sound indeed."
Optimal_Wishbone322 admitted: "I forgot Sym-Bionic Titan was even a thing, I remember watching the pilot like 8 years ago and the show definitely had a lot of adult themes in it, hell it even had a torture scene."
Sherpa_onetime said: "I totally remember this! I do remember thinking at the time it was pretty raunchy but I don't think I saw this episode haha."
TheFinalBoss90 added: "At first I didn't think it was that bad and assumed it would end with him checking out her ass but damn it just keeps going!"
Commenting on Kimmy's age, Digital_Kiwi replied: "Jesus that's a minor? The f*** was the creator on???"
Similarly, Siltandsqualor thought: "The back dimples even? Come on."
Rorydraws said: "This is definitely a weird blemish on an otherwise awesome show.
"It makes sense from a narrative perspective, as you explained, but they definitely nuked the premise with this scene. I remember seeing it and wincing through the whole thing."
Clayman8 added: "Wait that's actually real? I legit thought it was a Zone parody or something. God damn..."
Although some were less fazed by the dancing, as Huxley75 wrote: "Genndy Tartarsauce is amazing and one of my favorite current animators. Sym-Bionic Titan is a kids show like Samurai Jack or Primal are kids shows: they're made for teens and adults.
"Hotel Transylvania, Powerpuff Girls, and Dexter's Lab are kids shows. But still awesome, too."
In the comment section, debate raged over what age the show was aimed at, with the show said to be rated TV-PG, according to IMDB.
The scene caused a stir at the time as well, as an article from 2010 on Cartoonbrew.com cited the raunchy moves.
"Many commenters, including the popular blog Super Punch, are questioning why Cartoon Network showed something so suggestive on a show that is rated TV-PG," it wrote, the day after the show was aired.
Re-runs of the show aired on Adult Swim's Toonami, while it was also available on Netflix for a time, but has since been removed from the catalogue.
The cartoon ran for just 20 episodes in one season. Although this is not officially confirmed, it is thought that it didn't get renewed because of the lack of a toy line to support the show, according to Screenrant.
A spokesperson for Cartoon Network told Newsweek: "The series is no longer on our air."
Tartakovsky and ExtremeOmniCode have also been contacted for comment.
Update 12/09/21, 5:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add a comment from Cartoon Network.
